This morning I saw the full moon on my morning walk.
Annemarie and I drove out to Fern Canyon, part of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. It was a sunny, blue day, the coast was gorgeous with the sun sparkling on the water. It is such a cool drive out to the canyon, about 7 miles from 101 on an unpaved road lined with redwoods, there were very few other cars on the road so it was nice to be able to slowly cruise our way. We had to cross a couple of streams on the part of the road by the ocean, that was exciting! At one point we came across an injured crow in the middle of the road so Annemarie got out and managed to shoo it to the side of the road. As we expected, the creek going through Fern Canyon was flowing quite well so our feet got very wet, at first we tried walking on logs and rocks but soon gave up and just splashed our way through. It’s magical being in the winding canyon surrounded by walls of fern with water dripping down, fallen trees to scramble over, trying to pick up the park. I like that it’s a loop trail so when we got to the end we hiked up the stairs then walked above the canyon amongst the trees. The light shining through was just gorgeous, we could hear the ocean crashing as we got back to the parking area.
On the way back we went by some elk bucks grazing at the side of the road. A German couple was walking back to their van (it was too low to make it across the streams) and asked if they could walk next to our car. They were nervous to walk past the elk since they were so close to the road so we gave them a ride back to their van. We found out they had been traveling around the US and Canada for several months, including driving all the way up to Alaska! That piqued my interest and got me thinking about what I might want to do next summer… When we got back to the Meadow we discovered dozens of elk lounging and walking around, what an amazing sight.
On our way back we stopped for lunch and had elk burgers. They had a slightly gamy taste and were more dense than hamburgers, though not as flavorful. Later we went hot tubbing, it was lovely to soak in the warm water after all the hiking I’ve been doing the last few days.
In the evenings I’ve been making my way through season 5 of The Handmaid‘s Tale, and to counter the depressing content last night I watch Sing 2, which was so much fun! Tonight I started season 5 of The Crown. Now that it’s up to more recent history (1990s), there are many events I actually remember, especially those about Princess Diana. I lived in New Zealand for the first half of the 1990s and Princess Diana was always a topic of discussion, especially in relation to the rest of the monarchy. Really not that different from how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are now, I suppose.