Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Another glorious day with temps in the mid 20's with cloudless blue skies.
We set off after breakfast on a four and a half hour drive down the last of the Oregon coast to Fortuna, California. It took us just under ten hours lol
Every time we thought we'd seen the ultimate in ocean views, the best beach or the most awesome rocky outcrop we'd come round a bend and there before us would be another amazing vista.
We stopped for lunch at a scenic lookout for a rock arch and made another friend. A gorgeous squirrel with an almost ethereal tail kept scampering around our feet, occasionally hopping up on our table when he thought we weren't looking. He was so cute :-) a bluejay was in the tree above us and they competed for our attention and potentially, for any crumbs we left.
Not far along the coast we went down to the beach and played in the incoming tide for a time, it was great to get our feet in the sand :-)
At another beach we watched a cormorant fishing and then standing on the sand, wings extended to dry. A little further along a flock of seagulls were using a smallish tidal pool as a bathing place.
We crossed into California and the beaches changed, the rocky outcrops thinned out and the beaches, although far easier to access, almost lacked the character of the Oregon coastline. There were far more people on the beaches too probably due to the easier access.
We got to Crescent City at the start of the Redwood trail and stopped in at a ranger station to get some maps. The ranger there gave us a tip, take exit 765. We were hardly into the redwood forest before the trees were there, massive, so tall and very straight. These coastal redwoods grow for 2000 plus years and get to as much as 115M and 8M around. Some were dead, hollowed out but still majestic. We took turns taking pics of each other inside one of the bigger hollow ones but when I went in there was a huge centipede, very creepy!
We headed along some trails in the cool forest totally in awe of the trees. There's not too many things that make Pete look small but those trees totally dwarfed even him. As we drove a few elk grazed beside the road, not the least bit interested in us :-)
We took some pics of us standing int he middle of the road, giant redwoods on both sides of us.
The detour suggested by the ranger was well worth it taking us ultimately to the Big Tree 92.6M tall, 20M around. It was well, if less than imaginatively, named.
Out of the forest and we were once more in sunshine with frequent glimpses of beach. A number of the beaches had a fresh water lake or river between us and the ocean. There were a number of herds of elk grazing by the road, one was mainly females with this years babies, cute :-)
Out of the tree and through some small towns we headed down to Fortuna and checked in for the night.
- comments