Day 10: Muir Woods & Golden Gate

Starting off the day with a quick shot up to Sonoma Valley vineyards for some wine tasting. Good stuff, but the lady at Viansa keeps pouring me more. $90 later with a slight headache, but wonderfully relaxed it's off again to the next adventure...

Muir Woods (clic4pics)
Home of the infamous Redwood trees. Could I have been any less prepared for this? Take a step into these woods and one thing's immediately apparent:

I walk amongst gods here.

Thousands of year old trees, stretching their arms up over 250 feet into the sky. Words cannot describe it. Pictures cannot capture it. You must walk this path to comprehend. The sheer scope, sanctity, and timelessness of this place is mind-boggling. Dozens of inadequate photos later and I cannot help but sit and stare upwards again and again. Deer eating peacefully to the left, owls swooping through the trees to the right. Fallen trees older than our very nation itself. These trees have seen it all. And lived.

Golden Gate (clic4pics)
Coming over the hill towards the bridge again... out of nowhere this giant red tower emerges over the hill. Jump out of the car, run up the hill as the fog approaches from the west, fighting the winds, and it's all... totally... worth... it. Funny, it looks bigger in the books, yet not nearly as magnificient as when seen in person.

But today it's the sheer contrast of this red giant against these rolling green hills that really shocks me. Exposed from the fog, the question repeated to me over and over... is this truly the perfect intersection of modern civilization and nature? Lush green hills, towering mountains, and this awe-inspiring spanse of crimson steel spanning the shores? Looking around I see a city unlike any I've seen over 30 years. Not some concrete and steel tribute to the industrialization of our planet, but a perfect balance of land, sea, and man. A city ahead in the horizon. An island punching out of the waters. A glorious red archway connecting the shores. A mysterious fog pouring over the bay. The kind of scene you snap 50 times in a row hoping to capture even a whisper of the visual opera going on in your mind.

Beautiful.