August 12-13, 2020
North to Redwood National Park
After having had to travel so many times to Orange County and not knowing when or how Bob might need us this year, we hadn’t made any formal travel plans beyond our trip to Arizona in February. Being unable to even visit our coast during the months of March through June I made reservations for us to visit Prairie Creek Redwoods, a national park campground which was open and taking reservations as of June.
Thus begins our adventure begins...
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As we ventured north, we made a stop in Miranda just to see how things were there, this cute little hobbit home was in front of where we parked.
Early the following morning we drove out to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon. The road seemed a lot narrower than when last we drove it, probably over 20 years ago in our Volkswagen Van.
When we visited before I remembered hiking all the way back to Fern Canyon, it turns out we’d only gone as far as the mouth of Fern Canyon.
The hike back into the canyon was spectacular, so lush and green.
One reason we may not have hiked the whole trail last time we could have been too much water in this stream.
A wall of ferns, could that be the reason it’s called Fern Canyon?
Later in the day we parked along Newton B. Drury Parkway and had the trails all to ourselves.
We hiked the South Fork Trail to Brown Creek, a little over a mile out and back. After having passed a lot of people hiking in Fern Canyon we loved the beauty and serenity of being all alone amongst the giant ancient redwoods along this trail.
Ironically, we spent quite a while at this Goose Pen, caused by a fire years before. A few days later a lightening caused fire broke out above Armstrong Redwoods and burned along the valley floor.
This burned out cavity in the tree is called a Goose Pen, damage done by a fire which exposes the interior to more fire. Early settlers used “goose pens” such as this to corral fowl, or even horses, oh my!
August 15-17, 2020
Farther North to Cape Perpetua, Oregon
In June when I made reservations Cape Perpetua, a park that usually doesn’t usually take reservations, was taking reservations to limit Rangers contact with the public during the pandemic.
Before exiting California, we stopped in Crescent City on a very clear and very warm day so Mark could do some grunge shooting down at the harbor.
I was disappointed at the wildlife around our campsite at Prairie Creek, so I enjoyed
watching this cormorant sunning himself
and the sea lions making themselves heard and hanging out,
while the sea gull over sees it all.
A new spot we discovered last time we were in Oregon was Arizona Beach State Natural Area
We made a stop and watched the swallows darting through the air. I think they may have been roughed winged swalllows.
By mid afternoon we were settled into site 8 at Cape Perpetua National Scenic Area.
Once again out leveling blocks were needed with the next door neighbors tent being close enough we had to whisper in the morning, It would have been a fine campsite if we were traveling with the folks next to us.
but the view was the best!
Before we left the park I walked the park and made a list of all the best campsites, getting level is a challenge in most.
We spent the next morning scrambling around on the rocks along the shoreline.
I had to stand uncomfortably close to Spouting Horn
to actually catch it spouting!
We headed back to out camp site for awhile to have lunch and relax before heading back
down to walk on Cape Cove Beach.
We made the mistake of walking out along the road and north to the parking area for Devil’s Churn and then following the trail down to the beach. The temperature along the shore was 85 degrees by this time, with the bright sun shine reflecting off the sand. We looped around, crossed the road and walk back to the shade of our campsite. We decided its best to use the trail up to and down from the visitor center, a much safer walk than along the highway.
August 16 - 17, 2020
Further North to Cape Disappointment, Washington
As we were driving north through the very congested northern coast of the Oregon Coast Mark spotted this harbor, always on the lookout for harbor grunge. We stopped to use the restroom and stretch our legs.
Doesn’t this whale mural just make you want to return?
...more on that later.
At 2:40 we crossed into Washington and were set up in Campsite C180 at Cape Disappointment State Park.
The only thing better would have been sites 161-170, some of those being almost right on the beach.
Once camp was set up we went for our first walk on this beach.
We were close enough to the beach to hear the waves at night and take another walk out for a sunset shot. This was the first time we’d camped next to Benson Beach.
We awoke to a damp and overcast morning and enjoyed our morning coffee during a walk along the beach where the tide was extremely low.
We spotted live Dungenous Crabs hunkered down in the sand,
as well as this gorgeous purple as starfish, along with snuggled amongst the anemone and barnacles against the rocks.
After breakfast we drove out to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center so Mark could hunt for some grunge shots at the military fortification planning to also walk to the South Lighthouse, unfortunately it was closed. I enjoyed the views from the overlook
of the cormorants comings and goings from the cliff below.
Since we couldn’t hike out to the South Head Lighthouse, we hike to the North Head Lighthouse,
which we had spied as we walked along Benson Beach.
Our mouth’s were watering to drive into the nearby town of Ilwaco and have the best crab sandwich we’d ever eaten at Ol’ Bob’s.
One thing we know for sure these days, is things change. Ol’ Bob’s had closed, so we decided to try the fish and chips at the only restaurant open in Ilwaco, the pub at the Salt Hotel, next to where Ol’ Bob’s used to be.
Besides the excellent halibut and chips, we shared a summer salad with strawberries, blueberries, almonds and feta on wild greens with a honey vinaigrette, worth copying, and I enjoyed a yummy raspberry heffervisen from a local brewery in Long Beach.
This was the first meal we’d eaten at a restaurant since dinner at Topaz Lake on our way home from Arizona in early March.
August 17- 19, 2020
Olympic National Park, Our Destination!
After awaking to a damp over cast morning we wandered down to our final morning at Benson Beach to have a goodbye walk on the expansive beach where the tide was out so far. We had noticed the Dungenous Crabs buried in the sand where the tide had come up the morning before, but our jaws were a gape at what we encountered this morning.
it could best be described as the killing fields, hundreds of Dungenous Crabs washed up on the beach. They all appeared to be dead.
By 9:30 we were on our way north once again.
One memorable place we like to stop is the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters along Willapa Bay, one of the most pristine estuaries in the United States and with 260 square miles of water surface, the second largest on the Pacific Coast. The first largest estuary is the San Francisco Bay.
The ecosystems preserved include salt marshes, muddy tide flats, rain drenched
old growth forests, coastal dunes and beaches and freshwater marshes and grasslands.
A lovely pathway winds along an art trail.
By early afternoon we were settled into our first site of this visit A44, again, getting level was a challenge.
The temperature in Graton this afternoon was a toasty 103 while we enjoyed the 70 degree afternoon.
What a find!
All of the Oyster companies on our way north had been closed due to COVID 19, we felt lucky to find these at Safeway in Aberdeen, had to have our Washington oysters.
Today while driving we heard that a lightening caused fires in Sonoma County were burning above Armstrong Redwoods and along Meyers Grade Road.
On Wednesday morning, we were awake by 5 for the first time during this trip. Most likely due to once again having the ability to keep up with the world on our electronic devises. Once our coffee was made we headed down to Ruby Beach to enjoy the sunrise, knowing rain was in the forecast and the tide was at it’s lowest point of the month. Once we had hiked down the trail to the beach the sun was just poking it’s head above the trees.
While Mark did his thing, I looked for life in the tide pools at the base of the monoliths.
and strolled along the tide line.
The fog was beginning to come in behind this clever piece of beach art.
3 years ago when we visited, people had left cairns near the pathway to the bluff top.
This year rocks had been balanced in crack and crevices of this huge boulder.
By the time we ready to hike up the bluff the beach had become shrouded in fog.
Continuing a bit northward we drove through the town of Forks, Washington, which had been all the rage when Kaci was in High School and reading the Twilight Series, and 14 miles back to the coast and Rialto Beach.
The drive through the old growth forest was soothing.
We were surprised to arrive at a parking lot almost full of cars.
We hiked in both directions along the beach,
looking for shots
and pebbles
until we would have had to climb a horizontal tree to continue.
We arrived back at Kalaloch to thick fog and moved into our new campsite,
Site B5.
By morning things were pretty drippy, which was novel at first. We stayed in our site until checkout time and then, Needing tosite had little connectivity, waited down the street at the range station until 1:00 when the kiosk was to be manned and we could ask to switch sites. We drove around and found the sites with the best connectivity since we knew we were going to be inside, we wanted to watch the final night of the DNC.
August 21 - 24, 2020
The Journey Home
The rain continued all night and this morning and was no longer novel, it had become a pain in the neck. We were packed up and on the road by 7:30, hoping to drive out of the rain. About 20 minutes south of Kalalock the sky began to lighten up and the rain become much lighter.
As we were driving I received the news about the fire at home on my phone.
We knew the fire was close and that we may be told to prepare to evacuate, Kaci had received the warning the day before. After the difficulties evacuating last year we had said we would leave during the warning time. But, we weren’t home so we just needed to send in the kids to get our important documents. As we drove we were pondering where we might stay if need be.
I was monkeying around with my phone after we stopped for gas in Aberdeen and not doing my job as navigator. At one point I looked up and we were crossing a bridge with an open oyster shop below it, I figured it was just on the wrong side of the road and hadn’t seen it on our way north. We stopped in to see if they had block ice and as we returned to the highway I noticed a sign that said Washington 105. 105? We were suppose to be on 101! As we left Aberdeen, Mark followed the signs to Grayland and Raymond, rather than Raymond and South Bend, driving around a peninsula and turning a 25 mile drive into a 50 mile drive. It turned out to be a much more interesting drive, even if it added an hour to our already long day's drive. I think we may have camped in this area in the van when the kids were small.
We arrived at our site in the Harborview RV Park in Garabaldi, which we had discovered on our way north, around 1:30
and enjoyed the view from our back door for most of the afternoon as the rain continued. About 6 the rain stopped and the sun came out giving us a chance to walk around the harbor and grab a take out dinner from The Fisherman’s Corner Restaurant. Not the greatest fish, shrimp and chips we have had. Usually I read yelp before we eat in an unknown restaurant and when I did that earlier in the trip I didn’t remember hearing of this place. Should have gone with what I’d read was good and where one of our local neighbors had eaten for 2 nights in a row, Garibaldi Portside Bistro.
In the morning we awoke to heavy drippy fog that gradually revealed the sun.
We decided to take advantage of the amenities and do our laundry, just in case we were told we had to evacuate at home.
We also toyed with the idea of canceling our reservations for the next 2 nights and staying here until we knew we could return home, but we knew we couldn’t stay in this site and felt the need to get a bit closer to home.
After our Saturday morning FaceTime Call with Bob we were on the road south again by 10:30.
Just as we were enjoying the drive south along the Oregon Coast we received the evacuation order we were anticipated.
We intended to have lunch at the Darlingtonia Wayside, but the restrooms were closed, so we just stretched our legs with a walk along the trail
and through the bog filled with insect eating Darlingtonia. The sign describing them read:
“These cobra-like plants, Darlingtonia California, are found natively in bog areas of Northern California and Southern Oregon. They flower in May and June with hanging blooms of yellow and red and produce up to a dozen leaves per plant. Erect seed pods remain most of the summer.
Insects are lured into the leaf openings under the hood by nectar on the colorful petal-like appendages and the edges of the opening. Once inside the hood the insects become confused by the many transparent areas in the upper parts of the leaves which appear as exits. Keeping a foothold on the glassy smooth upper surface of the tube is difficult and eventually the insects are trapped in the lower tube by sharp downward pointing hairs. After falling down into the pool of liquid at the base of the leaf, the captive is digested and absorbed as food through the plants thin lower walls”
These are what they sell at California Carnivores in Sebastopol. There is also a trail with them up near Crescent City.
We decided to stay the coarse and continue on for our night in Bandon and regroup down there.
Every time we visit Bandon it seems to be very windy, Bullards Bay campground has spacious sites out of the wind. I was impressed by all I saw in the loop where A 44 was.
The only way to stay longer in this park would have been to reserve 24 hours ahead, so the following morning we continued southward and looked for an RV park where we could be comfortable for the time until we could continue on home. We did find one park in Brookings, Riverside RV Park that looked good on a drive by and in reviews written, but was closed due to COVID-19. Once in California we drove through a park near Crescent City, but decided to continue on to Patrick’s Point. At about 2 we got the update that our evacuation had been downgraded to only a warning.
While Mark rested from all the driving, I tried to stay warm by walking along the Rim Trail
to Patrick’s Point
And Rocky Point
The walk warmed me well.
We enjoyed our last night in the camper in site number 51 in Abalone Campground.
We left Patrick’s Point at 8:00 and drove into Trinidad looking for something for breakfast. We stumbled upon the Beachcomber Cafe that makes delicious blueberry and blackberry scones, and other yummy looking treats. The teachers at the elementary school across the street were arriving to start their first day of distance teaching.
This week I read an article of in House Beautiful Magazine entitled: 60 Charming American Towns Worth You Haven’t Heard of but Should Visit ASAP, Trinidad was one of the charming towns listed, we would have to agree.
As had been the pattern the past few mornings, as we traveled south we got a Nixel Alert, todays telling us that we were not longer living in an evacuation warning zone. Making our decision to travel to our home sweet home the right one.
Once we began to approach Willits you could feel the smoke in the air and it was like thick fog obscuring the mountains through Ukiah. We expected it to be as thick as we traveled into Healdsburg and the Santa Rosa Plain, it was smoky, but nothing like poor Ukiah and Cloverdale.
At home there was a coating of ash everywhere and smoke hung in the air.
Seven days later, as I write this, the fire has burned along the base of the Ancient Redwoods in Armstrong Redwoods and is still smoldering above Rio Niño, at 55% containment.
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