After Kyle and I left Fort Bragg, we finished out California visit with a visit to the magnificent Redwood Forests outside of Eureka, CA. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time here, mainly due to lack of planning on our part, but we did have a fantastic day trip. Plus we were slightly limited on what we could do with the dogs, and we didn't want to have to leave them in the truck for long periods of time, cause really that sucks for them.
I had always assumed that the Redwoods National Park was just like any other National Park, and that it was an all in one location, but no, its not. Its apparently spread out through out several different State Parks, through out much of California, so its hard to decided which one to go to. We ended up going to Jedediah Smith State Park right out side of Crescent City, because we wanted to see the biggest and the oldest ones we could.
After the limited research that I did do, I discovered that one of the must see areas was the Stout Grove.
The trees in the Stout Grove aren't the biggest of all the redwood trees but the little grove of them supposedly provides some of the best photogenic beauty, if you catch it at the right time. The bark of these trees is what makes them stand out from all the other trees. The bark is huge and very rippled, on some trees it looks like it is braided. It was fascinating. The grove itself its so quiet, everything but the trail is covered with ferns and fallen trees. I was very serene. Kyle and I just walked around in complete amazement, and ended up with a major sore neck from all of the looking up that we did constantly. I have been struggling to find the words to describe how magnificent this place is and honestly I can not. I think that everyone needs to see it to experience it for themselves, you will not ever regret it.
We've decided to change his name to Forest Gump, because he really will do anything that you tell him too, like checking out this foxhole. He's crazy
These are called burls. Some get big enough that little gardens of ferns and other trees start growing on top of them.
It looks like a face coming out of this tree. This is one tree, really, it just looks like 3 different ones.
After enjoying the scenery in the redwoods, we headed back to the trailer, that we had parked at a casino north of Crescent City, and enjoyed an early Anniversary dinner of Prime Rib, before testing our luck at the black jack table. This is not something that Kyle and I would normally EVER do. Kyle hates the idea of gambling, he hates losing money that bad. Then I have started calling myself the "human cooler" things never go well for me. I just tend to lose money, and I despise losing, at anything, so I try to keep playing because I think eventually I will win. Its a vicious cycle. Honestly I have begun to think that it would just be more fun for me to walk inside and throw my money on the floor and then leave. Same results that way, but less agony really. Tonight the odds however, were apparently in our favor. We did't win much, but we won enough to be able to cover our dinner and still walk away with a little extra. Thats enough for me!
The next day we headed into Gold Beach, Oregon. WOOHOOO!! We finally made it out of California!! From here we drove about 14 miles outside of town, drove up the side of a mountain, and found our next adventure. An informational stroll on the Shrader Old Growth Trail, which is a 1 mile loop trail through an old growth forest of giant trees.. This trail was named after a lady named Frances Shrader, who was a long time employee of the Forest Service, and she was instrumental in the development of the trail. At the beginning of the loop there is a information pamphlet that walks you through the 13 points along the trail. It was interesting to learn about the different aspects of this old growth forest. It talked about the common features of this particular forest which was made up of Douglas-fir and Port-Orford-cedar trees, which are between 200-250 feet tall.. It also talked about how important the downed trees on the forest floor are, they provide life for up to 250 years to the floor after they fall, I found that tidbit of info very fascinating! It was fun to wander around this trail and just let the pups run, we were the only ones up there too which was amazing. Its always fun to be able to have areas to ourselves, we have very much learned to love Tuesday. I feel like we used to look forward to the weekends, but now we very much look forward to Tuesdays, they are the quietest days of the week.
there were three little bridges like this on the trail, but this one was the most wobbly one, and it apparently freaked Frank out to cross it...
Big tough hunting dog is such a chicken when it comes to some things.
In 1939, the University of Oregon won its first NCAA basketball championship, and the team was nicknamed the Oregon "Tall Firs". This Fir tree was named after a basketball player on that team, who was from Gold Beach. It measures 10 feet in diameter, and is 220 feet tall. There is over 20,000 board feet of wood in this tree, enough to build three 3-bedroom houses. That is nuts!!!
After our little informational hike we stopped in Gold Beach to check out the shipwreck of the Mary D. Hume. It was cool to read about the history of this boat, and all the things that it accomplished. After that we stopped in some of the scenic view points to admire the Oregon coast, which is absolutely stunning..
The Rogue River Bridge, the rivers in Oregon are huge!
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