A friend of mine wanted to take me to a place they described as a little gem of a hike – Muir Woods. Up until this point I had never heard of it, which is a little embarrassing considering how long I have been living in Northern California. It’s a very beautiful park that makes for a refreshing casual walk in the redwoods. The air is very crisp and time just seems to slow down as you walk among those majestic redwoods. I highly recommend it. Be sure to arrive early in the morning – very early – as it (the parking situation) tends to get crowded by 10am any day of the week. Take the upper trail to the top. It’s worth the effort and not too demanding. It’s about a 45 minute hike.
Below are some photos I took with my Canon Digital Rebel XT. These were some of my first forays into photography. Ironically I have been unable to replicate some of these shots with my current more advanced camera systems. There is a certain serenity about the first shot below. Maybe it was just that time of day and time of year when the sun’s rays cast the shadows a certain way. I never took note of it – something I’ve now fixed in my archival processes.
Below is a Panoramic I took. It’s a pretty large image file at 17MB and would probably help if you had a high speed connection. Keep in mind the inferior quality is due mostly to the fact that these were some of my first forays into the world of DSLRs. I was still getting the hang of things and it was so dim in the woods that I had to push my already wonky used 8Megapixel Rebel XT to ISO-1600 since I didn’t have a tripod. Just dreadful now that I think of it.