Oh, Sweet Mystery of Life

It’s a cheesy title for this post, I know.

Today, I’m among the redwoods at the Trees of Mystery park in Klamath, California. It’s a huge tourist trap, with thousands of useless trinkets to buy, from wood carved into every creature imaginable to baby redwoods you can plant in your yard. (Would a redwood grow on the roof of a Baltimore apartment?

You can tell the severity of the trap by the enormity of their Paul Bunyan statue in front of the store:

But, nestled on their trail is the semi-famous Cathedral Grove, nine trees that grew together in a semi-circle and is now used for weddings and Easter services. It’s just about a half-mile up the road, if you’re willing to pay $14. (Robbery!)

Here’s a pic of the chapel. It’s still raining, so forgive the water droplets clouding the picture:

And here’s a view looking up from the center of the chapel:

In the chapel, hymns are constantly pumped out into the forest, through speakers so muffled that you can’t make out a word they’re saying, like when you accidentally hear someone else’s conversation when you’re chatting on a cell phone. It’s nice that they’re trying, but putting religious music in the middle of a tourist trap didn’t make it feel very sacred to me.

In case you’re wondering what the placards in the picture say, the left simply says that the redwoods are a memorial to Joseph B. Strauss, who built the Golden Gate Bridge. On the right is a poem:

“This is their temple, vaulted high.
And here we pause with reverent eve.
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul:
For here we sense life’s proper goal.

To be like these, straight, true and fine.
To make our world, like theirs, a shrine:
Sink down, Oh traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.”

That, I liked. It’s an excerpt from Strauss’s “The Redwoods,” and it’s gorgeous. In today’s age of environmental degradation, it’s reminiscent of an important lesson: the Earth was God’s first gift, in any religion, and it’s what we should look out for. God was in the trees before there were churches and temples, before we had shrines and prophets and icons. Maybe that’s where we should look for Him.

I spent the rest of the day touring the park, trying to get my $14 worth. On one trail, there’s the legend of the giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan, carved in relief. From his birth, when it took three storks to carry the infant, to creating the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe behind him. My favorite was the carving of a snake, which was supposed to be one of his pets:

There’s also a lift which will take you to the top of a peak, which is supposed to have a gorgeous overlook. But, with the fog, I couldn’t see anything – just lots of gray. But I did get this semi-pretty shot from one of the cars on the way down:

And then I went biking in the rain.