We awoke to a beautiful day at the Elk Valley Casino, and the cows in the adjacent field were happy too:

Seems like we’re not here during the busy season:

We did a bit of pre-home-school scooter riding on the reservation.  I was on roller skates:

In the afternoon we rode up a gravel road towards the Stout Redwood Grove in Jedediah Smith State Park.  The ride started with a 430 foot vertical climb in the first 1.1 miles, with an average grade of 8%.  It was pretty tough, but one way or the other we all made it to the top.  Here’s our daughter doing her Statue of Liberty imitation with a monster mushroom she found laying uprooted by the side of the road:

Right after the crest, the Redwoods began appearing.  Their girth and height is simply beyond description:

They top out at about 370 feet tall, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty, pedestal and all.  They are the tallest living things on Earth.

Trish and the kids turned back early, and I continued on to the Stout Grove parking lot and back.  I didn’t go into the grove, as we will all come back and see it together.

This is where the Endor scenes from Return of the Jedi were filmed, and flying down a one lane dirt road winding between the trees, I felt like I was right there.

We stayed at Elk Valley Casino again tonight.