Glorious California Scenery

Paul and I have talked and talked about wanting to do a vacation driving the coast highway in California.  When the kids were at home, we knew it would just drive all of us crazy.  This year we decided to do what we could on a $500 budget in 5 days.  We didn't drive the whole coast, but we got from Crescent City (very close to the Oregon border) down to Fort Bragg.  We'll just have to get the rest later.  We were perfectly satisfied with what we did get to see.  We left the day after school got out, May 23rd and got home on the 28th.  All told we did 2,709 miles and loved every minute of it!

• Wednesday - St. George to Enterprise, Panaca, Ely Eureka, Sparks, Portola, Quincy, Paxton, wrong turn to Belden and down that road a little more.  Then we figured out we goofed and headed back up.   When it got pretty late, we found a great, illegal camp spot in a park.  It was dark and when one car drove by, we quickly shut off our lantern.  It was a great spot and they had just serviced the port-a-potty that day so that was nice.  Had a great night and quickly put the tent away before breakfast!  Sorry, we were just too tired to keep on going.  We saw some cool stuff that day and listened to a great cd - John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley - In Search of America.  We decided that the wrong turn actually was great.  It went down a beautiful canyon alongside a gorgeous river.  We were not sorry and we were glad to drive back up it the next day to see the part that we had missed in the dark!  Nevada can be a little tiresome, but there are a few pretty things to see on that route.  We did see Wheeler Peak.  It just kind of pales next to the awesome California scenery. 

That's our camp spot at top right - doesn't it look like a good place to camp?

•  Thursday - After getting back up the canyon we decided to try and hit Lassen Volcanic National Park - oops again - got to the turn off and found the road closed due to snow. No problem.  Went around it via Westwood and on up 89 to McCloud, Mt. Shasta, Weed, Yreka to Hornbrook, across to Happy Camp where we hoped to take the road across to Obrien.  We had been told that it was open...not!  So we re-routed down to McKinleyville and went up the coast instead of down as we had planned.  Still not a problem.  So much beautiful stuff to see we didn't even care.  We got to Trinidad and finally the ocean.  We walked on the beach a couple of places there where we saw a sick seal (someone came from the Marine Center to check on it thank goodness) and a memorial lighthouse and then found a sweet, legal camp spot at Emerald Forest.  It was in the middle of a redwood and fern forest and even had private shower facilities.  We got dinner ready and ate it in the tent due to rain which continued in the night, but we slept great!

En route to Trinidad - L to R - Sasquach, Paul Bunyan and Babe, lunch spot by a lake, Mt. Shasta, Paul under the rainbow, Bonnie, sick seal and Paul.

Beach scenery at Trinidad

 Trindad's public library, our camp spot at Emerald Forest, cute store and so pretty flower trees.  Trinidad is a really cute little town.

• Friday - We packed up camp and breakfasted in the car (light rain) above the beach and did some hiking to see another beach.  After that we headed up the coast and did a cool hike to a place called Fern Canyon - amazing place.  We saw an elk along the way.  Usually there are lots of them there and along the nearby beach, but they were off calving, so we were glad to see the one bull.  Then we headed on up the coast visiting Redwood groves all along the way and made it to Crescent City where we hiked out to see a light house.  We also went to see another one, St. George lighthouse, but it was way out on an island and we could just barely see it.  Then it was back to Emerald Forest for another night of camping.

These trees are really hard to take a pictures of - they are so gigantic!  We visited Big Tree and then saw one even bigger just down the road - its the one Paul is standing by.

Sites around Crescent City - Look behind the mermaid and you can see the lighthouse.  There is another lighthouse (depicted below in mosaic) about 6 miles out - St. George Lighthouse.  It was just barely visible in the mist, but couldn't get a real picture of it.  The harbor in Crecent City was really wiped out just a little over a year ago in a Tsunami.  It's in good shape again.  I liked the driftwood sea serpent and driftwood gate.

• Saturday - We drove on down the coast through some fun little towns - Loleta and Ferndale.  Loleta wasn't much to look at, but they did have a cheese factory  - we enjoyed their samples.  Ferndale is the cutest town - all Victorian themed.  We loved the houses and the old time mercantile and blacksmith shop.  The graveyard is amazing too.  We spent the morning here, ate lunch and then drove on down the coast along the Lost Coast highway stopping at beaches, driving through redwood groves, visiting Shelter Cove and finally arriving very late at Westport where we opted to stay in a motel so we could clean up for Sunday church.

Loved the road signs - so realistic!  This area is very dairy.  Also loved the handmade sign of the mad butcher in the Loleta meat market window.  Also pictured - the cemetery and the old time mercantile. 

We had this narrow winding road along the Lost Coast almost all to ourselves.  We stopped and beach combed and found a plaque about a lighthouse.  We couldn't figure out where the lighthouse was.  Then later at Shelter Cove we found it - they had moved it via helicopter to save it from toppling into the sea when it was no longer in use (see pictures below).  One picture shows Paul standing by a Maypole that had been intricately woven with ribbons - strange but pretty. 

The lighthouse found & black pebble beach.

 Drove through this tree and went inside the House Tree on the way to Westport.

• Sunday we made it to church in the little Westport Ward.  It was a small, but very nice ward.  I think there were more visitors than regulars there that day.  Lots of people were in town for Memorial Day.  After church we went to MacKerricher State Park, changed clothes in a bathroom and walked out to see the seals. They had it roped off since they were having their babies so we couldn't get too close.  Then we had our lunch at a pullout overlooking the beach and reluctantly headed inland to start the trip home.  We saw more amazing scenery and stopped for camp earlier than usual - dinner before dark for a change.  This time we camped under Sequoia trees.  There were some other pine trees there that had huge pine cones.  Need to find out what kind.  It was a very nice camp except for a group of kids that thought they were some kind of a choir complete with a bongo drum player (lots of beer involved).  But they quieted down at 10.  They probably didn't appreciate us getting up at 5 am California time and packing up! 

 Glass Beach - a former (1950-67) city dump, was bought by the state as an addition to MacKerricher State Park in 2003.   They hauled away large metal objects and other trash, but bottle glass was left behind.  Rounded by the surf (some ground as fine as sand) the glass pieces paint the beach in strange colors.  We saw some old car parts - spark plugs, electrical motor winding wire, cables - which were embedded in the rocks.  It was very interesting. 

•  Monday morning, after a little walk and breakfast, we headed home via Truckee, Donner Pass, Lake Tahoe and finally Las Vegas.  It was a great trip.  Yes, we took some detours, but we had decided to stay on the back roads and along the coast road as much as possible so we didn't want the GPS telling us the fastest route.  We really didn't encounter much traffic or many people except on Sunday.  We did long days - up at 6 and in bed around 11 to try to get all we could our of the time we had.  We didn't eat out once - just out of the ice chest getting dry ice along the way and picking up a few groceries as we needed them.  Only regret - we had hoped to camp one night on the beach, but the night we could have it was so windy that we didn't think our tent would stay up, so we did the sheltered camp among the trees instead.  Can't wait to continue down the coast! 

Last campsite, Donner Pass drive by shot, Emerald Bay Lake Tahoe, last of the mountains, back to the desert.