11/1
At long last, arrived in the great state of California. Our first stop was the Redwood National Forest, located in the north west corner of the state.
We did one night of cabin camping in Crescent City, which had great proximity to the Jedediah Smith State Park. We drove the Howland Hill scenic drive which lead us to Stout Grove, a short but spectacular walk through the Redwoods. These are some seriously old trees, and this is the only area that they grow. The tallest of them grow to reach over 300 feet. These guys are so tough, they can with-stand forest fires! By the end of our walk, our necks were sore from staring up into the canopy.
there is another tree growing off of the redwood... see the roots?
on our way to Prairie Creek we stopped off at a cute little beach off of Hwy 1
we found some sand dollars
the water was cold!!
wanted to get them clean...
saw these guys on a bridge
From there we went south and camped at Prairie Creek Redwoods. The first morning it was pretty dreary so we went on a few drives through the forest areas, and were treated to a huge elk sighting.
our campsite
chopping some wood
cooking some onions for our spagetti sauce
dinner time!
our awesome tent!
HUGE elk!!
some cool trees that were at our campground!
In the afternoon, the rain stopped long enough for us to take a nice walk through the Cathedral Trees Trail. Here we saw “Big Tree” (300+ feet tall, over 20 feet in diameter, and 1500 years old). The following day was much more pleasant and dry, so after packing up camp we went over to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove of Redwood trees.
this tree was burnt in a forest fire, but is still alive!
big guys!
the ferns were over 4 ft tall!
another burnt one
the bark is so cool looking!
this one was burnt through, and is still alive!
more burns..
The loop trail is designed to be a self guided nature tour that had lots of interesting Redwood facts spaced throughout the trail. From there we went down to the Humboldt Redwood State Park, where the main attraction is a 32 mile drive through the Avenue of the Giants.
After getting our fill of the Redwoods we cruised back up to Eureka, a funky coastal town. We spent the night at Abigail’s Elegant Victorian Mansion. Built in 1888, the current decor still holds to the victorian style of an earlier period. After 3 days of camp cooking, we were ready for a good meal out on the town. We headed down to the water front area, known as Old Town, and headed for the Sea Grill. Their specialties were salad bar and seafood, and we dove into both! Waking up well fed and well rested, we prepared to head east onto our next stop, a possibly snowy Lassen Volcanic National Park.
