Without a family to visit on Thanksgiving, Rose and I decided to make the most of the 4 day holiday and head up into northern California to go and hunt down some redwood trees. We were not disappointed.
We jumped onto highway 101 to get some ground covered, skipping the local sights of Tomales bay and Point Reyes – close enough for a weekend trip later. Turned left at Petaluma to head to the coast and the famous California highway 1, joining the sea at Bodega bay, which happens to be the furthest north our current boat insurance covers us for – and we’ll definitely be heading up here again by sea! The whole coast road is amazing. Stop at any pull-over and find your way down to a deserted, wild beach.
We spent a couple of days winding our way up the coast, through Mendocino and Fort Bragg, stopping briefly to see the vastly overrated “glass beach” – supposedly one of the sights to see along the highway where local glass factories used to dump used glass, washed by the waves and sand into millions of shining glass gems … not much more than a tired old beach with too many people and not much glass if you ask me. So, back on the road to get some more miles in.
Some way north of Westport, route 1 turns inland to avoid the King range of mountains – deemed too difficult and expensive to build a road through. The 50 mile stretch of coast from here north to where the road comes back to the sea at Eureka is called the “Lost Coast” – an evocative name for one of the wildest stretches of coast in the USA. I really want to come back and hike it over a few days some time. As soon as the road turns inland, the moisture levels rise, you start climbing into the hills and bigger trees start to line the road. No giants yet, though…
After an obligatory tourist stop at the drive-through tree (which we couldn’t, as the van is too tall), we got back onto the busier 101 to make our way up towards Eureka. There had been hardly any other cars on route 1, and it felt like we’d been in a different world, even if only for a few hours. Not far down the highway we saw a tempting sign for “Avenue of The Giants” which took us off on a quiet side road for 32 miles through Humboldt Redwoods State park … and here we found the most incredible trees I have ever seen. They are HUGE. Photos just don’t do them any justice.
We drove gently through here in the late afternoon light, and then motored on to find a camp site for the night just south of Orick. Next day was a 5-mile hike over the hills through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to the coast and Fern Canyon. Being amongst the trees on foot for hours on end was truly mesmerising.
We found a sweet camp site on the coast, and headed back inland to pick up the van and drive around to a spot called Gold Bluffs campground just as the sun was going down and the evening chill was setting in. It’s definitely the middle of winter. Got a fire going, met a lass that had driven 7 hours down from Bend in Orgeon to meet her bloke who was driving 7 hours up from San Francisco for the weekend, had some beers, bread and crisps for supper, then to bed.
An early dawn start the next morning, through a magical clearing in the trees with Elk grazing peacefully in the morning mist … and then the long drive home to spend the afternoon working on the van to get all the plywood cut up and a bed put in.
Road and Ocean 