And The ADVENTURE Continues...

July 29, 2015 Travel day to Griffin Park, Grants Pass, Oregon

Monday, July 29, 2015 Travel day to Griffin Park, Grants Pass Oregon

As planned we left at 6am with me in front of the motor home with flashers on. It was just getting to be light outside but we wanted to get through the 5 miles that would bring us to the main highway before anyone was coming into the campground. I tried to get a picture of the coach coming through the narrowest part of the trees but I didn’t have enough light. But the pictures that show how close the mirrors were to each side came out. We made it out about 4 miles before we ran into another vehicle so the tightest part was behind us. Thank Goodness. Anyone reading this do not take your rig to Albee Creek in the Redwoods State Park. Mike has had a lot of experience driving tractor trailer and he knows our coach very well to come through the trees without a scratch.

As we traveled up the coastline the terrain was beautiful. It just amazes me how beautiful this Pacific Coast has been. I can honestly say that I have taken over 4500 pictures. We traveled in and out of the fog most of the morning. I saw a few places along the way that I would have liked to stop at but we had an appointment to get to. I did however make Mike stop when I saw a herd of elk just lying around in a field. The mountain roads were good. There were a few narrow places that had me clenching my seat and taking my breath away all at the same time but the mountains, trees and river were exquisite.

We arrived at the tire shop and were in and out within the hour and we arrived at Griffin Park in Grants Pass, Oregon at around 2. I did some much needed cleaning as we were dry camping the whole time that we were in the Redwoods. Mike was proud of how well everything worked. The new solar panels did exactly what they were supposed to do. Amy and I sat around the camp as the boys explored the waters as tomorrow they were going fishing. Hopefully we may be eating fresh fish for dinner.

Passenger side

Drivers side

Redwood Lagoon

Herd of elk

close up shot

Paul Bunyon and Blue

This took my breath away

Another shot

Look how clear the water is

June 28, 2015 Anniversary, Redwoods and an adventure to Shelter Cove

Sunday , June 28, 2015

Today is our 24^th wedding anniversary and we really don’t have anything planned. We are just going to be spontaneous today. It was our turn to drive thru the Redwoods to pick up Jeff and Amy. We are going to make a few stops along the way. Our first stop was to show the car going through a tight spot coming out of our campground. which is in the post before this one. I will take another picture with the motor home coming through it tomorrow morning. We stopped to see the Founder’s Tree which is 346.1 feet high, circumference is 40 feet. This tree was dedicated in September 1931 to the Founders of the Save the Redwood League. Next on this .6 mile loop we saw the Dyerville Giant. Unfortunately it was no longer standing but its root system was impressive. Before it fell in 1991 it was at least 362 feet, which is taller than the Statue of Liberty. It is 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference and probably weighs over a million pounds. Imagine hearing that fall must of felt like an earthquake. The reason this tree may have fallen is that they had a lot of rain so the ground was saturated and another tree had fallen and hit this one. They do not have very strong root systems. For being so big their root system only goes down 8-12 feet.

We then stopped off at the Visitor Center. It was shortly before 11am and this place was already packed. This was one of the best centers we have been in. There were so many things to see that we could have spent a couple of hours or more watching films and just going through all of the history that they have in this little building. The most impressive part to me was the travel log made by Charles Kellogg. It is a Redwood Motor Home and it weighs 6 tons. It is all one piece of redwood and the estimate the age of this wood to be about 4000 years old. It has water, electricity, living room, kitchen, toilet and bedroom. I estimated to be about 20’ long. I think it was a great work of art. We also learned that there are 3 kinds of Redwoods. Two are here in United States and one is in China. We have the Coast Redwoods in Southern Oregon and Central California, Giant Sequoias in the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Dawn Redwoods in China.

We picked up Jeff and Amy and we wanted to stop off at the recycling place to get rid of all of the plastic and aluminum cans that we have been collecting. As we were waiting for the boys to get back I was looking at some brochures that we had picked up along the way and noticed a place about 28 miles away called Shelter Cove that had black sand beach. Amy and I were very interested and the boys agreed that we should go. Well we were back on mountain roads again. I am finding that these roads are not my favorite even though they give us such beautiful scenery. As we reached that top of the mountain and we were descending down towards the water the view was absolutely breathtaking. Pictures will not do this justice! As we arrived at the beach the sand was definitely dark grey to black.

The color of the sand is a result of the shale cliffs that have eroded along the beach. This is one of the few black sand beaches in the world. What a gem we found today and a GREAT anniversary present. We all agreed that this was a very worthwhile unplanned adventure.

Our last stop of the day was to drive through a Redwood tree. Can’t come to the Redwoods and not do that. As we found out our vehicle is too big to go through the tree so we stopped off and got the Bohrer’s compact vehicle. We drove through the tree that was called the Shrine Tree. There are only 3 trees that you can drive through but this was the closest to us. I would have loved to see the other 2 but maybe another time.

Our wonderful day was over. We said our goodbyes as we planned on leaving early tomorrow because we are going to get some new tires for the front of the coach and then meet up with Jeff and Amy in Grant’s Pass, Oregon. Woo Hoo another new state around the corner.

Me in front of Founders Tree

Hole in tree

Mike in hole- Didn't look that tall

Root system

Dyerville Giant

Dyerville's root system

Dyerville's offspring

Water got to the top of this pole in the Flood of 1964

Redwood Motorhome

Left to right- Pine cones from Coastal Redwoods, Sequoia and Dawn Redwood

First look at the ocean at Shelter Cove

Black Sand Beach

The mountains, the ocean and the beach

Pretty rocks

The sand are really tiny rocks

Mike and I looking for pretty rocks

Drive thru tree

Us going through the tree

Tree Houses made out of redwoods of course

June 27, 2015 Day trip into the Redwoods and various towns

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Jeff and Amy came to pick us up at noon to start our day of seeing these massive trees.

Big Tree Area we saw the Tall Tree. In 1957 it measured 359.3 feet. Next tree the Giant tree in 1991 reached a height of 363 feet. Its circumference was 53.2 feet and had a crown of 62 feet. The last tree in this area was the Flat Iron Tree was down and measured 17.5 feet long and 7.5 feet wide.

Immortal Tree was between Pepperwood and Redcrest. This tree is estimated to be between 950-1000 years old. It has survived lightning that removed its top, loggers axe, a forest fire in 1908 and the flood of 1964 where the water of Eel River rose 35 feet.

Eternal Tree House in Redcrest is over 2500 years old. It is a 20 foot room carved out of the base of the tree. The original trunk is gone but it is the parents of the surrounding trees. Back in time, Indians , trappers, hunters, travelers and even livestock have used it as shelter.

We stopped in a darling town of Ferndale. It had a lot of Victorian houses and I even took a picture of a wedding party getting a group shot in the middle of an intersection on Main Street.

Next stop was Eureka. As we were driving around we saw this large Victorian home. It belonged to William Carson. He built this house in 1885 to keep his mill workers employed through slow times. It contains rare woods from around the world. It is now Ingomar Inn and it is a PRIVATE club. Across the street was a beautiful Victorian house for sale that I would love to have. It was even painted one of my favorite colors---Pink!

As we were driving back to our campsite Jeff had mentioned earlier that he wanted to drive his Honda down on the dried up river beds. Well we saw a road that led down to the river and away we went. Well we made it and he got to put his feet into the water. It even had a name of Dyerville Bar. Guess it is pretty popular and it was fun. Don’t get to do this much anymore.

Tall Tree

Amy & Jeff in front of the Tall tree

Flat Iron Tree

Giant Tree

Wedding picture in the street

Ingomar Inn or former home of William Carson

Pink Victorian House

Immortal Tree

Another pic of the Immortal Tree

Large Indian carving in Redwood

Amy in front of Tree House

Eternal Tree House

Bridge and Eel River

Us on the riverbed

June 26, 2015 Travel day- Redwoods at Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Friday, June 26, 2015-Travel day to Humboldt Redwoods State Park

As planned we pulled out of the campground at 6am. Traffic was pretty light but as we approached San Francisco the traffic lights slowed us down not the traffic. As we got up on the bridge we could barely see the vehicles in front of us. The fog was that thick but as we got to the other side the sun was seen and the fog was behind us. As we continued traveling north on US 101 the terrain started to change. We started to see river beds with some water still flowing in them. We were seeing bigger and greener trees and after 3 or 4 hours we really started to see the redwoods trees.

Jeff and Amy are at different campground in the park than we are. They were at Hidden Springs at the south end of the park. So they turned off as we continued up the road for another 10 miles. We will meet up with them around noon tomorrow. This is where it gets very interesting. We missed our turn by about 5 miles and Mike had to do a u turn in the middle of town. Not a big town and we did disconnect the car. With me leading the way we found the correct turnoff and at the beginning of this turn off was a sign stating “Motor Homes And Trailers Not Advised”. Well….we had reservations so we continued. I was in front with my flashers on and Mike driving VERY CAREFULLY and I mean very carefully. I am going to let Mike write the next paragraph as it was a pretty a nerve wracking 5 mile ride to the campground.

It was really, really tight. The road is curvy and in some spots not enough room for 2 cars to pass without one of them pulling off the road. Add the extra width of the motorhome and it is really tight. The worst area is where the big redwoods are right at the edge of the road across from each other and the worst of all is where these two trees are so close that there is only about 6 inches of space from the trees to either side of the roof. It was made worse by blind curves and cars meeting me there. But Pat did a great job of guiding me through and warning me of the oncoming traffic. Now I just have to make it out of here on Monday morning.