California redwoods

Writing Retreat | Creekside Arts (CA)

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / Leave a comment

Last fall, my partner Ray and I had the incredible opportunity to spend two weeks researching and writing on our respective book projects during a writing retreat at Creekside Arts, an artist collective located outside Eureka in Northern California. Creekside Arts is a non-profit organization that hosts an artist residency program every April and artist retreats throughout the year.

The caretakers of Creekside Arts are Rich and Joey McCutchan (Rich also built many of the on-site buildings and is a talented sculptor himself). They were wonderful hosts during our retreat, offering us eggs from their chickens and free use of their herb garden.

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The Incredible Redwoods of Jedediah Smith State Park

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / Leave a comment

Last fall, my partner and I had the opportunity to spend two weeks at an artist retreat through Creekside Arts, a Humboldt County, California, arts nonprofit.

When not working on our respective writing projects, we explored the Redwood National and State Parks as part of some ongoing research I was doing centered around the redwoods.

Of all the parks we visited in the Redwood National and State Parks, the trees of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park were by far the most impressive.

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Old-Growth Coastal Redwood Forests Of Muir Woods National Monument (Northern California)

/ Hannah Rodabaugh / Leave a comment

Recently, I visited Muir Woods National Monument, one of the last surviving old-growth coastal redwood forests in the world. I’ve been fascinated with old-growth forests since I was an Artist-in-Residence for the National Park Service at an old-growth Douglas fir forest in southwestern Oregon.

The monument was named for John Muir, an American conservationist, and a personal hero. Coastal redwood forests like this boast the world’s tallest trees. The tallest redwood in the park is a mere 258 feet. That’s over three blue whales (our largest animal) stacked end-to-end.

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