Week 10    BLOG

Monday July 7, 2014

Non-Travel Day

 

This morning we headed north on US Rt . 101 and the city of “Crescent City” and the “Redwood National and State Parks”, where our first stop was at the park headquarters and visitors center. After getting some great suggestions from the ranger we headed for the “Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park” and Holland Hill Road, this is a road cut thru the Coastal Redwood forest, but not in a straight line, this road twisted and turned around the trees, according to the ranger no large trees were removed in the construction of the road. It is a one lane dirt road with numerous pull offs to allow for oncoming traffic to pass, the road also has a 15 MPH speed limit, but most of the time we were only going 5 – 10 MPH, or were stopped admiring the trees. These Coastal Redwood trees are huge, some growing to 370 feet tall, up to 22 feet in diameter, living more than 2,000 years, weighing up to 1,200 tons but with a cone size the size of an olive; in comparison the Giant Sequoia while larger in diameter and weight it does not grow to the height of the Coastal Redwood . The drive through the forest was breathtaking, but did not compare to our walk the “Stout Grove” where we could
walk right up to and touch the trees, words such as huge, gigantic or enormous do not begin to describe the size and majesty of these trees; and when you have a whole forest of them it is truly a sight you must see to believe. After leaving the grove we continued along the dirt road until we reached US Hwy 199, where we turned west and found Walker Road, another scenic drive through the redwoods, again on a single lane dirt road. When we came to a fork in the
road Valerie suggested we go to the right, so we did, only the road dead ended at the river and we were forced to turn around. Returning to the fork in the road we then took the left fork, but this road was no better as it narrowed down to the point where the bushes on both sides of the road were scrapping the truck, and it also dead ended at the river. At this point we decided that we have had enough of dirt roads for today and after a drive down by the beach and past the light house we returned to Crescent City for an early dinner and some food shopping, as neither is available in the town where we are staying . After unloading the groceries at the camper we drove to a nearby overlook above the point where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean, it was a beautiful view when the low
lying clouds that blanketed the coast parted and allowed us a view of the ocean below. The beautiful part about this was that here we were standing on the cliff only 200 feet above the sea, but were actually above the cloud bank, we could look across the top of the clouds and
up at the sun; and every once in a while the clouds would blow over us and envelope us in a light fog; it was a strange feeling. We were hoping to see some whales, as there are some in the area, and to also see a sunset over the ocean; but the weather did not cooperate.