Tuesday July 19th-
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So after a week in Yosemite, Nate, Brian and I packed up the minivan again and headed on our way to Sacramento, CA to meet up with my Dad and Beth. It was about 4 hours to Sacramento where we happily picked them up and then had to repack the car once again. It was a squeeze, but we managed to cram 5 of us and all our stuff into and onto the car. Our journey then took us another 5 hours into Northern California on our way to the Redwood National Forest. With about 9 hours of traveling behind us we were exhausted, so we stopped around midnight at a hotel along the highway. A bed was great after a week on the ground!
Wednesday July 20th -
After breakfast and finishing up an all night laundry run at the hotel, we headed on to the Redwood Forest! We made a quick stop at the visitor center for some maps, and then set up camp at the Mill Creek campground amidst a second growth forest of Redwoods. The Old Growth Forest, the trees dating back thousands of years were cut down for logging during the gold rush of the 1850's. The giant stumps left behind are now circled by off-shoots of newer trees called "Fairy Rings". At our campsite in Mill Creek, we were surrounded by these Fairy Rings and giant stumps. The trees in the Fairy Rings were probably 4 to 6 feet across, and there were about 10 'shoots' around each 15 foot wide stump.
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| One of the Giant Stumps at our campsite |
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| Lunch Time! |
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| A snail we found on our morning hike |
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| Brian found some crab shells and made a claw earring! |
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| Enjoying the NorCal Coast |
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| It was so GREEN! |
For the afternoon and evening, we ventured into Crescent City for some ocean views and food!! We walked down the jetty, and then had dinner at a small hole-in-the-wall seafood place for a view of the setting sun. The food was amazing, and the Parmesan Halibut that Nate and Beth both had was their favorite meal yet! On our way out of the restaurant we noticed that Frommers, the famous travel company, had rated it one of the best places to eat in the area! We lucked out!
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| Checking out the tide pools |
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| Dinner and a sunset = perfection! |
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| We loved the sunset! |
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| Brian and I |
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| Dad and Beth :) |
Thursday July 21-
With a good night of sleep (in the Jurrassic Forest campground) behind us we packed up again and headed North!
On our way out of town, we took a detour through one of the Redwood scenic drives. It was a one way road on Hill Road that took us through some of the protected Old Growth Forest. We marveled at the height of the Giant Redwoods. Although we saw the Giant Sequoias only a week before, we were still amazed. The Redwoods stand an average of 100 feet higher than the Sequoias up to 370 feet tall. They are also only found along the Northern Pacific Coast. Compared to the Sequoia grove in Yosemite that did not have any ground cover due to a recent fire, the Redwood forest was covered in ferns and other greenery (think sparkling Edward running through the woods in Twilight).
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| Look at all those ferns! |
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| Marveling at their height. |
Following the scenic drive through the redwoods we continued on our way North and crossed into Oregon! After over 3 weeks in California it was exciting to see a new state!
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We drove up Highway 101 along the coast all the way to Yachats, OR about 5 hours North of the Redwoods. We stopped at an overlook to enjoy the view and were interrupted by a biplane coming right at us. A tourism pilot thought it would be funny to scare the people on the overlook by coming in a little too close. We were very close to ducking out of the way before the pilot pulled up and turned to head further up the coast. Despite the scare, the view was amazing overlooking rocks covered in Cormorants and seals, as well as a beautiful lighthouse.
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Our first non-rainy view of the Oregon coastline!
There's the biplane that almost hit us!
A storm was rolling in over the water all day as we traveled up the coastline. By the time we got in to Yachats and found our campsite, it was raining. At this point in the trip we had camped 14 different nights and had been on the road for 37 days, and it was our first encounter with rain! Despite the dreary weather, we made the best of our evening with brats for dinner and s-mores with some Ghiradelli chocolate from San Francisco. With the sound of the rain and a small creek next to our tents, we had a great night's sleep! |
For the afternoon and evening, we ventured into Crescent City for some ocean views and food!! We walked down the jetty, and then had dinner at a small hole-in-the-wall seafood place for a view of the setting sun. The food was amazing, and the Parmesan Halibut that Nate and Beth both had was their favorite meal yet! On our way out of the restaurant we noticed that Frommers, the famous travel company, had rated it one of the best places to eat in the area! We lucked out!
On our way out of town, we took a detour through one of the Redwood scenic drives. It was a one way road on Hill Road that took us through some of the protected Old Growth Forest. We marveled at the height of the Giant Redwoods. Although we saw the Giant Sequoias only a week before, we were still amazed. The Redwoods stand an average of 100 feet higher than the Sequoias up to 370 feet tall. They are also only found along the Northern Pacific Coast. Compared to the Sequoia grove in Yosemite that did not have any ground cover due to a recent fire, the Redwood forest was covered in ferns and other greenery (think sparkling Edward running through the woods in Twilight).
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