A Walk Back In Time

On Saturday morning, on the last day of our stay  in Rockaway Beach, we ventured just across Hwy 101 from our cabin to explore the Cedar Wetlands Preserve. We had walked the rough trail to the "big tree" before, quite a long time ago, but had not taken advantage of the new completely accessable mile long board walk through the forested coastal swamp.

Giant skunk cabbages grow here. 

So do big trees.

Non-native hardy fuchsias, obviously planted by birds. 

A jumble of undergrowth under towering trees. 

Old rotted nurse stumps support haphazard new growth. 

Tom tasted red huckleberries growing on an old stump.

Long ago someone did some logging here of some earlier forest giants. 

Most of these are legacy trees, old second growth. 

But not this beauty. 

The "Big Cedar", a survivor, estimated to be 800 to 1200 years old.

A few yards away was another giant tree, just not as giantic. 

When I had rested enough and appreciated much, we began a slow walk back, noticing more  little things, like mushrooms.

And the scaley bark of spruce trees. 

I was so glad I was able to take this walk and marvel at the nature it reveals. I love big trees.

That afternoon we began our drive home, the first  two+ hours avoiding the crowded coast highway and taking backroads, driving through the magnificent forests of the Coast Range, before emerging at Longview on the Columbia River and joining the I-5 freeway home to Seattle.

I am always happy to be home, but I will have very good memories of this getaway to the sea.