Paul Bunyan & Babe at the Trees of Mystery
When I was little I was a sucker for roadside attractions. No matter how much I begged my parents they never let me see The Thing or the Giant Ball of Yarn. My parents didn’t want to get “tricked” into seeing something, well, silly. But now I am a adult. I can do whatever I want to do. And of course the first on my list of forbidden fun was to see a roadside attraction.
I wasn’t expecting these roadsides attractions to be equal to the Smithsonian or Wild Animal Park, but I feel that they have a kind of naive charm. They represent a simpler time in America and demonstrate the ability to make something out of nothing.
First I saw The Thing in Arizona. And no, I will not tell you what the thing is. This last summer my daughter and I got to see the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, CA. At first you might think this attraction is nothing more than someone buying some property that has trees on it and adding botanical stories and descriptive signs for each tree. Well, yah it is, but it is a bit more than that. My family is into kitsch so just seeing Paul Bunyan and Babe was pretty awesome. Two things you probably didn’t know about this Paul Bunyan is the black shirt-ish thing under his red shirt is not a fuzzy camisole but his chest hair. Very sexy. Second, Paul actually talks to the tourist. I believe you can shout out questions which he’ll answer. I saw a small boy searching for something on Babe’s underbelly. At that time Paul asked the boy, “What’cha lookin’for?”. The embarrassed boy ran out and away from Babe. I can’t blame the kid, I was kind of curious what was under there too.
Little trees growing on a big tree
Like I stated before, the most interesting trees have information about them. Like the tree above, it has little trees growing on it’s limbs.
Signs
There are a bunch of little signs everywhere that where plainly not like the rest of the signs. My Daughter and I thought maybe they marked graves. Cool! But no, these signs mark weddings that have taken place at the Trees of Mystery. That’s cool too, but graves would have been much for fun. I should have known that they where not grave markers by the shear quantity. I guess I thought a massacre had happen there a long time ago in the days of the wild west. It was just wishful thinking.
The tram
They have a tram there that takes you on a ride up though the trees to a mountain top.
Regret inside the tram
See the photo of my Daughter? That is a real live reaction to being enclose in a small, transparent tram car. All bets where that I would get scared because I tend to get scared rather easily. But nope, I had no problems. I’m not quite sure what freaked my Daughter out but she lived.
View from Top
Nice mountain top view.
Chainsaw Carving
On the next part of the tour you get to view a ton of chainsaw sculptures.
Chainsaw sculpture
I thought this squirrel was cute.
Indian baskets
Lastly when you arrive at the end of the tour you’ll see a gift shop and a Native American Museum. I loved the museum because I love Indian art. So please, if you visit the Trees of Mystery check out the museum. Native Americans are the original American crafters.
