Camping near Medford

Mile 1495

We are camping again tonight. We checked into a campground just west of the town of Medford, Oregon. Got here just before 8pm. That's right, almost three days since we left we finally got outside of the state of California. We crossed the border at mile 1433. Here what's happened since our last post:

After breakfast this morning, we found out that the world's tallest tree is not actually in Redwood National Park. It's in Humboldt Redwood State Park, about 50 miles south, the wrong way, from where we were. We couldn't come all this way and not see the world's tallest living thing. So we decided to drive all the way down to see it. At mile 1257 we found it. They don't actually allow dogs on the trails in this park, but we were able to sneak in and snap a couple of pictures. It was only about 100 yards in from the trailhead. Like I said, couldn't come all this way and not see it. It's a good thing that we made the trip. If you really want to see magnificent Redwoods, go to Humboldt. It was so much better.

Then we turned around and backtracked north, up the California coast. Took another beautiful drive from Crescent City to the Oregon border. This road follows the Smith River, and it was gorgeous! We even made it down to the river once.

A couple things about northern California and Oregon that we noticed. There a lot of drive-thru coffee shops. They are everywhere! So convenient. We don't have many of them in SoCal. I've only see a couple back home. The other thing is that there a lot of hippies. Or at least people who are into the hippie culture. Seems to be a very liberal area too. Saw a gigantic "impeach Bush" sign hanging on someone's house.

We are heading for Crater Lake in the morning.

Redwoods today

Mile 1180

Sitting at the Beachcomber Cafe in Trinidad getting my morning coffee before the drive through Redwood National Park. Free wireless.



Yesterday, from Redding, we headed directly west on Hwy. 299. What a beautiful drive. It follows the Trinity River for most of the way over the mountains. Around mile 994 we stopped at picnic area that had river access. The fresh mountain water was quite refreshing and we watched river rafters paddle by. We hit the 1000 mile mark at a town called Hawkins Bar. It's so small it doesn't even show up on some maps we had. By about mile 1050 we had made it to the coast. It was just after 7pm and there was still quite a bit of daylight left. So we went south to drive through Eureka, circled Arcata Bay and went north to find somewhere to watch the sunset. We found the perfect place in the town of Trinidad. After that it was too dark by then to see any of the Redwood Trees. We camped out last night at a place called Klamath River RV Park. Pretty nice place. Nice showers.

Woke at 6am and came back down the coast to Trinidad for a walk on the beach. Now we're off to see the Redwoods, then it's on to Oregon!

Back in Redding again

Mile 908

So we decided to do all three today. Did Shasta, did Lassen, now back in Redding, on the way to the California coast. Here's how our day went:

Got up at 6am and headed straight up north to see Mt. Shasta. The first picture is at mile 715 taken from the town of McCloud near the base of Shasta. From there we were able to loop out east and go straight to Lassen Volcanic National Park. As you can see from the second picture taken at mile 813, it's a little bit cooler there than it was in Redding. I suppose an 8000 foot difference in elevation will do that.

Now, we are on our way to Redwood National Park on the coast. We had to pass through Redding again, so we stopped for a break at a coffee shop that has free wireless. That's how I've been doing all my blogging. Incidentally, many Burger Kings have free wireless access apparently. I haven't tried them yet, but it's good to know. We should be able to make it to the coast by 7pm, in time to see the sunset. I'll let you know.

Redding

Mile 635

So we just checked into the Redding Motel 6. Not quite the mountain town I was expecting. Maybe because the elevation is 557. Guess I should have researched that better. It's hot here too! It's pretty late and we're very tired.


There wasn't much to ride up here as you can see. That's pretty much all there is to central Califonia. No, there's much more, but the idea was to get as far up north as we could before we started sightseeing. We didn't really expect to see much anyway. We've done that drive a couple times and it's mostly farm land. We had to stop three times to rest because we left so early in the morning, so the drive took longer than it should have. Sacramento seemed to be a pretty cool town.

Not sure what we will do when we get up in the morning. There are three choices and they are all in different directions. Mt. Shasta is about an hour north. Lassen Volcanic National Park is about an hour east. And Redwood National Park is three hours west on the coast. We are doing that one for sure. Maybe we'll get up early enough to do all three. We'll see I guess.

We are in Sacramento!

Mile 445

Stopped at a coffee house in Sacramento. It's as hot here as it is down SoCal! Here's a picture from the road. We plan to get to Redding a couple of hours north of here and spend the night in that area. Will write more about the trip so far when we get there.

We're hittin' the road!

Car is loaded and we are finally on our way! Since it's pretty late already we probably will only drive a few hours before stopping. As long as we get out the city. Hopefully we'll at least get past Bakersfield. Didn't really want to go through central California in the daytime because of the heat, but looks like we don't have a choice. We were orginally aiming to get past Sacramento on this first leg. We'll be taking Interstate 5 all the way out of Orange County through the center of the state. Time to hit the road!

We will be leaving in the next few hours

Not sure if it will be tonight or early tomorrow morning, but it will be soon. Had a lot to do before we leave.