Speaker 1: We compare national parks to movies a lot on this podcast,
Speaker 1: and that's mostly because these places have a larger than
Speaker 1: life vibe and atmosphere that truly looks like something out
Speaker 1: of a film, or like something from another planet that
Speaker 1: can only be replicated through the magic of Hollywood. But
Speaker 1: no park is as much of a cinematic star as
Speaker 1: the one we're talking about today, which is Redwood National
Speaker 1: Park in California. It's actually officially called Redwood National and
Speaker 1: State Parks, and that's unique because this part of coastal
Speaker 1: North California is a network of numerous state and national
Speaker 1: park sites jointly managed by the National Park Service and
Speaker 1: the State of California. Yes, and altogether, these soaring forests
Speaker 1: have totally soared to movie stardom over the years, appearing
Speaker 1: as the backdrop for some pretty serious blockbusters. And I
Speaker 1: mean it makes sense. These trees are truly otherworldly, what
Speaker 1: with its skyscraping trees, misty beaches, and fern canyons, So
Speaker 1: I get why the Redwood Forests are like cat neet
Speaker 1: for movie directors. That's also what made this park such
Speaker 1: a fun place to visit and even better to experience
Speaker 1: as part of a family vacation. Redwood National and State
Speaker 1: Parks may not have dinosaurs and euaks like the movies
Speaker 1: would have you believe, but it's still an out of
Speaker 1: this world place to visit. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
Speaker 1: This is park Landia, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: We sold our loft in Chicago, moved into an RV,
Speaker 1: and now we're traveling in the country full time with
Speaker 1: our dog Finn, exploring America's national parks. In today's episode
Speaker 1: is about Redwood National and State Parks, which is in
Speaker 1: northern California. So for some context, we first visited these
Speaker 1: parks as part of a late summer family vacation with
Speaker 1: my dad, sister, brother, and his then fiance now wife.
Speaker 1: And if you remember when we talked about that same
Speaker 1: family trip for last and Volcanic National Park in season one,
Speaker 1: this Redwood trip was the other part of that trip,
Speaker 1: and even better for this part, we're bringing my brother
Speaker 1: on as a special guest later in this episode, so
Speaker 1: super excited to talk to him. It was a fun
Speaker 1: time and it's it's gonna be a fun chat. It
Speaker 1: absolutely was. So. Redwood was the first park of that vacation,
Speaker 1: which took place in September and started with a day
Speaker 1: and night in San Francisco. Then the next morning we
Speaker 1: got up early and drove our rental car up the
Speaker 1: coast for a few hours to get to this beautiful
Speaker 1: national park. It's honestly a pretty easy drive, pretty straightforward,
Speaker 1: made all the easier by how ridiculously scenic it is.
Speaker 1: At the time, this was pre r V for us,
Speaker 1: and we were used to road trips to the Midwest
Speaker 1: in the Chicago area, which is mostly pretty boring and
Speaker 1: flat and monotonous, so I was not prepared for how
Speaker 1: delightfully entered, hinting just the drive would be. Honestly, yeah.
Speaker 1: We even got off the highway and stopped for lunch
Speaker 1: at some cute diner in Sonoma, which was beautiful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was this quaint, gorgeous little town called Healsburg, which
Speaker 1: incidentally I had been there for a work trip literally
Speaker 1: like two months before. We stopped here for breakfast. The
Speaker 1: hotel I was staying out was like two blocks away
Speaker 1: or something from this very diner, and I remember being
Speaker 1: like totally blown away by this coincidence, and everyone else
Speaker 1: in the car was like okay, and then had no
Speaker 1: reaction and I was like, Okay, that's fine. I mean,
Speaker 1: no one else was on that trip with you, so
Speaker 1: it's hard to relate. Yeah, I mean I get it.
Speaker 1: The silent reaction was deafening. But the food was really good,
Speaker 1: just like homing American food, with bottomless mugs of coffee
Speaker 1: and those really dense ceramic mugs that you really only
Speaker 1: find at roadside diners nowadays, my favorite kind of place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were just like having this dinner conversation the other day,
Speaker 1: actually were, Yeah, because we have very different diner preferences.
Speaker 1: I think we like different styles of diners. I'm more
Speaker 1: of like the modern, kind of sleek, contemporary approach in
Speaker 1: terms of both design and like food. I like inventive
Speaker 1: stuff like locks, bagels and things like that, things that
Speaker 1: are like kind of gussied up versions of like Americana Fair.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, mine's like two eggs, poached bacon, sausage,
Speaker 1: rye toast, butter, and hash browns at home fries. Don't
Speaker 1: get it mixed up. Don't don't get me straight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know you get, but I'm just so I'm so easy.
Speaker 1: I'm just so simple when it comes to I want
Speaker 1: an old school diner, like the fun like just what
Speaker 1: it is? Face you shoot, throw some catch up on
Speaker 1: my hash Browns. It's fine, I don't care. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to do that because I don't really do that anymore.
Speaker 1: But I used to do that. I've never done that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I hear you. So from there from this dinner,
Speaker 1: it's another like four and a half hours north to
Speaker 1: the National State Parks and that's a bit of a drive,
Speaker 1: but like we said, it's super scenic and very very pretty.
Speaker 1: So as long as you get an early start from
Speaker 1: especially we're leaving from the San Francisco area like we did,
Speaker 1: you'll make good time. Oh yeah, it's really not that
Speaker 1: far from the Oregon Boarder either. It's way up there.
Speaker 1: But the further north you drive, the greener everything gets, yeah,
Speaker 1: and the mist year things get too. It's all very
Speaker 1: cinematic and immersive, and it really does feel like you're
Speaker 1: gradually disappearing into like a differ universe, like a universe
Speaker 1: envisioned by Steven Pielberg or something. It's like you're going
Speaker 1: to a movie and I have expected to kind of
Speaker 1: gradually transform into a c G I character myself, or
Speaker 1: to see a dinosaur leap out from the forest and
Speaker 1: start chasing us down the run. Yeah, and then it
Speaker 1: would like bite off the side mirror of the car
Speaker 1: while we all screamed in terror. Exactly. And eventually, though
Speaker 1: we didn't see any dinosaurs, Um, we saw a lot
Speaker 1: of bigfoot signs all over the place. Yeah, lots of those.
Speaker 1: This must be like prime Bigfoot territory because we saw
Speaker 1: tons of bigfoot like bigfoot crossing, science, Bigfoot warnings, even
Speaker 1: like bigfoot themed businesses and cafes and things like that.
Speaker 1: They're really like capitalizing on the fictional like bigfoot stuff.
Speaker 1: And I can totally see it too. This seems like
Speaker 1: I would have a setting for a giant, mysterious neanderthal.
Speaker 1: Anytime I think of Bigfoot, I think of Bigfoot from
Speaker 1: a Goofy movie. Remember that scene. I'm almost offended that
Speaker 1: you even felt the need to ask me that if
Speaker 1: I remember. Of course, I have that movie like memorize
Speaker 1: scene for scene basically, and it was very formative for
Speaker 1: me in my early years, and if I'm being honest,
Speaker 1: it's still formative for me now, Like I'm I continue
Speaker 1: to learn from that movie and and grow with it.
Speaker 1: And that Goofy movie Bigfoot is like my go to
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, well, of course, I mean, it doesn't
Speaker 1: get much better than Bigfoot. He was a gentle giant. Really, um,
Speaker 1: he just wanted to listen to headphones and dance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe like mame goofy and Max, had he gotten
Speaker 1: into the car. The movie never really explained like what
Speaker 1: the intent was or what the real threat of Bigfoot was,
Speaker 1: because he was trying to break into the car, right,
Speaker 1: that's the whole gist. And then Max or like flings
Speaker 1: the headphones out of the car and they lay it
Speaker 1: on Bigfoot's head, and then he just starts to dance
Speaker 1: and lose himself to song. And that's when they are,
Speaker 1: you know, able to like eat spaghetti or whatever. I
Speaker 1: don't know whatever it is. I don't know what happened.
Speaker 1: I guess I don't remember scene for scene because I'm
Speaker 1: like really spiraling here. But I think it's just your
Speaker 1: nervous um. But but again, this is it really shows
Speaker 1: how cinematic this part of California's Everything either looks like
Speaker 1: a movie or reminds you of a movie, or it
Speaker 1: is a movie, yes, which is another reason why I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to have my brother on later for this episode.
Speaker 1: He's the biggest movie connoist where I know, like by far,
Speaker 1: so I think it'll be interesting to get his insight
Speaker 1: on on this park trees. So contrary to what we
Speaker 1: might be leading you to believe, this place was not
Speaker 1: drawn into existence by Disney animators. So the parks that
Speaker 1: comprise the system include the actual National Park portion which
Speaker 1: was designated in along with Del Norte Coast, Prairie Creek,
Speaker 1: and Jedediah Smith, all three of which are state parks,
Speaker 1: and when they're all combined, they contain about a hundred
Speaker 1: and forty tho acres of America's most iconic trees and forests.
Speaker 1: Most iconic there, I said it. Yeah, that's a big statement,
Speaker 1: but it really fits. America has a lot of iconic trees,
Speaker 1: but these ones definitely stand out. Yeah, literally, they they
Speaker 1: stand way out. They're enormous. I think their closest like
Speaker 1: size wise trees are sequoias, which are also huge. They're
Speaker 1: wider and they have more volume, but they're not as
Speaker 1: tall as redwoods. Redwoods definitely grow taller. They're the all
Speaker 1: natural skyscrapers. And I would say I would go out
Speaker 1: and say that Redwoods are the Sears Tower of trees.
Speaker 1: And I know that I know that you and I
Speaker 1: are biased because we're from Chicago, but I still firmly
Speaker 1: believe that the Sears Tower is still the most iconic
Speaker 1: skyscraper in the nation. And I refused to not call
Speaker 1: it Sears Tower. I know it's technically Wells Tower, but
Speaker 1: it will always be Serious Tower in my heart. You're
Speaker 1: one of those I love it. Yeah, I mean teams
Speaker 1: Hears all the way. Um. And not only are they
Speaker 1: the tallest trees on earth, but they are also some
Speaker 1: of the oldest Summer's oldest two thousand years old. So
Speaker 1: even though they're not actually the largest trees by volume
Speaker 1: or the oldest, they're distinctly special and obviously iconic, especially
Speaker 1: since they grow to be almost four tall. The Park
Speaker 1: Service doesn't point out which tree is actually the tallest
Speaker 1: in order to protect it from visitation crowds, but the
Speaker 1: tallest tree is I believe around three and seventy nine
Speaker 1: tall in the Redwood Creek watershed. It's called Hyperion. I
Speaker 1: love the name. It sounds like a superhero. And they
Speaker 1: grow this big because of all the constant moisture and
Speaker 1: precipitation including rain and fog, coupled with the region's temperate
Speaker 1: climate and average tempts that range between forty five and
Speaker 1: six degrees year round, So it's just the most ideal
Speaker 1: environment for trees of this size. Plus their bark is
Speaker 1: so thick, like up to a foot thick, that it's
Speaker 1: a great natural defense against forest fires and disease. But
Speaker 1: you're saying twelve in thick, Yeah, twelve, and that's crazy
Speaker 1: that it's crager than my foot. Yes. And in case
Speaker 1: you're wondering how these enormous vehemiths aren't constantly toppling over
Speaker 1: under their own sheer size, that's because their roots each
Speaker 1: up to thirteen ft deep and eighty ft long, and
Speaker 1: they really they need to be this big in order
Speaker 1: to protect against weather and wind and such, and just
Speaker 1: their own like mammoth size. So thirteen feet deep, that's
Speaker 1: more than twice the size of me um or you
Speaker 1: that's you and I put together, plus an extra foot
Speaker 1: or two. Um. That's just absolutely insane how big are
Speaker 1: But unfortunately most of these trees have been logged over
Speaker 1: the years. Um Today the national and state parks protect
Speaker 1: about of all remaining coastal redwood trees, which is definitely alarming. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it is history in the mid eight hundreds, but it's
Speaker 1: not even that long ago. In the grand scheme of things,
Speaker 1: old growth redwood forest covered more than two million acres
Speaker 1: along the northern California coast. Obviously, that number has dwindled
Speaker 1: drastically thanks to laggers, to the point where a hundred
Speaker 1: forty acres is nearly half of all that remains, which
Speaker 1: is terrible. Yikes. In the early eight hundreds, this part
Speaker 1: of California was home to Native Americans with tribes like
Speaker 1: the Iroq and the Wyote people's who respected the forest
Speaker 1: and used it in sustainable ways. Um, they've been doing
Speaker 1: it for as long as three thousand years. Absolutely, even
Speaker 1: though they did cut redwoods to make boats and housing,
Speaker 1: they weren't going nuts by desecrating entire forests. Like one
Speaker 1: tree would make it for sure, that goes a long way,
Speaker 1: and you're using it for necessity like what what you
Speaker 1: need and nothing more. But they also had serious respect
Speaker 1: for these trees all the while. Like a tribal elder
Speaker 1: from the local Chailula tribe many reeves. She was quoted
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six as saying her people are people
Speaker 1: from within the redwood tree, so there's clearly a deep
Speaker 1: spirit trial connection there. And she went on to add
Speaker 1: a pretty blunt morning saying, destroy these trees and you
Speaker 1: destroy the Creator's love. And if you destroy that which
Speaker 1: the Creator loves so much, you will eventually destroy mankind. Which,
Speaker 1: let's heavy. Yeah, that definitely needs to be said. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because according to this statement, mankind was really just a
Speaker 1: couple hundred thousand acres away from being destroyed by the
Speaker 1: Creator really pushed it to the brink. And that's because
Speaker 1: massive trees like these eventually caught the attention of lumberman
Speaker 1: who basically started using these vast forest as their giant
Speaker 1: et m so greedy it was a salvation effort after
Speaker 1: gold miners initially flocked to the area but failed to
Speaker 1: strike it rich that way, so they figured they would
Speaker 1: turn to what they saw as the next best thing,
Speaker 1: which was logging the abundant redwoods, and considering there were
Speaker 1: major metropolitan areas developing nearby, like San Francisco, there was
Speaker 1: huge demand for large supplies of wood like this. Logging
Speaker 1: continued for several decades until the nineteen twenties, and that's
Speaker 1: when conservations started to step in. This is when the
Speaker 1: Save the Redwoods League created this batch of three state
Speaker 1: parks which was able to stop the rampant logging. What
Speaker 1: a great name to Save the Redwoods League. They sound
Speaker 1: like avengers or something like tree hiking avengers, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I get it. And since the national park destination requires
Speaker 1: so much more red tape in federal finagling, not to
Speaker 1: mention that World War Two was keeping the government pretty busy.
Speaker 1: Redwood National Park didn't formally become a thing until nineteen
Speaker 1: and then together this quartet of jointly administered parks, which
Speaker 1: I'm going to go ahead and call the Fantastic Four
Speaker 1: of Parks because I think that fits. They protect what's
Speaker 1: left of the coastal Redwoods, although terrifyingly, by this point
Speaker 1: almost of these trees had been logged. Yeah, it's shameful
Speaker 1: and sad to see so many people didn't see the
Speaker 1: beauty and the ports of these forests. They only sell
Speaker 1: dollar signs, and it's not even just the trees themselves.
Speaker 1: The forests they comprise are hugely important and protect threatened
Speaker 1: wildlife like stellar sea lions, chinook salmon, and northern spotted owls.
Speaker 1: All together. These ecosystems are so unique and geologically important
Speaker 1: that this part of California was classified as a World
Speaker 1: Heritage Site in eighteen eighty and an International Biosphere Reserve
Speaker 1: in nine three. It's always nice to see a happy ending.
Speaker 1: And when we come back, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: road trip to Redwood National and State Parks. Hi. I'm
Speaker 1: Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia, and today
Speaker 1: we're talking about Redwood National and State Parks in California.
Speaker 1: For our experience at Redwood, everything was perfect. I don't
Speaker 1: want to sound all happy, go lucky and twee, but
Speaker 1: that's exactly what it was. The weather at the time
Speaker 1: of year, the minimal crowds, the scenery, everything just worked
Speaker 1: and it was all perfect. It was gorgeous. It was
Speaker 1: late September and the summer rush was pretty much over.
Speaker 1: The parks get about a half a million annual visitors,
Speaker 1: many of whom just visit through June and August, right
Speaker 1: But once kids are back at school and vacation is over,
Speaker 1: that's when we opted to go, and it really worked
Speaker 1: in our favor. We started with the Coucil Visitor Center,
Speaker 1: which is the southernmost visitor center along the coast, just
Speaker 1: off US one oh one. It's easy to get to
Speaker 1: and an absolutely beautiful environment too, with the misty ocean
Speaker 1: right there aligned with rocky shore and small islands scattered
Speaker 1: off the coast, and it's speckled with sea logs here
Speaker 1: and there too. It's it's just a beautiful place to
Speaker 1: start your trip at Redwoods. Yeah, this is definitely not
Speaker 1: the type of beach for swimming. It's a total opposite
Speaker 1: from the beaches of Southern California, that's for sure, right,
Speaker 1: But say, we're beautiful to straw along and gawk at
Speaker 1: and take photos. I actually much prefer these beaches to
Speaker 1: Southern California. I would say I'm team NorCal when it
Speaker 1: comes to like the beaches and coastline. So we picked
Speaker 1: up our visitor guides here and bought some souvenirs, and
Speaker 1: you and your brother got your passport stamped. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we sure did, and Whitney did to our our sister
Speaker 1: in law. Now I love saying that she was on
Speaker 1: this trip. She was just she was my brother's fiance.
Speaker 1: Now they're married, so now I can reminisce fondly. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: and her and my brother were recently engaged on this trip,
Speaker 1: but as of this recording they're recently married. So it's
Speaker 1: still a delightful novelty to call her Whitney Carouac. Still
Speaker 1: pure delight happen. And I'm also really glad that we
Speaker 1: were able to persuade her to join in on our
Speaker 1: National Park passport obsession, so which I have not I'm
Speaker 1: having vicariously through all of you because I just can't.
Speaker 1: I can't. Well, you'd be too far behind at this
Speaker 1: point too, That's rude. I'm kidding. No, I would be
Speaker 1: because I just don't have all the stamps and stickers,
Speaker 1: and so I would be like a big investment. Um.
Speaker 1: But there's also a film about the park, um, some
Speaker 1: museum exhibits, and a picnic area here too. And then
Speaker 1: from here we went on and get settled from our
Speaker 1: rental home for the next few days. Your dad had
Speaker 1: set up this house rental on Airbnb or vr b oh.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I thought, yeah, yeah, not far from the visitor
Speaker 1: center area which is in this town called or Yeah,
Speaker 1: our house was more inland from this this part, we're
Speaker 1: pretty much in the thick of like the cultural Redwood Forest,
Speaker 1: which was so great great, like an awesome place to
Speaker 1: hold up for a few days, a real show stopping vibe,
Speaker 1: and the house was amazing. Do you remember the house
Speaker 1: like yes, so like paradise and just like soa bucolic
Speaker 1: and really it was constantly surrounded by massive elk too.
Speaker 1: It's like something out of a woodland fairy tale. And
Speaker 1: again with like the movie pipes just perfect. Well, it
Speaker 1: wasn't constantly surrounded by elkum that would actually be terrifying,
Speaker 1: dangerous sense Roosevet elk congruped about twelve hundred pounds. But
Speaker 1: we did have a few elk sightings in the backyard
Speaker 1: and from a safe distance. Yeah, my dad actually got
Speaker 1: a few great elk photos. He didn't Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: one of them is still the background image on his phone.
Speaker 1: But like one of the ALKI said, this kind of
Speaker 1: ominous looking elk like in the in the misty morning fog.
Speaker 1: It was. It's great. Animals were a big and elk
Speaker 1: are a big deal of redwood too. They're easily the
Speaker 1: most iconic of all the wildlife species that live here.
Speaker 1: But definitely do be careful and keep a safe distance,
Speaker 1: of course, because unlike woodland fairy tales, these animals will
Speaker 1: not sing and dance with you and we view dresses
Speaker 1: or whatever. They'll trample you if they feel threatened. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good to prepare our listeners, but we shouldn't scare
Speaker 1: them either. I mean, it's it's a fine line and
Speaker 1: I'm here to blur it. But yeah, the house was
Speaker 1: absolutely bucolic and perfect. Like I said, trails, we basically
Speaker 1: just dropped her stuff, got changed, relaxed a little, and
Speaker 1: then we drove down the road to do a little
Speaker 1: hike and we did a portion of the Redwood Creek Chail,
Speaker 1: which was completely breathtaking. It really was. We didn't do
Speaker 1: the entire trail, this was about fifteen miles round tripping back,
Speaker 1: but we did hike along the creek for a few
Speaker 1: miles and just bast in the glory of these used trees.
Speaker 1: It's such a peaceful setting, especially when it was as
Speaker 1: sunny and miles as it was when we were there,
Speaker 1: And I loved every bit of it, especially when we're
Speaker 1: all kind of spread out and dispersed along the creek.
Speaker 1: At one point we started skipping stones. It was like
Speaker 1: it's just like something out of you know, a dream,
Speaker 1: with this perfect like babbling a little brook and we
Speaker 1: all without we didn't even talk about it. We weren't like,
Speaker 1: let's start skipping sounds. We all just kind of branched
Speaker 1: out and started doing it. And I haven't skipped a
Speaker 1: stone and I don't know how long. So this was
Speaker 1: This was fun and also a nice reminder that I'm
Speaker 1: I'm still not good at it. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to do it. Um. And then we scrambled up this
Speaker 1: huge fallen log and took some great group photos together.
Speaker 1: I remember having to like jump up there in the
Speaker 1: run and like, I mean, it wasn't it wasn't the
Speaker 1: easy look, but it was a good one. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: tree was so huge that we really had to like
Speaker 1: leap and then drag ourselves up on it, but totally
Speaker 1: worth the effort to Ye, it was perfect. And you
Speaker 1: know what was even more perfect our kayaking trip on
Speaker 1: the Smith River the next morning. Oh my god, yes river.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go out in a limb here, like a
Speaker 1: huge redwood limb and say that this was the most
Speaker 1: fun I think we've ever had kayaking in any National
Speaker 1: park or any setting in general. I think that's accurate.
Speaker 1: It was definitely one of the most dynamic and most
Speaker 1: action packed from some of the rapids, the hiking excursions
Speaker 1: on the riverside we did a lot. And I remember
Speaker 1: on the way too, as we're being driven to like
Speaker 1: the load endpoint by our kayak guide who was saying
Speaker 1: that that Netflix movie bird Box was filmed along the
Speaker 1: river here, and I never saw that movie, but I
Speaker 1: love imagining like a blindfolded Sandra Bula kayak down the
Speaker 1: river with us, another great example of how cinematic displaces.
Speaker 1: We're just constantly surrounded by it, even when we're not
Speaker 1: totally sure what it's about. Yeah. Right, So this kayak
Speaker 1: trip was pretty much everything. All of us loaded into
Speaker 1: our individual kayaks and we sat off for a few
Speaker 1: miles down this crystal clear, perfectly blue river, like the
Speaker 1: cleanest and prettiest river I think I've ever seen. Seriously,
Speaker 1: it was gorgeous. You and your sister almost capsized during
Speaker 1: You hit these like rocky rapids at first, and then
Speaker 1: I crashed my kayak into yours. Yeah, it was a
Speaker 1: little bit of a pile up, thanks, And things got
Speaker 1: even wetter when Whitney fell off her boat when we
Speaker 1: were all stopped at a big rock in the middle
Speaker 1: of the river. Yeah, I remember hearing just the splash
Speaker 1: behind me, and then I turned around and saw Whitney
Speaker 1: standing up out of the water, and I knew how
Speaker 1: cold it was, so I really felt for her, even
Speaker 1: though she was really chill about it. Yeah, and from
Speaker 1: up on this huge rock, our guy told us that
Speaker 1: we could just jump off it into the river. So
Speaker 1: each one of us did that one at a time.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty big leap to uh. Probably that was.
Speaker 1: It was high up there, intimidating and very nerve racking,
Speaker 1: but like, the river is so pristine that it's the
Speaker 1: type of water you definitely want to jump into. And
Speaker 1: I was scared at first, but I I had to
Speaker 1: do it obviously, even though once I did finally do it,
Speaker 1: as soon as I hit the water, I was filled
Speaker 1: with freezing regret and I like swam as fast I
Speaker 1: had to get out of the water. It was so cold.
Speaker 1: He did not probably warn us about how cold it
Speaker 1: would be to jump into. No, no, he did not.
Speaker 1: I remember when I like did this front flip and
Speaker 1: everyone was like, oh, wow, that's amazing, and then I
Speaker 1: saw the replay, I'm like, I definitely looked cuter doing that.
Speaker 1: In my mind, Well, I thought you perfectly cute in
Speaker 1: real life doing that. Oh good, Well, then that's why
Speaker 1: we don't record that. You just look it from memories
Speaker 1: forget like I have that you don't. I don't know
Speaker 1: what you're talking about. Yeah, I did, I didn't you do? Um?
Speaker 1: And you were brave because you were the first one
Speaker 1: to go, you know. I guess we'll have to put
Speaker 1: that on our Instagram page. Oh yeah, right, that's going
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah. So yeah, that was That was an
Speaker 1: intense experience for sure. And then from this portion from
Speaker 1: this Giant Boulder swimming excursion, we paddled pretty much to
Speaker 1: the other side of the river and then all kind
Speaker 1: of parked it on the shore and then our guide
Speaker 1: took us into the woods for like a little side hike.
Speaker 1: Is that when we heard about hikers lemonade? So our
Speaker 1: guy told us about this or that grows in abundance
Speaker 1: in these types of forests, and it gets a nickname
Speaker 1: Hiker's lemonade because it's edible and refreshing, and I think
Speaker 1: it tastes like lemonade or something taste lemonade. It did, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and it was weird, oh gosh, because it it tastes
Speaker 1: just like edible lemonade. It was a revelation. He had
Speaker 1: us all try it, and I remember, like my eyes
Speaker 1: like did one of those cartoon things where they bolted
Speaker 1: out of their head, out of my head because I
Speaker 1: tried it, I'm like, this is amazing. So it really was,
Speaker 1: like I have a video of you behind me, like
Speaker 1: picking up the hikers lemonade off and continually eating along
Speaker 1: the whole entire trail. I was grazing like an olk,
Speaker 1: just like walking through the forest, grabbing hiper's luminated by
Speaker 1: the fist fall, shoving in my mouth. It was so good,
Speaker 1: it really was. I mean it wasn't a long trail either,
Speaker 1: but it was a beautiful one because you know, that's
Speaker 1: one that people just don't go on unless they're kayaking
Speaker 1: and know about um. But when we got to the end,
Speaker 1: it was really cool because I remember he goes, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: circle round, I want to get your picture, and then
Speaker 1: he turned it to pano mode and went up the
Speaker 1: tree line and did a panel picture. I'm like, your genius,
Speaker 1: you're working for your tips hunting. And we didn't even
Speaker 1: tell him to do that, did we. We didn't ask
Speaker 1: for a panoramic shock, but he just he just knew
Speaker 1: that was not his first rodeo, and yeah, he clear.
Speaker 1: Because the red Woods canna be hard to photograph because
Speaker 1: they're so tall and it's almost impossible to get them
Speaker 1: all in one photo. To be very far away, you do,
Speaker 1: and you gotta panorama helps. So that was great. When
Speaker 1: we come back after the short break, we're gonna bring
Speaker 1: on our guests, Brian Caro, wac Hi, I'm Matt, and
Speaker 1: I'm Brad. This is park Landia in today's episode is
Speaker 1: about Redwood National and State Parks in California. Alright, So
Speaker 1: we've definitely talked a lot about movies so far this episode.
Speaker 1: And that's not just because this place reminds us of
Speaker 1: a goofy movie or because our kayak guide was talking
Speaker 1: about bird Box. Lots of big movies are actually filmed
Speaker 1: here in the various Redwood State Parks, as well as
Speaker 1: nearby sites like mere Woods National Monument. Yeah, the setting
Speaker 1: is pretty iconic, so it's perfect for movies like The
Speaker 1: Lost World, Rise with the Planet, Apes, Star Wars Episode six,
Speaker 1: Return of the Jedi, all of which filmed here. I
Speaker 1: think the most popular of all these is the Beater
Speaker 1: chase scene from Star Wars definitely popular, and how can
Speaker 1: you not love the walks. They're less intimidating the most
Speaker 1: about alk, that's for sure. I think my favorite, though,
Speaker 1: is probably The Lost World, and not only because that
Speaker 1: franchise is one of my favorite movie series ever, but
Speaker 1: because all the forest scenes are filmed here, plus that
Speaker 1: terrifying sequence where the t Rex pushes the motor home
Speaker 1: over the cliff. I'm just glad Roosevelt alc. Didn't push
Speaker 1: our v over cliff here. Yeah. Really, Okay, First of all,
Speaker 1: that movie scene is insane, though, Can we just talk
Speaker 1: about that because I remember seeing it for the first
Speaker 1: time in theaters and how vividly it's stuck with me
Speaker 1: like watching it, and then also like when I was
Speaker 1: on video or whatever years later, I watched it at
Speaker 1: Meinanna's house too with her and she's such like so
Speaker 1: sweet and meek, and seeing her reaction to this like
Speaker 1: really graphic scene where the t Rex like shoves the
Speaker 1: motor home off a cliff, She's like, oh my, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, I know, it's it's like really shocking intense,
Speaker 1: and it's always been I think one of my favorite
Speaker 1: most memorable scenes from movie probably ever, still like that
Speaker 1: movie came out in and here I am twenty plus
Speaker 1: years later, still memorying it and loving it, and after
Speaker 1: our time here at Redwood, I think even more so
Speaker 1: because we were you know, it was filmed, this is
Speaker 1: where that scene was filmed, and doubly so because we're
Speaker 1: now living in an RV in a motor home. So
Speaker 1: except ours isn't as nearly larger fancy as the one
Speaker 1: in the movie. No, but there's was brutally destroyed and
Speaker 1: Julian Moore almost died when she crashed into the glass.
Speaker 1: So I think we're fine. And I also think this
Speaker 1: is a great moment to bring on our guest for
Speaker 1: this episode, my brother Brian. So, Brian, how are you
Speaker 1: doing tonight? Um? Great, thank you for having me on
Speaker 1: your podcast. Absolutely, it was such a fantastic trip to
Speaker 1: the Redwoods, and there was so much, there's so much
Speaker 1: to enjoy to commemorate, and it's such a beautiful, historic
Speaker 1: and cinematic national park. Yeah, and I feel like, honestly,
Speaker 1: we've talked and mentioned Brian on this podcast enough that
Speaker 1: I feel like he's the third host in a way,
Speaker 1: like already we just mentioned him enough. Well, Finns the
Speaker 1: third host. Brian, I guess would be the fourth host.
Speaker 1: That's very nice of you to say. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's true because aside from after Brad, you're the person
Speaker 1: who have visited more National parks with than anyone but
Speaker 1: probably by far, like from childhood up until today. So
Speaker 1: and you're the person who got me obsessed with the
Speaker 1: National Parks passport, which then you know I tend to
Speaker 1: be a very obsessive person. So I spirled rapidly out
Speaker 1: of control and that ultimately kind of led to this.
Speaker 1: So I guess thank you because none of this probably
Speaker 1: I had, I mean I had no idea what introducing
Speaker 1: like introducing you to that passport book would ye or
Speaker 1: my wildest dreams today envisioned it would spiral into this
Speaker 1: or just like this is an interesting thing that he
Speaker 1: would probably like. And that was right. Just yeah, I
Speaker 1: had no idea. Yeah that was right. And now yeah
Speaker 1: I really took that and ran with it. And that
Speaker 1: was um our first like family national park themed vacation
Speaker 1: that we started doing. That was like a few years ago,
Speaker 1: that was in twenties sixteen, and Dad suggested doing like
Speaker 1: this outdoorsy kind of trip with um Our sister Emily
Speaker 1: and me and you and him, and that was the
Speaker 1: It was the four of us in that first year
Speaker 1: where we went to Yellowstone and Grand Teuton. A beautiful
Speaker 1: trip it was. It was yeah, and very formative. And
Speaker 1: that was where both you and I got the National
Speaker 1: Parks passport in Grand Teton and yeah, so I went
Speaker 1: crazy with it and here we are. Was it next year?
Speaker 1: Was was this trip? The next year? Redwood and Blast
Speaker 1: and Volcanic? I think it was okay. So the cool
Speaker 1: thing about that was you and I were both kind
Speaker 1: of deep into our National Parks fascination. At this point,
Speaker 1: we had been stamping like crazy. And the thing I
Speaker 1: loved most about the Redwood trip in Lawson was that
Speaker 1: this time, um, we were able to bring Brad and
Speaker 1: Whitney along with us. So our little our group and
Speaker 1: our family is expanding. It was beautiful. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: I love it too. Earlier in this episode, we talked
Speaker 1: about how you two were newly engaged. Yeah, and now
Speaker 1: you were married, you nearly married. Yeah, married, and so
Speaker 1: Whitney caro, whag. It's just weird. It's different. I feel
Speaker 1: like I've had a lot of We've had a lot
Speaker 1: of different important steps in our relationship, followed almost immediately
Speaker 1: by trips to national parks, which has been nice. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's a nice thing. I like that. So yeah, so
Speaker 1: this was great and actually sorry to cut you off,
Speaker 1: but what what a national parks? Were they mean? Do you, Brian? Like,
Speaker 1: what does that bring to your life? Yeah, let's get
Speaker 1: right to it. Oh wow, what do they mean to me?
Speaker 1: I mean aside from just being um like beautiful nature
Speaker 1: preserves that are just I don't know, rare to see anywhere. Um,
Speaker 1: I've always looked at them, to put it in like
Speaker 1: the stupidest way possible. I I'm big into video games, right, So,
Speaker 1: like video games have like certain um levels, are certain
Speaker 1: like areas of the world that are like vastly different
Speaker 1: from the other, and it's like always a lot of
Speaker 1: care goes into creating them from the game developers. But
Speaker 1: like national parks, I go to them like this is
Speaker 1: like a world in a in a game, which I
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe that's something about me that I have
Speaker 1: to like compare like actual nature to fantasy video game stuff.
Speaker 1: But um, it's really just like it's incredible that like
Speaker 1: something like Big Bend National Park. It's like I can't
Speaker 1: believe this desert world is part of the same country
Speaker 1: or map that like Redwood National Park is these like
Speaker 1: giant trees like you go and it's like, I can't
Speaker 1: believe this is the same the same world that these
Speaker 1: two things are at. And I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: I love experiencing. I love experiencing. That's true. I mean
Speaker 1: it's literally like Matt will go and say it's like
Speaker 1: this Disney ride or yeah, I mean I do, and
Speaker 1: you know by you referencing to games like, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 1: We all have our different ways of like referencing national parks,
Speaker 1: and that's really the beauty of them, and we do
Speaker 1: it with We compared it to Disney a lot. We
Speaker 1: also compare it to movies a lot, which really fits
Speaker 1: with Bread one. But also, like I've been comparing lately
Speaker 1: in the video game thing like certain roads in parks especially,
Speaker 1: I think I'm like, oh, this should be a level
Speaker 1: in Mario Park. Well, I love well and in this
Speaker 1: adventure bring it back to the earthly realm of where
Speaker 1: we actually live. And we started this all off in Chicago.
Speaker 1: Well for us, it started in Chicago, But where did
Speaker 1: you start this trip from? So we started from Boston. Um,
Speaker 1: Dad and Emily met us at Logan Airport in Boston,
Speaker 1: and uh, Dad, Emily, Whitney, and me flew from Boston
Speaker 1: to Chicago, where we met you guys at the hotel
Speaker 1: connected to the Chicago airport and we spent the night there,
Speaker 1: I mean, and then we all flew to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: UM where we would start bar hopping because obviously we
Speaker 1: love to indulge in drinks. So yeah, first things first,
Speaker 1: we dropped basically just drop our luggage off, and then
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, which bar first, sprint to the nearest,
Speaker 1: sprint to the nearest bar, and we went to Trick Dog,
Speaker 1: which is an amazing cocktail bars. Yeah it was. Then
Speaker 1: didn't we walk from the It felt like we had
Speaker 1: hours we walked from there to get to the next place.
Speaker 1: But a tiq bar, right, didn't we walk from there?
Speaker 1: Another stable in cocktail world, Smugglers Cove. Yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: one of the pinnacles of tiki bars, I think in
Speaker 1: the entire country. Really. Yeah, so we're obsasotika bars and
Speaker 1: we're like, well, we got to go there and be
Speaker 1: I don't think it was close at all, but we
Speaker 1: thought and then it wasn't Oh my god, this is
Speaker 1: a horrific time when somehow I was a person taking
Speaker 1: us and then I got us lost, and then my
Speaker 1: phone died, and I remember being lambasted by somebody in
Speaker 1: the group, like like mad at me because I got
Speaker 1: us lost. But we did walking like fifteen minutes out
Speaker 1: of the way. It was that was really on all
Speaker 1: of us because you showed us the map you were following,
Speaker 1: and like we all looked at it. We're like yep,
Speaker 1: We're like that checks out. Yeah, none of us wanted
Speaker 1: to take responsibility for the map. So I can navigate
Speaker 1: national parks, but somehow I can't navigate cities. Well. Also,
Speaker 1: San Francisco is a very confusing city. It's not laid
Speaker 1: out in like the same way like we're used to
Speaker 1: with Chicago, where it's a very straightforward grid or Sarrancisca
Speaker 1: was like zig zaggy streets and like hills and a
Speaker 1: lot of craziness. So we had to process that, but
Speaker 1: we didn't. We made it there. We made it. The
Speaker 1: smugglers kind of found a cozy corner and blood basement there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that place was like a Disney right, It was like
Speaker 1: the lions for Pirates of the Caribbean or something. Yes,
Speaker 1: it really was like this dark, very alluring place, like
Speaker 1: it feels like you're in this cave at the sea,
Speaker 1: and also like there's an upstairs and downstairs and you
Speaker 1: go inside. It's really it's jarringly dark. Your eyes need
Speaker 1: to adjust and then try. You also need to be
Speaker 1: careful to fall on the stairs because they're right right there.
Speaker 1: That's a liability. But we made it down and how
Speaker 1: to blast It was so fun. There's like a little
Speaker 1: waterfall there and it feel like pirates could just walk
Speaker 1: in at any moment and I would have been unphased. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like find like not angry ones, but yeah like ones. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like what's John's character Captain Jack Jack? Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: have been like, you asked that question but you knew it. Well,
Speaker 1: you're just trying to getting some answers here. I see
Speaker 1: what you do, half Christian. It's a good interview tactic.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, um. Now after after San Francisco, it was
Speaker 1: a beautiful drive too, was actually stunning. But before we
Speaker 1: of course had to stop by wet Bridge Golden Gate
Speaker 1: Bridge there for some reason, he used his own tricks
Speaker 1: on him. I didn't. He was so excited sto. Which
Speaker 1: I don't know if you bost know this, but Golden
Speaker 1: Gate Bridge is its own National Park site. I did
Speaker 1: not know that. Thank Yeah, so it's like now Golden
Speaker 1: Gate National Heritage something something like that. And you can
Speaker 1: see Alcatraz from right there. Yeah, literally, we gotta go
Speaker 1: to al we do h. I was thinking of Prisoner
Speaker 1: of Azkaban. That was clearly I think of Askaban too,
Speaker 1: but I feel like Askaman is clearly modeled after Alcatraz.
Speaker 1: How is it not? Like the name sounds the same,
Speaker 1: it's the same format like this President in the middle
Speaker 1: of an angry bay. The references and I'm here keep
Speaker 1: comparing real life things to fantasy things of this episode. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we saw like sunrise at Golden Gate Bridge
Speaker 1: and was planned. That was planned and then yeah, so
Speaker 1: we got some photos there and then drove the rest
Speaker 1: of the way, which was a sizeable drive I think
Speaker 1: from San Francisco up to Redwood. It was like five
Speaker 1: hours or something, and but like we woke up super early,
Speaker 1: so it wasn't that bad and the like we said,
Speaker 1: like the drive is really scenic and pretty, so you
Speaker 1: don't really mind it as much. You're driving through really
Speaker 1: like scenic terrain, and the trees get greener and greener
Speaker 1: and taller and taller, and then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: you're like in the Redwoods and it's gorgeous. Grandpa. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't remember the drive being bad. I'm trying to remember.
Speaker 1: I really don't remember the drive. It was a delight
Speaker 1: the whole way. Yeah, it really was, it really was.
Speaker 1: I want to fast forward here just a little bit
Speaker 1: and really just dive into Redwood because there's so many
Speaker 1: ways that you can discover your parks. Travel to your parks,
Speaker 1: find your parks, and so Redwood. We get there, and
Speaker 1: what do we do. Well, the first thing we do
Speaker 1: is to go to the visitor center, one of the
Speaker 1: visitor centers. We go to Couchel Visitor Center, which is
Speaker 1: right along the coast. And it was very beautiful day
Speaker 1: and I feel like it was like such a quintisential
Speaker 1: day in the Redwoods. Like the fog, which is probably
Speaker 1: there all the time, but it was like sunny and
Speaker 1: foggy and nice and crisp. It was probably like I
Speaker 1: don't know, six year degrees or something really comfortable. And
Speaker 1: we get our passport books stamped. Obviously big priority. First
Speaker 1: things first check yeah, and then we do that. We
Speaker 1: go to the house. Oh that stunning at the dream House.
Speaker 1: The name of that area was that like Elk Meadow
Speaker 1: lodges Um. I wouldn't surprise because it was surrounded by
Speaker 1: elk like I was. I was trying to remember it
Speaker 1: today and I like even I went on to Google
Speaker 1: the National Park and I saw that posted and I
Speaker 1: clicked on it looked like where we stayed. Sense given
Speaker 1: what we saw, it wasn't anything big, but it was
Speaker 1: just no, oh gosh, it was so good, like living room,
Speaker 1: a spacious kitchen and like dining area that was kind
Speaker 1: of split into the living room. Nice little back porch.
Speaker 1: I think there was a grill, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if we used it. We didn't use it. And then
Speaker 1: but there's a few better, perfect place to be play
Speaker 1: our favorite board game. Yeah, so this track quiz, Brian,
Speaker 1: what is that Trekking across I'm going to get it wrong.
Speaker 1: Trekking across the US, Trekking the National Parks. But at
Speaker 1: least that's really I knew that trekking was involved. Trecking
Speaker 1: was involved. Such a fun game that's the best. And
Speaker 1: also it's just obviously perfect to play that game when
Speaker 1: we're literally staying in a National park. So we just
Speaker 1: remember playing that. At least one night, we all gathered
Speaker 1: around the table, played truck in the National Parks, probably
Speaker 1: had a bunch of beers, California beers, and then we
Speaker 1: mostly just like cooked. We used the house because the
Speaker 1: kitchen was like fully stocked and like everything, and it
Speaker 1: was great. I loved it there so much. It was
Speaker 1: really comfortable, great location was close to a lot, and
Speaker 1: it was like a little community, a bunch of little
Speaker 1: houses in there. Felt like I don't great, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: So we were there for at least a few nights.
Speaker 1: I think it was a good anchor place to be
Speaker 1: for our time in Redwood, which started with we did
Speaker 1: this trail. We did the Prairie Creek Trailer part of
Speaker 1: the Redwood Creek Trail, like right away we dropped our
Speaker 1: stuff off and then hikes for a few miles. And
Speaker 1: that was the one that was just like a flat
Speaker 1: trail like on a road. That yeah, that was pretty
Speaker 1: easy and straightforward. And that's the one where at least
Speaker 1: like the point where we turned around was at one
Speaker 1: of the kind of creek crossings. There was a bridge
Speaker 1: and we all like gathered for a group photo on
Speaker 1: top of this giant falling redwood log. Oh yeah, rocks,
Speaker 1: a lot of rocks. If we were talking about that
Speaker 1: earlier in the episode, and it's just such a beautiful memory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: such a great yeah. And I also liked how we
Speaker 1: all just quietly No one talked about rock skipping, but
Speaker 1: we just kind of quietly just started doing it. And
Speaker 1: I feel like it was an unspoken competition to see
Speaker 1: who throw rocks the furthest or skip. I couldn't throw
Speaker 1: them at all, Like I didn't skip on. I feel
Speaker 1: like Brian would be a little bit competitive here and
Speaker 1: be like, I take great pride in my ability to
Speaker 1: skip rocks. I mean I'm not I'm not ashamed to
Speaker 1: admit that. And I mean, yeah, that that was that
Speaker 1: was a lot and clear. I mean, I don't want
Speaker 1: to put like, I don't want to put it out
Speaker 1: there so people want to compete with me when they
Speaker 1: do it, because I wanted to be like kind of
Speaker 1: on the down low that I'm okay at it. You
Speaker 1: want to you want to surprise people with that. Sorry
Speaker 1: spoiler alert, Bryan is really good at skipping rock. Yeah. Right,
Speaker 1: And then when we were done with that trail, um
Speaker 1: either that day or the next day, that's when we
Speaker 1: went on that huge kayaking Oh yeah, that was right.
Speaker 1: And early the next morning we all got back into
Speaker 1: the rental car and we drove this was like to
Speaker 1: the northern part of the park. I remember, it was
Speaker 1: like a little bit of a drive in the morning,
Speaker 1: but that's where Smith Ripper is and such a pretty river,
Speaker 1: so pretty, and we all met up with our kayak
Speaker 1: guide who then like had us pile into his big van.
Speaker 1: He has, you know, one of those long bands where
Speaker 1: you can storage items and have a bunch of people
Speaker 1: corraled inside of it, and he drove us to this
Speaker 1: drop off point where we all convened and got into
Speaker 1: our kayaks and got into the river and it was
Speaker 1: such an incredible that that was like the most fun
Speaker 1: I've had kayaking probably ever. I think most of my
Speaker 1: most of my kayaking anyway, has been on lakes and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, so it's fun to do it in
Speaker 1: a river where it's like dynamic, constantly changing scenery. And
Speaker 1: this waver River was pretty wide. It wasn't like a
Speaker 1: small river and I remember it was like that perfect
Speaker 1: day where it wasn't too chilly, but like I wore
Speaker 1: a jacket because yeah, thats a good idea, and just
Speaker 1: over the river and just over your head you just
Speaker 1: had a million little like little flies and you know,
Speaker 1: you could just see them and they hit you and everything.
Speaker 1: But it didn't even matter because it looked like it
Speaker 1: was gorgeous. It was stunning. It was like this fog
Speaker 1: of flies. And I remember that. I think I remember
Speaker 1: it was like this activity. It was like like the
Speaker 1: fizzy stuff above a soda. That's what it felt like. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what it felt like, such a carbonation cloud
Speaker 1: of eyes. Yeah, and it didn't bother us. You do
Speaker 1: emon bother you. I didn't notice, I remember it, yea. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I remember like early on, within the first like
Speaker 1: ten minutes of being in the kayaks, there was like
Speaker 1: a little bit of a pile up um. We hit
Speaker 1: some nut rocks, but like some mild rappids, I guess,
Speaker 1: And like Emily was first, our sister Amla's first, and
Speaker 1: she kind of like careene to the side and then
Speaker 1: I like slammed into her, and then Brad slams into me,
Speaker 1: and you also like fell off your cup. You were
Speaker 1: not into the water, but you were like kneeling on
Speaker 1: her someone. So you like fell face forward onto the
Speaker 1: top of your kayak because you hit me. Oh that's right,
Speaker 1: because I was on my knees. I was trying something different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know. I was trying my different like kayaking stances
Speaker 1: because it was like an open face kayak. Oh yeah, right,
Speaker 1: the one that you could sit on top of or
Speaker 1: kneel on top of. And that was fun. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: always great for a good kayak pile up, a little
Speaker 1: kayak pile up. Yeah, I remember that and thinking like, well,
Speaker 1: that's the closest anyone's going to get to falling in
Speaker 1: on this trip. But that would turned out not to
Speaker 1: the case. Yeah right, that's I thought that too soon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's talk about that, because I was talking with Brad
Speaker 1: before this about you capsizing, and he didn't remember. I
Speaker 1: think he was probably too far back in the group.
Speaker 1: But I was right in front of you, and I
Speaker 1: remember hearing it and turning around and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're you're in the water now. I really think that's
Speaker 1: when I was posing on a rock, probably, I hope,
Speaker 1: so Um, I feel like the situation was pretty chaotic,
Speaker 1: like whatever was happening, there must have been some like
Speaker 1: light rapids we were in, and I feel like I
Speaker 1: didn't Emily like throw an article like or jacket like
Speaker 1: up in the air or something. She lost somebody lost
Speaker 1: an article of clothing in the water, Yes, she did remember,
Speaker 1: and some of the river somebody found it again. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I forgot about about which was lucky for her. My
Speaker 1: my experience during that time, So it was in light rapids.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't exactly know how it happened.
Speaker 1: I just remember at one point, going down this kind
Speaker 1: of rapid e part of the river, I just like
Speaker 1: something I must have bumped out of my kayak and
Speaker 1: I started, like I felt myself slowly like rolling out
Speaker 1: of the kayak and falling back into the river. But
Speaker 1: it happened. It happened incredibly slowly, like slow enough where
Speaker 1: you think you think that any any person doing this
Speaker 1: would have plenty of time to correct what was happening.
Speaker 1: But I just watched, like my feet on the kayak
Speaker 1: and I just watched them go higher up into the
Speaker 1: air until I felt backwards and was completely submerged. Um.
Speaker 1: And yeah, and it also made me realize that trying
Speaker 1: to swim while you're wearing shoes is a strange feeling. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like that's what sticks out of mind. Like wow, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I've ever done this before, but um, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was startling. I've never been tossed. I've
Speaker 1: been whitewater rafting. I managed to stay in the kayak
Speaker 1: during class four rapids, but not during this a very
Speaker 1: turbulin area. If you had to like judge these out
Speaker 1: of like one to five, it would probably like a
Speaker 1: one point five. There was no reason why I fell
Speaker 1: out of it. I don't know how it could happened,
Speaker 1: but it did. Yeah. I remember our guide who was
Speaker 1: in front obviously, and he like gave us a little
Speaker 1: bit of a head suvious, like just casual heads off.
Speaker 1: These are some mild rapids. He'll be fine. But and
Speaker 1: then I was like behind him, and then like I
Speaker 1: hear like a slummash and splash and then next you're
Speaker 1: swimming next ding and now you're swimming to shore and yeah,
Speaker 1: and I can only imagine too, because I remember how
Speaker 1: cold that water was because we had all like immediately
Speaker 1: prior to this, been at that big boulder or whatever,
Speaker 1: and we're like taking turning to jumping off into the water.
Speaker 1: So oh yeah, it was called Yeah, it was like
Speaker 1: much colder than I thought it would be. That was
Speaker 1: that was that was really fun. But after we spent
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes on that rock jumping off of it. Um,
Speaker 1: we went over to that trail and that's where we
Speaker 1: were introduced to Hikers Lemonade. Like we were talking about
Speaker 1: earlier in the episode, what was your favorite part of
Speaker 1: that trail? I guess, well, I guess my favorite part
Speaker 1: of it was being able to just like pick vegetation
Speaker 1: off of the ground and eating it. Um, that's what
Speaker 1: I remember the most. Anyway, The Hikers Lemonade looks like
Speaker 1: these little like almost like four leaf clovers just growing
Speaker 1: on the ground, and we were told that we could
Speaker 1: just pick them up and eat them. So we did,
Speaker 1: and they taste remarkably like lemonade, which I couldn't get
Speaker 1: enough of. I was like stuffing him in my mouth,
Speaker 1: I know, Sam, And then twenty four hours later, all
Speaker 1: of our miles are broken out with poison ivy rather one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the guy, It's like JK, yeah, I cannot digest this right, right,
Speaker 1: I know that was that was so good. I can't
Speaker 1: get over that. I remember, like because it's very unnatural,
Speaker 1: seemingly as a human being, like to be told while
Speaker 1: you're hiking through the middle of the woods to like,
Speaker 1: you know, reach down and just eat something growing off
Speaker 1: the forest floor. And I'm like, I don't, I don't
Speaker 1: do this normally, but is this what foraging? Is this foraging? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I love it. I felt like in a woodland animal,
Speaker 1: you know, And it was great for I felt like
Speaker 1: I could survive out in the woods by myself. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm like I could live here, I could live off
Speaker 1: the Yes, I could eat only this and be fine.
Speaker 1: Just hikers almanad. Yeah, I wish I had something to
Speaker 1: be honest, like, I wish they sold it in stores. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, I agree. My favorite So, Brian Um on
Speaker 1: a podcast we talked about out our favorite things we
Speaker 1: have not told each other. They are surprises and while
Speaker 1: this isn't the end of this episode, what we wanted
Speaker 1: to do is we want to bring you on to
Speaker 1: this tradition of ours to tell us what our favorite
Speaker 1: things are and share And I am honored. So, Brian,
Speaker 1: what was your favorite part of this trip. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: whole thing I'll have read about. Oh geez well, UM,
Speaker 1: I mean the kayak trip was a highlight. UM. That
Speaker 1: might be my favorite part of the trip. But I'm
Speaker 1: going to condense it down even further and say that
Speaker 1: the rock that we stopped at and jumped off of
Speaker 1: into the water, UM, I have very distinct great memories
Speaker 1: of that UM one mainly because Whitney, my now wife, UM,
Speaker 1: took an unexpected charge of the freezing cold water. I
Speaker 1: didn't get to see it. I just heard her screams same.
Speaker 1: I didn't see any other but I heard the splash.
Speaker 1: Everyone just like turned around and like wit like, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah she had. She had parked her kayak and was
Speaker 1: trying to step up into the rock but lost her
Speaker 1: footing and just like jumped back into the water. UM.
Speaker 1: Which was great. Yeah, I love seeing it. UM. But
Speaker 1: in addition to that, we all jumped in which was fun.
Speaker 1: But then Brad surprised everyone with a with a front
Speaker 1: flip off of this huge boulder. Yeah. It was kind
Speaker 1: of like almost like a front heart wheel flip, kind
Speaker 1: of curved. But it was fun because in my mind
Speaker 1: I looked great. And this is saying earlier I think
Speaker 1: felt like great, I took a video. I looked at
Speaker 1: the video and I'm like, and I'm pretty sure didn't
Speaker 1: our guide wasn't. He like, wow, can we use that
Speaker 1: for our website or something? That's right? He said something
Speaker 1: like that, this is how we're going to sell this
Speaker 1: kayak trip. You're filip off this rock. Well, I'll have
Speaker 1: to forward that video onto Um he's been waiting for
Speaker 1: like a year. Yeah. Actually that was a great That
Speaker 1: was a great part of that trip. I mean, the
Speaker 1: whole kayak thing was really really amazing, but that part
Speaker 1: was really fun. I just remember being like so shot,
Speaker 1: utterly shocked by how cold the water was. I wasn't
Speaker 1: properly warned. Our guy did not. He says like, I'm
Speaker 1: sure jump in. He didn't say like, by the way,
Speaker 1: it's definitely cold, like you're gonna yeah, And I assume
Speaker 1: you got some kind of sick pleasure out of seeing
Speaker 1: this experience that, yeah, and see our faces after each
Speaker 1: of us jumped in and like definitely panic swam to
Speaker 1: the rock. But yeah, that was a lot of fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was What was yours my favorite? Um? I think
Speaker 1: my favorite was probably after this kayak trip, we did
Speaker 1: this longer hike through Redwoods and that was really fun.
Speaker 1: I don't know you liked it as much because you
Speaker 1: were hiking in like water shoes. Yeah, that was just
Speaker 1: a miserable time because I didn't have socks on. I
Speaker 1: had wet water shoes. It was really bad. Yeah, not ideal,
Speaker 1: but yeah, because it was love That one. That's one
Speaker 1: with all the switchbacks. Yeah, that one had more switchbacks
Speaker 1: and it was like up and down we went through
Speaker 1: and over some creeks. But the trees in there were
Speaker 1: just like mind blowing. There was just such a like
Speaker 1: condensed variety of them here. There was so much and
Speaker 1: it was I think the longest or one of the
Speaker 1: longer hikes we did in Redwood too. So it was
Speaker 1: nice let's spend some quality time like in the deep
Speaker 1: in the woods like this, and especially after the kayak
Speaker 1: trip where I'm like, okay, it would be nice to
Speaker 1: use our legs again. Yeah. Was that the one the
Speaker 1: trail that we walked through like a hollowed out Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: so we crawled through it, didn't we It was like
Speaker 1: the tree was wide enough and mostly hollow that like
Speaker 1: we're able to crawl throughout the through the entire length
Speaker 1: of it pretty much. Yeah, it was like there was
Speaker 1: like caves inside of trees, but because there's so like
Speaker 1: these trees are just so huge that you don't realize
Speaker 1: like you could create a home inside of them, like
Speaker 1: at least the size of ov I could live in
Speaker 1: there and just eat hyper slamonade and make it my
Speaker 1: home perfect. Right, I know where I'm in Disney World attractions,
Speaker 1: and you realized about I guess Disney is basing it
Speaker 1: off of something. It's a real life here. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that comes clear, that comes through like super clear. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I think my favorite thing would actually be like, honestly,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a place. It was just the ability to
Speaker 1: do this trip altogether with my family. Like I loved
Speaker 1: like spending the time with you guys, um, you know,
Speaker 1: with you know, Donald Whitney, Emily, Brian, Matt, myself. It
Speaker 1: was just one of those really awesome times where you
Speaker 1: get to connect and see each other and just like
Speaker 1: go through it um live and cooked together and kayak
Speaker 1: and hike. It was all of just about the the
Speaker 1: ability to do it as a family. That was really
Speaker 1: cool to me. That's very nice. So Brian, ultimately, at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, What did you get out
Speaker 1: of this trip? Uh, well, I guess a big thing
Speaker 1: that I got out of this trip was, um how
Speaker 1: I mean surprising this country. I guess this world can
Speaker 1: still be. Like you go to a place like Redwood
Speaker 1: National Park, which you've heard about and you've seen pictures
Speaker 1: of redwoods, but to actually be there and to see
Speaker 1: these like massive trees that look like they're from I
Speaker 1: don't know, some giants world in one of the rings
Speaker 1: or something is it's humbling because you're just this miniscule
Speaker 1: little thing compared to these huge trees. But it's just
Speaker 1: incredible and it just makes you and it makes me
Speaker 1: curious for to explore as much of the world as
Speaker 1: I can, because this is just a tiny little part
Speaker 1: of it, and you know that there's other stuff like
Speaker 1: this out there. Absolutely, that's why we keep on traveling
Speaker 1: to national parks. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This
Speaker 1: is park Landia and today's episode is about Redwood National
Speaker 1: and State Parks in California. So three things that we
Speaker 1: would bring. You know, we definitely would probably start off
Speaker 1: with a kayak for myself at least um, but we
Speaker 1: don't own one. So I guess I would have to
Speaker 1: buy one first, but just in case. There's definitely a
Speaker 1: lot of different places to rent kayaks from or do
Speaker 1: tours from, so don't worry if you don't have a
Speaker 1: kayak like myself, you can definitely get one. Plenty of
Speaker 1: options for that. And then to go along with that
Speaker 1: some sort of wet suit or waters a stent layer
Speaker 1: like we wore when we went kayaking. Absolutely because water
Speaker 1: shoes to water shoes, Yeah, because I think that's also
Speaker 1: important for kayaking. And then if you're in certain areas
Speaker 1: of the park, you could use it when you go
Speaker 1: tide pooling along the coast, which is also a great
Speaker 1: idea and of itself because you can see animals like
Speaker 1: see stars and crabs, sea cucumbers, muscles, a whole, another whole,
Speaker 1: like another ecosystem. Yes, And then, of course, because when
Speaker 1: you're done kayaking, you're gonna need dry socks and dry shoes, right.
Speaker 1: I didn't do that and I went on a trail
Speaker 1: afterwards and I was miserable. So that's definitely something I've
Speaker 1: learned from this trip is to always make sure you
Speaker 1: have extra clothes to change into, especially if you're doing kayaking. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a dry back up. And this is one of those
Speaker 1: parks where within the span of one afternoon or just
Speaker 1: a full day, you can do totally different different activities
Speaker 1: like we did. We went kayaking the first half of
Speaker 1: the day and then went right from there to a
Speaker 1: long hike. So both of those activities require different sets
Speaker 1: of a higher and especially footwear, so to have a
Speaker 1: full backup at the ready is really helpful. Yes, And
Speaker 1: of course we could bring checking at the National Parks
Speaker 1: board game along with extra friends, because you have to
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends to play that you don't
Speaker 1: but we love that. We love sharing that memory with friends.
Speaker 1: That's a good one. And then also this park, if
Speaker 1: you're in a board game movie you should bring. We
Speaker 1: have like a Jurassic Park board game, you know, and
Speaker 1: what better place to play it than the park where
Speaker 1: one of those movies just literally filmed. So just continue
Speaker 1: with that that theme, um, And speaking of Durston Park,
Speaker 1: I know that we've talked about that franchise a lot
Speaker 1: on this podcast, but I think it's safe to say
Speaker 1: that Redwood National and State Parks is really the episode
Speaker 1: where it makes the most sense because this is a
Speaker 1: place that is so unbelievably beautiful that one of the movies,
Speaker 1: The Lost World, was literally filmed here. And not only that,
Speaker 1: but this incredible place has been featured in Star Wars,
Speaker 1: Netflix movies, and now our own family photos. Yeah, lots
Speaker 1: of family does. It's forever engraved in our Most Cherished
Speaker 1: Memories and in our DVD collection. Didn't You've been listening
Speaker 1: to park Landia, a show about national parks. PARKLANDI is
Speaker 1: the production of My Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac,
Speaker 1: Brad Caro Wak and Christopher has The otis produced and
Speaker 1: edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer is Christopher hasiotis
Speaker 1: our researcher. It's Jescelyn Shields. A special things goes out
Speaker 1: to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters and the rest of the
Speaker 1: Parklandia crew. And Hey listeners, If you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps other
Speaker 1: people like you find our show. You can keep up
Speaker 1: with us on social media as well. Check out our
Speaker 1: photos from our travels on Instagram at park Landia Pod,
Speaker 1: and join in on the conversation in our Facebook group
Speaker 1: park Landia Rangers. From our podcast, My Heart radio, visit
Speaker 1: the heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows, and as always, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Gold D.