California Coast / Into San Francisco Area

Friday, September 23

Knowing my state of driving exhaustion from the previous day, I was looking forward to getting to the San Francisco area and putting the coast behind me. I can’t say I was disappointed to have the beautiful Pacific coastline to look at during my morning drive (it’s just too pretty), but I was glad to be fresh from a good night’s sleep as I mentally prepared myself for more windy, craggy, curvy road. OMG – I am exhausted from this.

But suddenly, around one more craggy hairpin, we came up out of the turn to see a sight that made me gasp audibly … fog, nothing but fog, for as far as the eye could see.

The fog had rolled in so thick along the coast that no ocean was visible anywhere. And we were above it – it’s like when you look out the window of an airplane and see only the cloud cover below you. There was nothing below us but fog. The only thing that reminded me we still had our feet on the ground was the barking of seals below us on the rocks. It was mystical.

We continued our drive south on Highway 1 and then through some more winding, up-and-down hills to the Point Reyes National Seashore. My nerves were about shot by this point, so Auggie and I took a long walk on the beach. But then both he and I reluctantly climbed back into it for the next leg of our drive. Can someone just please magic us to our campsite tonight?

Alas, it was not to be. I had to drive us. Gratefully, traffic on a Friday afternoon in the San Francisco area was not as bad as I thought it would be. I’ve definitely had worse in DC. We went over the Richmond Bay Bridge to the north of the city and down into the Oakland area on the east side of the Bay. I had a 9.00 am martial arts class planned for the following morning – it was going to be an early morning.

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

Oregon into California / Giant Redwoods!

Wednesday, September 21

We woke up and enjoyed the view in pretty Humbug Mountain State Park. What a cozy little park, tucked in next to the ocean at the foothills of some lovely mountains. Nice!

We had to pick between a hike with a mountain view or a hike with an ocean view. Hmmmmmm – tough choice. In the end, we opted for the ocean, since it’s so spectacular and we know we have a lot of mountains to enjoy again once we get farther inland. So, off we went along the “Old 101 Trail.”

Well, “trail” turned out to be a bit of a stretch. The “trail” was really the old, dilapidated paved highway 101! I gotta tell you, I hate “hiking” on paved road. There is no fun and excitement. You don’t have to watch where your feet are. The tree cover has been cut down, so that you get more sun on you. Someone has already paved over the interesting plants that would be right beside you. I know – the plants are maybe six feet away instead of six inches. But it’s still not quite the same.

However, the hike wasn’t a total bust because … those views of the coastline were really spectacular. Here are a few.

After we got back to camp, I took a quick shower and then took the final steps to pack us up and get us on the road again. And yes, I did listen to a little bit of Willie Nelson as we started our drive.

We continued south down the coast. GORGEOUS! We still had a short bit of Oregon to cover, and as its parting gift, it gave us more beauty: the five to six layers of crashing waves on a vast and broad shore made for a huge cover of sea foam that looked like a veil of lace on the water. Really, really pretty.

We drove a little bit more – more pretty coastline to keep my jaw dropping. At one of the pull-offs, we took another long walk on a gorgeous Oregon beach. It was COLD water. If I’d had an injured ankle instead of hamstring, this would have been a great way to ice it!   

We finally crossed into California early afternoon – bye, bye, Oregon.

Now we were headed to Redwoods National Forest. Turns out Redwoods is actually a partnership of California State Parks and Federal National Parks. And there are several sections of park to enjoy.

Back at Humbug Mountain that morning, the park ranger had said that the Redwood trees were bigger in the more southern groves, so we drove on to the southern section around Orick. We found the Ladybird Johnson Grove. No Auggie allowed, so I walked the one-mile nature trail there myself.

Turns out this grove was dedicated by President Richard Nixon in August of 1968 to Ladybird Johnson, in recognition of her work in preservation of America’s “natural beauty.” These were some BIG trees.

Here’s a photo of me next to one – I look like a peanut compared to that thing!

On our way farther south, we encountered some crazy wild and spooky fog that was rolling in late afternoon. It had completely clouded over the coastal side of the road, yet just on the other side of the road it was sunny. Hmmmmm. Weather sure doesn’t work the same here as it does on the east coast.

And over the past several days, I’ve also discovered that my staying-warm strategy was to put on my fleece for warmth and then my slicker over top to keep out the wind. It’s cold and blustery on the coast. By the end of the day, my hair was a mess!

We found our campsite, fixed our dinner, read our Potter and then slept like logs. (ha ha – every pun intended!)  J

Oregon Coast / Central to South Oregon

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

We took a nice hike around the campsite that then dropped us out onto the beach for a long walk. It was a beautiful, sunny morning.

I did a quick stretch and workout before we broke camp and left, on our way farther down 101.

Just about five miles down the road we stopped at Seal Rock. It is aptly named – we could see six or seven seals down on the rocks below, indulgently sunning themselves. Very cool. J [I'd put a photo up, but my phone's camera isn't good enough to zoom in and show them properly.] 

Another few miles later, we pulled in at the Devil’s [Washing Machine.] (I will admit here that I don’t remember the exact name of this site, and I can’t find it on any map anywhere.) But here are some photos – a lava cut-out with water that surges in and splashes up. That woman there on the right got wet a few waves later! (And I guess she’s lucky she didn’t get pulled in!)

After that, we drove another long stretch south. We thought about getting out at the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area, but at that point, I just didn’t feel like a climb up the dunes. So, on we went.

We pulled in at the little coastal town of Bandon to have a look around. The “old town” was pretty small, and it was just about 6 pm, so most of the shops were closed. The marina was busy, though, and we went to take a look.

There were a couple a guys finishing their clean-up from fishing. Couple of crab traps, lots of rods and line. And apparently lots of crab and fish waste in the water – the seals and sea lions were there to feed! We were treated to a few heads bopping up in the water (look closely in the second photo ...), and I watched some pretty big, fat seals swim around in the harbor. (I’m not sure Auggie actually saw the seals. I pointed them out, but he had no reaction. They are called the “dogs of the sea” – shouldn’t he be excited by that?)

I have officially noticed that the days are getting shorter – sunsets are coming earlier now. We pulled off at Paradise Point and watched another spectacular sunset over the Pacific. We have been spoiled by these!

We needed to find a campsite quickly, as we were tired and hungry, and it was getting dark. We were treated to find super pretty Humbug Mountain State Park just a few miles down the road. We found our site, made some dinner and then built ourselves a campfire for the first time since before Glacier! We were very excited to have some marshmallows again. Yummy as ever …

We are off to California tomorrow, but we are really sorry to leave Oregon. We have enjoyed this state very much! And a quick nod of thanks to the government of Oregon for keeping its coastline public and not allowing private development. It makes for an absolutely beautiful, unspoiled drive!

Tomorrow – it’s off to Redwoods National Forest and the big trees!