From Sean & Carla, still footloose and fancy free but looking forward to catching up with the others in Bend OR
We left our sand dune refuge of a park and continued north on Route 1. Again, vista after vista greeted us. The road followed the coastline quite tightly with a scarcity of guard rails in many places. The beaches below were often black with volcanic sand. The biggest treat was wind had dropped overnight and you were no longer subject to exfoliation with every vista stop for pictures.
Beaches & Islands & Waves
Our aim was to check out the giant redwood trees that frequent this region of the coast. we stopped at the National Redwood Forest Park information station that covered the national park but also covered information on the 3 state parks that the national park contained… all 3 state parks had Redwood in their name so all quite confusing. As we intended to make tracks as far north as possible to allow us an easier Friday drive to meet with the other two couples in Bend OR. That gave us an option of either spending the night in a 2nd growth (had been cut sometime in the past 150 years) redwood forest or continue north to Jedediah Smith National Park, an original old growth forest, that just happens to contain (learned this later) the tallest tree in the world called Hyperion. Hyperion is measured at 115.61 metres (379.3 ft), which ranks it as the world’s tallest known living tree. Hyperion was only discovered on August 25, 2006 by two guys (Atkins & Taylor) in a remote area of the park. They used laser measuring equipment to get the height. A later confirmation was achieved when it was actually scaled and a tape was lowered to the ground. This was apparently part of a National Geographic special. The exact location of the tree has not been revealed to the public for fear that human traffic would upset the ecosystem that the tree inhabits. The tree is estimated to contain 18,600 cubic feet (530 m3) of wood, and to be roughly 700–800 years old. We didn’t get to see this tree but anything over 150 feet is pretty spectacular. The trunks of these trees are largely bare of branches until well above 50-60 feet from the ground which makes them appear quite stately.
A video of the big reds in an area off the main route…
There are some giant redwoods on private land and a few of these have been abused to make tourist attractions. There were two along this route but another was way back in Yosemite. They used it as a tourist attraction in the 20s and 30s before common sense kicked in. The one visited was tight but we got the MRT through by using all of Carla’s olive oil. And then of course we had to take it to a car wash as we smelled like salad.
Squeak!
Anyhow, all very stunning as per usual. Our campsite was perfect, backing on a crystal clear fast running stream/river with big trees all around.
Marge wannabees tending the fire
Majestic
Bears were an issue so cooking spareribs on a Q for dinner was a little like playing with fire. But we survived any incursions and enjoyed the rest of the evening swilling a nice red wine by the fire. The park was the best we have been in. No hookups but the quiet, the nearby stream, the ultra-modern washrooms with hot showers all helped with the experience.
You can tell we were further north as the price of firewood halved from the previous stop and water didn’t appear to be an issue as showers were now 50 cents for 5 minutes where some desert locations were 1 dollar for 3 minutes… just not enough. In the past two days we have basically seen a greening of the landscape as we move north and inland too.