In 2024 we took a trip with friends to see Redwood National Park. five hours north of the Bay Area. While the size of the trees is impressive, the stumps and few remaining examples of the huge old growth trees left me trying to envision just how phenomenally majestic this place once was in the millennia before the arrival of capitalism. For me the coastline was the highlight of the trip.

We stayed in Orick, a town well positioned to become a tourist center after the parks were created and logging shut down. But it seems thus far to have missed that opportunity - or fate. Despite the obvious decline, it still has the soul of a real community. Our new Vacasa rental was the only evidence that the tourism industry had serious intentions here, the first inkling that we tourists may some day take over the town. And then the soul will disappear.