Thursday, July 20, 2023
Today we drove another relatively short distance 99 miles to Redcrest, CA. Short in distance, long in travel time. The first half of the trip begins along the coast and winds around the little hamlets and coves of this rugged portion of coastline.
Then it dives into a cut in the mountains that drop straight into the ocean a la the Big Sur coast. There’s a few campgrounds along here, one private and the others state, but the state campgrounds only offer beautiful vistas of the coast and no amenities. We climb up the mountain encountering hairpin after hairpin, some posted at 15mph. It’s a beautiful drive for the passenger if they are not concerned with timbling over a cliff but a real work out for the driver of an RV. The road was built with Model T Fords in mind, not a 15 ton, 35′ motorhome. Anyhow, we survived and exited the northern terminus of California Highway One at Leggett joining northbound US101 where the highway parallels the coast but at a distance. In case you are wondering that 45 mile stretch of Cal 1 took 2.5 hours to travel with one 10 minute stop to stretch…….
We pass a couple of small settlements before passing Garberville (903 souls). The town is located on the South Fork of the Eel River and a 15 minute drive to Humboldt Redwoods State Park. To some Garberville is known as the most eccentric town in Northern California and also known as the “marijuana heartland of the U.S.”
US101 in that part of California meanders through some redwood forests, choosing to come so close to the big trees that some show scars from trucks/rv’s smacking them. This portion of the highway is littered with tourist attractions- The Trees of Mystery, Confusion Hill, Shrine Drive Through Tree, the World Famous Tree House, yada, yada, yada. Yet there are many natural wonders- Smithe Redwoods Natural Reserve, The Founders Tree, Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail, Richardson Grove State Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Humboldt Lagoons State Park. It then opens up into a 4 lane divided highway for a good stretch. So depending on your taste you can pick either the tourist traps or mother nature- or both. We like mom the best but looking at the parking lots of the attractions we’d have to say a lot of folks are drawn to the “attractions”.
We bypass all the town sites, towns and tourist attractions, exiting US101 at Redcrest (89 souls). Redcrest is located along the Avenue of the Giants, a reference to the coastredwood trees, the tallest trees on earth, the tallest being 380 feet tall! The town is tourist oriented, sporting a very small RV park, a cafe, a post office, a curio shop and little else. We pass through town recognizing that we had stopped here last year and purchased an ice cream cone at the curio shop.
Just north a couple of miles and still on the Avenue of the Giants we pass through more giant coast redwoods and stop at Ancient Redwoods RV Park for the night. The park is a modern layout park that is nicely kept. The folks that operate the park are extremely courteous and helpful.
We had a nice stay at the park, meeting folks that were here to attend a tractor pull in Fortuna. This isn’t a tractor pull for those souped up specialty tractors, this is for antiques. It sounds like a fun event, enough fun that folks from out of state are attending.
Tomorrow we’ll continue north on US101. We are heading into southern Oregon and will be staying in Brookings for a couple of days. See you there!
Travel With Jil and Mike 