Big-Ass Trees: Part 2

So, just south of Fortuna (one of my overnight points) lies an alternate scenic route to Route 101 - Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile section of old 101 that brings you much closer to nature than the modern freeway. Like, careful or you'll lose your mirrors on the big-ass trees closer-to-nature. But we've dealt with narrow roads and big trees before. Sexy Lady and me, that is (I've since named my car "Sexy Lady"... more on that later). And although I had kind of a late start by my road trip standards, the day was young, and I was all about taking on this tourist trap, especially since I was bound to be the only tourist around.

Before breaking into the photos, I'll mention a few key differences I observed between this scenic drive through Humboldt forest and the Howland Hill Rd drive in the Smith forest just outside Crescent City.

1. The Smith forest was much quieter. A gravel road through the middle of the park keeps the traffic noise down. On the Avenue, you're driving a paved road with speed limits up to 55 mph (which the local commuters take advantage of), and the freeway is not ever far away.
2. There are more opportunities for guided tourism on the Avenue. I can just imagine the hoardes of families here in the high season, stopping for their auto tour maps and visiting every small town mini mart and gift shop along the way. Howland has no towns; it's just a forest road.
3. The Avenue, all told, is 31 miles. Howland Hill is only 10. But the speed difference and various access points to the freeway mean that you're not stuck there. It's also more accessible for larger vehicles and things with trailers. Probably important to those camper families.
4. The Smith forest is (therefore) better to hike into from the road. Quieter, more intimate. There are hiking trails in the Humboldt forest that are not near the roads, but that would have been more work and more time than I had for this particular adventure.
5. And this is just particular to my own choice in hiking trails: There were cooler big trees down in Stout Grove than on the Chandler trail. But Chandler had some cool log bridges over a little stream.

On with the photos...

Okay, so this is a touristy thing, but it is one of the few downed logs that isn't carved all over.
At the same site as the Immortal Tree.

A rare "triple tree" on the Chandler Trail.

Sometimes some water flows here. Other times, it's just some moss.

This is an unusually sunny part of the grove.

Natural log bridge

Crossing the natural log bridge

Side view of said log bridge. Treacherous crossing, I know.