
Arriving under such conditions - heavy rain and swirling mist - leant the park a decidedly eerie air. The place is like a cooler version of the jungle in Malaysia: all enormous mossy trees, ferns and hanging vines. I keep expecting to see a storm trooper zoom around the corner, chasing an ewok.
We managed to get some bundles of wood from the camp hosts, a couple of elderly ladies, who came past shortly later in a golf cart, peering at us from under ponchos and questioning whether we were holding rope (we weren't) since nothing should be tied in the trees (we had intended to). After I'd bought the fire wood, in my summer dress and flip flops, thanks to spending the previous night in a cosy caboose motel, an American approached wearing All The Clothes.
Her: well, this is fun, but I'm kind of over it!
Host: um. Ok. What...what?
Her: do you know what the forecast is? When is this going to stop? (It had been raining for all of 20 minutes)
Me: (suppressed chuckle)
Host: I don't know. We don't have satellite connection here so we don't get the forecast...
All evening we've seen groups of Americans bundled up in rain gear. One girl even waved at us as she passed. "We survived the rain!" she called. Mr Z and I sniggered quietly. Rain? This isn't rain. Try 16 months solid and then talk to me. When we finally ventured up to the toilet block for teeth-cleaning, we realised the rain has actually stopped but it continued to sound long after, which I guess is the precipitation making its way down through the dense undergrowth. I read that the redwoods get one third of their moisture needs from the coastal fogs, but they certainly picked up quite a lot extra tonight.
There's a creek running nearby too which adds to the watery music. It's all very relaxing. Between this and the rushing noise of the Truckee river at Silver Creek I am starting to think abut getting one of those white noise generators.
Look closely and you'll see the elk. They were pretty chilled out, wandering among these ferns.
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