Muir Woods National Monument

Kim and Henry were happy to take a rest day, so I set off on my own to visit  Muir Woods National Monument, about 30 minutes from our campsite.

When I set off it was a clear and sunny day but by the time I got to Mill Valley, I found myself driving through thick, gray fog. Winding roads took me up, up, up and then down, down, down to the valley floor and Muir Woods, a preserved sanctuary of ancient redwood giants.

Spanning 554 acres, Muir Woods is a living museum of ancient coastal redwoods that was first established in 1908 by the esteemed naturalist most commonly associated with the preservation of Yosemite, John Muir.  His tireless advocacy and effective powers of political persuasion to protect enclaves of redwoods and sequoias from the Sierra Nevadas all the way to the Pacific coastline has been a gift for all future generations, one  that I got to enjoy on my day out.

It felt like a pilgrimage.

I took my own sweet time to commune with the trees, listen to their prayers and bow down to them in reverence. Truth be told, they seemed pretty cheerful. They seemed much more concerned about the destruction of the human species than with their own destruction. They seemed at peace, serene, content. Quietly steadfast, enduring and resilient, much more so than us human beings. How can these noble trees possibly survive the relentless uptick in man made climate change, carbon emissions, pollution in the air and water banks, urbanization and other selfish actions of the humans sharing their regional ecosystem? The message I received was to soothe my immediate worries. I tuned into a deeper truth; the planet will survive, the redwoods will survive, however the survival of human life is much more uncertain and precarious. While I was praying for the redwoods, I was astonished to find that they were praying for me.

The stoic redwood giants stand by and watch the gradual (inevitable?) self-destruction of mankind,  just as they have done for millennia. 

We should listen to their wisdom.