We left Redding in the morning when it was about 60°. This was the high point on the thermometer for the day. We went west on Route 299 toward Arcata and Eureka on the northern California coast. It was only about 120 miles but it was the worst road we’ve traveled in the RV. We climbed out of Redding and into the Trinity Alps. This north-south mountain chain is probably part of the Cascade Mountains. We started at about 500 feet altitude climbing to 3000 feet, dropped back down to 1800 feet, climbed to 3500 feet, dropped back down to 1800 feet. Then we climbed the coastal mountain range before coming down to sea level at Arcata. Twice we came to warning signs saying 7% downgrade next 7 miles. Not the type of road Mike likes to take the RV on.
In addition to climbing at least three ridges, we followed the Trinity River through the Trinity Alps. This river flows west toward the Coast Range and has cut its way through sandstone mountains. The route twists and turns along the bank of the river through a narrow gulch. It’s really just wide enough for the river but a road has been cut into one side and then the other side, right out of the side of the mountains. The river is full of rock like the White River but the narrow valley reminds me of the Black River between Downers Corners and Proctorsville in Vermont. Sometimes, we climbed high above the river but still followed the twists and turns the valley. It was beautiful but sometimes a little scary with its precipitous drops.
As soon as we arrived in Arcata, Mike and Peggy took me to Trinidad. A little town set in a pretty little cove. I saw something unique there. It was a trolley car connected to a winch that used gravity to back down a railed incline into the ocean. A boat would move over the trolley car, the driver would grab onto a pole sticking up out of the water from the trolley car, and the winch would pull the car up the incline. As the car came out of the water, the boat would settle on it. At the top of the incline, an overhead electric hoist would lift the boat off the trolley moving it sidewards and settle it on its trailer which had been parked there. Truly a unique way to get a fishing boat out of water.
As soon as we arrived in this coastal area, I started seeing these tall cattail-like waving fronds. I finally asked a lady in Trinidad who identified this as Pampas grass. I don’t know what it looks like in other seasons about they are very attractive in the wild in this season.
Yesterday another first. Redwoods! We went north along Route 101 toward Crescent City. We traveled through a couple of state Redwood forests and the national Redwood Forest. Photographs simply do not capture what I saw. I knew they were large. I knew they were tall. But somehow that knowledge meant nothing. Poor Mike. He had to stop the car every 20 feet because I wanted to take another photo. I took over a hundred of them but I am really not satisfied with them. Size. I took this pic of Peggy and Mike inside a tree but…
Height. No pic does it. Check of the pics out here.
A couple of detours off on a one brought us wonderful views of the Pacific, which drove with boulders which signs explained are being scraped off the bottom of the ocean as the Pacific plate slides under the North American plate. Makes for a beautiful coastline. While on a detour, we came upon the mouth of the Klamath River. We had seen the Klamath Lake and Klamath Falls in Oregon and now we saw the end of the river. It may have been low tide, but what we saw was a sandbar with the river following an “S” curve through it. One side of the sandbar was the river and the other side was the breaking surf. I just loved all the people on the sandbar.
We spent another day in the redwoods are wrote called Avenue of the Giants. Awesome! I cannot get enough of these trees. Of the feeling evoked when walking in a grove is like that in a cathedral. It's awe inspiring. I love to just stand in the Grove and slowly turn a 360° circle. Giants every where you look. Sometimes they're even more awe inspiring when they are laying down. A diameter is unbelievable and the length, beyond imagination.
At the visitor center I found out there are three types of redwoods. The smallest is called the Dawn Redwood.it has fine needles which make me think of baby ferns. The one I've seen most of its call the Coast Redwood. It grows from about the California border down a hundred to a hundred and 50 miles along the coast. The third kind is the Giant Sequoia. We plan to go to the Sequoia national Park just south of Yosemite soon. These pics try to show the differences in the leaves. To the right is Dawn, below is Coast and to it's right is Sequoia.
On the way back, we stopped at a couple of the coastal towns to take some pictures of Victorian homes. These towns along the north coast of California must have had their heyday in the Victorian era since they have so much of that architecture. There is a famous mansion in Eureka which has it all. I'm sure you'll agree.
The last thing I want to talk about today is the barn architecture near Arcata California.There is something unique about this design, at least to my knowledge. barn has a raid in central portion where a hay loft door opens just under the eaves for the old hayforks which were used to lift loose hay in the days before bales. and the two sides come up to the side walls of that raised section. Nowhere have I seen this except in Arcata. Could we call these craftsmen barns like we have craftsman houses?
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