The Majestic Coast Redwoods

From Willits, we had a 100-mile drive to our next destination, a one-night stop at Ancient Redwoods RV Park located on the Avenue of the Giants. As we drove north, it seemed like everything and everyone had disappeared. There was no traffic, which we would have noticed because Hwy 101 becomes a curvy mountainous two-lane road. And, although there were names of towns on the map, we didn’t see any. Maybe they were hiding behind the trees?

The Avenue of the Giants is a road that runs parallel to Hwy 101 through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where you can enjoy some old-growth forest (never logged) from your window, or stops at one of the many pullouts for a short hike.

We did the Rockefeller and the Founders Grove trails. Only about 4% of California’s old-growth redwoods have survived logging. Thankfully, there always seems to be a few people throughout history that have the foresight to preserve nature. Coast redwoods are the tallest trees on earth, the tallest of them can reach over 350ft and some of the oldest are 2000 years.

On Sunday, we moved another 60 miles north to spend the workweek with cell service and be near Redwood National and State Parks. This park is comprised of 4 units – the National Park itself and Prairie Creek, Del Norte, and Jedediah Smith State Parks. This area has got to be one of the most beautiful in the country.

We stayed at Azalea Glen RV Park in Trinidad in one of the smallest yet nicest sites we’ve ever had with a deck overlooking a pond.

We headed to the National Park on Sunday afternoon to see Gold Beach and hike the Fern Canyon Trail. A week later and a permit is required. It was a wet afternoon. First, the drive to the trailhead surprisingly crossed a creek. Then, the actual hike was through a creek. And a wave got us on Gold Beach.

After that, we changed shoes and hiked the Trillium Falls Trail. Nothing compares to walking through these old-growth forests, and this one was so beautiful it’s hard to believe it exists.

It rained the entire week we were in Trinidad, except for a couple of hours one afternoon when we went to Sue-meg State Park (previously Patrick’s Point) which was across the street from our RV Park.

We spent most of this rainy week taking care of our sick Lynx kitty, with lots of snuggles and multiple trips up to a vet in Crescent City. It was a very hard week and we talked several times about how being in such a peaceful place, both the RV Park and general area, made it slightly more bearable.

Next, we head into a region of the country we’ve never been before, the Pacific Northwest!