On my recent road trip up north, I took a side trip to check out A Better Place Forest's location at Point Arena, located about 130 miles north of San Francisco. Cindy and I had had numerous end-of-life discussions over the years, but those discussions had never gone farther than deciding that we both wanted to be cremated. When Cindy died in December 2020, I had to face the question of what to do with the box of ashes, and I didn't have an answer for that question.
I had put a small amount of the ashes in the soil under a small "Blue Skies" lilac bush in our backyard last year, and a couple of family members had helped me surreptitiously deposit several "smidgeons" of ash around the grounds at one of her favorite restaurants, but that still left a LOT of ash in the box. One of her favorite places to visit was the Muir Woods National Monument; every time we went to the Bay Area, we'd have to be sure to stop in for a visit among the towering, peaceful Redwood trees at Muir Woods and soak in the sense of tranquility generated by these magnificent trees. I thought that her spirit would feel at peace among those trees, but I also felt that the National Park authorities would most likely frown on my efforts to deposit several pounds of ashes in the park.*
So I needed to find an alternative site, and the Better Place Forest organization presented itself as a good alternative, with five forests in California, two in the midwest, three in Eastern states, and one in Flagstaff, Arizona. The location at Point Arena seemed especially appropriate; we had spent many vacation days along the Northern California coast, at the old Greenwood Pier Inn at Elk and staying at our friends Eric and Elaine Hillesland's inn Alegria in Mendocino. Also, the Point Arena location was the only location at the time that had Coast Redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, which have always been special to me from the days when my family went camping among them at Jedediah Smith State Park.
I picked out a tree on-line last summer, but felt that I needed to see it and see the location. Just to be clear, the trees in this forest are not old growth Redwoods; the area was heavily logged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so these Redwoods are mostly about 100 to 150 years old, but they are still magnificent, stately trees.
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| Redwood Forest |
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| View Toward The Ocean |
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| Tree and Snag |
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| Tallest Trees On The Planet |
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| Sunlight Through The Trees |
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| Peaceful Path |
And it is a peaceful, beautiful place. I think it's the right place for Cindy, and later, for me, too.
* Note: although ash scattering is permitted in some areas under the National Park Service's jurisdiction, Muir Woods is specifically excluded.
