A Walk in the Rhododendrons, well, kind of...

Well...what a hiking day we had! Sunny skies were all around us as we woke this morning, a surprise for this part of the coast.  The manager at the park here said they'd had fog for a week straight, so sun was fun to see!

We did our usual slow start to the morning  but before leaving for a day trip along the coast we wanted to check out the very cool chicken coop near us.  Isn't this the best?  Guess if PK designed one for us we could pull it along behind us and have our own fresh eggs every day. Too fun!

From our campground we went toward the overlook of Klamath River.

Then up a very narrow gravel road to see some great sights. Our first stop was what the park host had called "The Farm that Wasn't", a very real looking cinderblock farm house with shingled roof and gabled windows that actually housed a radar and gun location during WWII.  When we walked down the path we could see that it was under renovation with new wood shingled roof.


 We drove further hugging the cliff, kinda like driving Highway 1 except on gravel not paved road. The views were spectacular and the air crisp. Too funny that we actually had a little bit of cell power along this stretch, so we call Burt and Diane to see how they're doing with their move.




A little further down the road we came to another turn in the road for The Bluff Overlook with more gorgeous views down the coast, very rough and rocky.

Back to the main highway we had this look across the Klamath River, set with 2 large bears on each side.  This is the place where a bridge once spanned the wide river until the floods here in Dec. 1964.  The power of the redwood trees surging down the river was too much pressure for the bridge to withstand and so it collapsed and was washed away as was the town of Klamath. Today it was peaceful and very calm, hard to picture a raging torrent that had once hit here.

Our road trip took us further south to the scenic alternate route on the Prairie Creek Parkway.  A slow, forested ride, again with very little traffic.  Beautiful! We picked a spot for our lunch under a grove of trees, then once refreshed, stopped for a hike in the redwoods.  The trail we chose was called the Rhododendron Trail, of course! I knew it was out of season for the flowers to be seen but still wanted to see the plants. Well, after a 3 hour hike through some of the most beautiful undisturbed forests we have ever seen, there  very few rhodies but so many incredible trees.  The hike was an uphill of switchbacks for a mile then over and under several fallen giants before heading back in a slow 2 mile route.

We met 3 groups of similar hikers along the way.  One a family from Portland who were traveling with their 2 sons and gave us tips for routes in the Cascades of Oregon not to miss.  Next we came upon a single hiker thinking he was on a hike that would lead to the beach, NOT! He decided to go back the way he had come so he would find where he had left his car.  And lastly a very sweet young couple from SF who shared their salmon jerky with us as we visited.

As we walked, it was fun to actually see the delicate white flower of the Redwood Sorrel (which I had always thought was some kind of clover).

And...3 Banana Slugs!!!! A first for me! (other than the band called The Banana Slugs from Santa Cruz that used to come and perform for the kids at school. )

After the hike we  continued further down to the Information Center at Prairie Creek where you are able to view the Elk herd, if they are there...but not for us.

By now it was 5:00 and we were looking for a grocery store, the nearest one being 8  mi south to the little town of Orick. Well, that turned out to be a great plan!!!! As we came around one corner tons of cars were pulled to the side because a herd of 30-40  Elk were crossing the road.


We pulled into a nearby parking area and the herd came right in front of us!!!! Several large antlered males, the rest much younger. So incredible, we just sat there and watched them nibble on the grasses.

So, onto Orick we went, got our groceries and turned back north.  There was a turn off to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Grove of redwoods and we couldn't pass that up, so turn we did! The grove was dedicated to her in 1969 for her continued support for preservation of our natural resources.  The walk was only a mile long and so beautiful once again with an interpretive guide book provided. So glad we stopped because we saw enormous rhododendrons all along the trail! Some probably 10 feet tall. They must be amazing to see in bloom! We were surprised that when we left at 6:30 the weather was still warm and others were still walking the trail,  though the fog was circling. On our walk we saw this beautiful snail. I know I usually don't call snails beautiful but this one was so large and colorful.

Finally got back to our campsite and Foster about 7:00. What a wonderful day...for a walk in the woods!