From the Humboldt Redwoods to the Klamath River

Monday night by the camp fire!!! Not singing songs tonight just relaxing and writing this Blog.  We are here along the Klamath River in a perfect campsite at Kamp Klamath RV Park, another great find using our Passport America 50% discount. I asked for the prettiest site that also has wifi and here we are...surrounded by trees, and totally private with a huge area around us. We only drove 125 miles today but it seemed to take us most of the day, as we do go slowly.  This is an area we've only passed through on travels before but this time we want to stay a few days and see some of the coast and sights along here. We were lucky to have blue skies when we got here and slowly the fog has come back in. But  we've noticed there are NO mosquitoes here!!! YES!

But, back to the weekend first.  We decided to take a walk in the Founder's Grove last Saturday morning. We came across one redwood that had fallen in March 1999, the Dyerville Giant. A park neighbor who lives a mile away, reported hearing a large crash and thought it was a train wreck.  A tree 50 feet away had mud splattered 15 feet up its trunk from the impact of the Giant hitting the ground! Before it fell it was 362 feet tall, 2 feet taller than Niagara Falls and probably weighed over 1,000,000 pounds! it is amazing to stand near the exposed roots and try to understand the size of these amazing trees.

 The walk through the grove was beautiful.

 From there our plan was to hike the trail at the Roosevelt Grove with some of the largest remaining redwoods,  but as we drove out that way the day was so warm and lovely with the top down on the car we changed the plan and decided to take the "Scenic Route" I had read about in one of my travel guides.  According to the guide the drive is about 65 miles long and would take only 2 hours. Along the way we would come to a small dwelling called Honeydew...sounded like a perfect little drive. Well, after 4 hours of the twistiest up and down hill roads we've ever been on

we finally saw the welcomed sight of civilization once again in the little town of Ferndale with its charming Victorian architecture.

The road is also called The Wildcat Ridge by locals and they sure know how to drive it!!! They would pass us in their huge pick up trucks like we were standing still and down the continuing curves they'd go! Every time I thought we'd gotten to the top of the last hill, down we would go with another bigger climb ahead of us. We both began to watch the gas gage as we climbed higher and higher with nothing in view but trees. 

But along the way we saw such beautiful country side, passing the little town of Petrolia where the state's first commercial oil wells drilled in 1865. On through orchards, redwood groves, the Lost Coast of  Humboldt and even Cape Mendocino, site of many shipwrecks and one of the continent's most active earthquake zones. We drove for 5 miles beside this windy beach that rose 4 feet during the April 1992 earthquake, giving the appearance of perpetual low tide.

So glad we did the drive but it is definitely a one time trip for me. I added our notes and date in the guide book and then turned the page. And...very glad we never contemplated doing that scenic drive in the motorhome!!!! Another RV learning lesson...scenic drives in car only! We took in a Ranger Campfire Sat evening, which always makes summer camping fun.  The one camper who had traveled the farthest was from Hannover, Germany...how about that, Friederike! And when we saw him the next morning he was traveling the coast on bicycle.

Sunday we took it easier and decided to stay out of the car if we could.  So instead we rode the bikes up the Avenue of the Giants, something I've always wanted to do.  There is so little traffic on the road making easy for us novice bike riders to enjoy it. We stopped and picked a basket full of berries again for pie #2!

That afternoon we hauled the kayaks down to the river for another couple of hours. (Actually, Paul carried the two large bags that hold the kayaks, I only carried the 2 chairs.)  The kayaks are inflatable and really quite easy to put together once we got to the river, just pump up with a hand pump and they're all ready to go, once in the water they are strong and very sturdy. Everything is stored in a carrying bag and it all folds down to such a small size. The best part is that both the bags fit in the truck of the car. I think I'm getting the hang of kayaking...Paul's so patient with my limited skills. He'd love to be riding down some rapids somewhere rather than paddling around in calm ponds of water.

Since I couldn't get my photos to load last night it's now sunny Tuesday morning. How nice to wake up to clear skies. We're planning on a drive down the road to view the Elk , the largest herd in the world I was told. A must do for me as I am now an Elk myself!!!