Redwoods / California Coast

Thursday, September 22

We got a fairly early start this morning, after picking some fresh blackberries from bushes right on our campground. Yummy!

We continued our meander down the California coast. Just a few miles down the road, I made a last-second spontaneous decision to jump off the 101 and take the exit for the “Avenue of the Giants” – and man, were we rewarded! We were suddenly surrounded by an entire forest full of giant redwoods! 

We pulled off into the Humbolt State Park nature trail. Again, no dogs allowed on the trail, but Auggie and I walked the short half-mile road there and back so that he could experience the redwoods outside the car.

And so started our day of winding our way down the coast. Here, when I say “winding,” I mean WINDING. Holy moley. My overheating brakes back in Canada had taught me to use my gearshift. I’d never used a gearshift on an automatic before in my life, but I tell you, I was using it on this coastal drive. There were turns marked to go at 15 mph, some of them even 10! We were winding along sharp, hairpin inlets, serpentining left and right and then up and down, at many times doing what felt like all of that at the same time. And then we’d come across cows and horses grazing in pastures, right on the top of the craggy rocks that dropped down to the raging Pacific. Wow.

Auggie continued to love his view of the Pacific Coast from the co-pilot’s seat. He is so funny – he never rides shotgun at home.

The driving was exhausting, especially in this big ole van. To take a break, we stopped at this very cool look-out.

Shortly after that, we took a right-hand turn off of the 101 and up and over the (curvy! winding! steep!) mountain range. We were headed to Route 1 to finish our way, hugging the coast, to the San Francisco area.  

Later, we had a few quick errands to run – we stopped in Fort Bragg for gas and groceries. (We were pretty low on fresh fruits and veggies, since I didn’t want to have much left from Oregon as we crossed into stringently regulated California.)

Then we stopped in tiny (gray, foggy) Mendocino, to see what was up there. I didn’t know why I had heard of it before. It was a cute little town of artists, galleries and lots of little shops.

It was then that I decided I was no longer interested in going into Sonoma Valley for wine tasting. It had gotten later in the day than I had wanted, since we had stopped a number of times. I also had not had time to do any research into wineries that I wanted to visit, so I would have been left with a quick half an afternoon the next day of haphazard winetasting, leaving Auggie in the van. And so I decided to stay along the coast for the full drive into San Francisco. I wanted to experience the coast, so I was going to experience it!

But not too long after we got back onto the road after Mendocino, I was tired of driving this big, hulking rig along this curvy, winding road. I reminded myself that I had wanted to take the road, and that the coastal drive between Seattle and San Francisco was the third of my three “must-sees” for this trip (and this trip was all about doing what I want). But what do you do when what you want to do suddenly starts to annoy you?

You find the nearest campsite, silly, and stop for the night! We overnighted in Salt Point State Park, where the sunset was lovely (again!) and the skyful of stars was unbelievable.

Tomorrow, it’s down toward Oakland. And the end of this curvy, winding coastal road!  J