Today we drove the short distance to the Shasta Lake Dam. Shasta Lake is set among very beautiful mountains. The dam offers free tours so we signed up. Being off season, the tour was Donna and I, a new Shasta Lake empoyee, and our tour guide. Shasta Lake is the second largest dam I the US behind the Grand Coolie dam in Washington State based on volume of concrete. The tour was very interesting and really enjoyable since there were only four of us including our guide. In the summer each tour is 40 people. The tour begins at one of the two towers on the top of the dam and descend to the base of the dam via elevator. You then go outside at the base of the dam to see many of the neat features. We then toured the turbine/generator facility. Our tour guide was a young woman who was fantastic. Our guide was super knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the dam and finding new bits of history.

We explored a little of the town of Redding and took Maverick to the dog park near their small Benton airport.   One of the “attractions” in Redding is the Sundial Bridge.  It is part of a river recreation area with the Turtle Bay science center, botanical garden, and other attractions.  Afterwards we drove out to one of the Shasta Lake recreation areas on the East end of the Lake. It was a nice 15mile drive (one way) through the country but that part of the lake wasn’t very pretty. When we got back to the coach I worked on the computer and Donna fixed both Enchiladas and Lasagna to freeze and have for evening meals. We ate part of the Enchiladas for dinner sitting outside under our awning. It was really pleasant and relaxing.

This morning we say goodbye to the giant Redwoods. We are truly sad to be leaving them. The trails were all wonderful and the trees in all of the parks were spectacular. This area is one of the highlights of our journey. The Ancient Redwoods RV Park was quiet, beautiful and peaceful. Today it was a beautiful but tough drive along Hwy 299. The drive was about 4 ½ hours mostly through mountains with many steep uphill and downhill grades with low speed switchbacks. The coach handled it great though the worst grade took us down to about 30 MPH by the summit. We ate lunch at Nugget Restaurant in Weaverville. It was clearly a local favorite and the burger was outstanding. The second half of the drive followed the Trinity River and was beautiful. We checked in at Mountain Gate RV park north of Redding. Reasonably nice and good price, but close to highway. Super warm today with high around 80. Supposed to be colder and rainy tomorrow.
We ran chores to a Credit Union, Camping World, and Walmart. We ate dinner at Chipotle. We reviewed our site-seeing options. We are really close to the popular Shasta Lake and we are reasonably close to Lassen Volcanic National Park, but when I checked tonight, nearly everything in the park is closed for winter conditions.

Today we drove HWY 101 up through Eureka, to Crescent City and through the Redwoods. Our first stop was at a beach near the Park Kuchel Visitor Center. The beach was very pretty with giant rocks embedded in the surf. The waves were quite violent and beautiful. Next we stopped briefly at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trailhead. The trailhead was very nice but we decided against a hike due to the long drive ahead. Our next stop was Elk Meadows where there is a herd of Elk that stay in the area. On down the road we stopped at the Prairie Creek State Park. Just next to the visitor center are beautiful trails around a grove of very large Redwoods. Leaving the park we traveled the Newton Drury Scenic Parkway, very nice.
We ate lunch at Subway in Crescent City before heading across HWY 199 through Jedediah Smith Park where some of the large Redwoods are found. We stopped at the first campground area in the Park and were able to let Maverick explore the beach of the Smith River. Another beautiful setting. We left the campground and followed the Howland Hill Road through the park and by the Stout Grove. The road was unimproved dirt/gravel/rock and quite narrow. The trees along the road were amazing. This road ends back in Crescent City where we enjoyed wandering around the beautiful coastline. We stumbled upon a nice dog park and let Maverick stretch his legs for a while.  On the way back we stopped for a bathroom break at the “Tree of Mystery” roadside attraction.   They have a gondola ride through the trees.  We weren’t interested so we never figured out what the “mystery” was about.  Out front they also have a giant Paul Bunyan and Babe to draw you in.

Today we headed down the Drury Cheney Trail. This was a beautiful trail about 2.2 miles round trip. It didn’t seem that long because the trail was nicely maintained, the scenery was spectacular, and the weather was perfect. The trail winds continuously through the giant trees surrounded with bright green ferns and clover. Much of the trail followed a nice creek.
After the trail we decided to visit Ferndale. Ferndale is a historical Victorian downtown. Kind of pretty but not much there really. We, ate at the Farmhouse restaurant. The food was tasty but seemed not a great value. It as much fancier than Donna and I care for. Right next door to the restaurant was a pet wash. We decided Maverick needed washing and took advantage of the self-wash option. Maverick looked great afterwards. On the way back to the coach we stopped at the Fortuna Riverwalk. The riverwalk is just a well prepared trail following the Eel River and we enjoyed a short walk.

Ok, here are some pictures of the Giant Redwood forest and trails.  There just isn’t any way to adequately represent this forest in pictures.

Today we started off by driving the Avenue of the Giants to find the Founders Grove trail.  The trail is wide, flat, and only about 0.3 miles.  It features the Founders Tree shown above.   This area is a lot like Muir Woods but without the crowds and with even more giant trees.   Maybe in the summer the crowds are bad but right now we only shared trails and parking with a few others.  The forest is truly spectacular and there are trails all over this forest.  This whole area is essentially the Homboldt State Park.   Until recently the park claimed the tallest and largest living thing on Earth but now that title is assigned to the Redwoods National and State Park area.   We are only talking like 10ft height difference either way.   The only drag for us is that Red Dog isn’t allowed on any trails.  We did let him explore the parking area at the Founders Grove and just after we found a pull out for river access that allowed dogs.   The river access is the first time we officially used our Jeep 4WD capability, though probably not absolutely necessary.  The access did warn that 4WD was recommended.  4WD was used for climbing a short embankment back up to the road on wet smooth rocks.

After our hike we drove to Eureka CA.  We had lunch at the Lost Coast Brewery (Tripadvisor #1 at this time).  The fish and chips were really good and the place had a nice vibe.   We drove the small historical area including a few historic buildings and then we went to the Sequoya City Park in Eureka.  The city park was terrific.  Again, huge trees with nice trails everywhere.  The best part was Red Dog was allowed on-leash.  We spent quite a while walking all around the park and Maverick had a blast.  I should mention that it was raining steady pretty much all day.  The temperature was about 65 so we weren’t really cold, just wet.  We just suited up in our raincoats and made the best of it.  It wasn’t bad at all.  It continued raining and much harder through the night (about 2 inches in 24 hours).  We heard that San Francisco area got 4-5 inches so its probably good we got out of there when we did.

After the city park we replenished supplies  at Walmart and headed back to the coach.  As you can probably tell from all of the pictures, we had a great day and really enjoyed the forest.

Today was travel day.  We packed up and left Point Reyes and headed for Redcrest and the Avenue of the Giants.  Lots of pictures for just the first 1/2 day here in Redcrest CA!  The park is really pretty and located in the middle of the giant redwoods.  The park is very affordable at about $37/night for full hook ups and, for the first time, really good park internet.  The internet is really good because there is no cell service which is our normal internet source.

The avenue of the giants is truly amazing with giant trees right up against the road.  We only saw a little of it today but plan on exploring tomorrow.   The drive here was about 4.5 hours and was pretty tiring in a big rig, taking HWY 101 the entire way.   After getting settled in we took a short drive down part of the Avenue and it motivated us for tomorrow.   We then drove about 20 minutes to Fortuna and found the Eel River Brewery.  We had a great meal and really enjoyed the place.   After dinner we headed back to the coach and enjoyed movie night.

Today we decided to go to Sonoma CA.   We had originally thought we would go into San Francisco for normal touristy site-seeing.  After Muir Woods we changed our minds.  We’ve been to San Fran a number of times and didn’t feel there was enough value for use to fight traffic, park, and hassle the Big Red Dog.  Sonoma has a really scenic and historical downtown square.  We ate a tasty slice of pizza at Mary’s and walked the square.  A really nice and relaxing place.   Afterwards we drove out by the Sonoma/Sears Point raceway just because it was close.  We only got a few minutes before an event was scheduled but that was fine for us.  I just wanted to see the track in person.

Wow, another month in the bag. We’ve had a great time and stayed in 9 amazing places. We finally made it to the West coast and the weather and site-seeing has been off the hook. The longest we stayed was San Diego for a week. Everywhere else was 3-4 nights. San Diego was probably our favorite, or at least most epic. But Lake Lopez near San Luis Obispo was incredible and staying at Laguna Seca Raceway was really fun. Below is the map with our stops in alphabetical order. I’m getting a little better manipulating Google Maps into showing what I want 🙂 Our story this month starts with us leaving Las Vegas for more tropical climes.

 

Muir Woods is a spectacular National Monument park just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.   The park is extremely popular and starting 2018 they require RESERVATIONS for parking and/or the shuttle at the park.   Donna’s friend Kelly clued us in about the reservations so I had made them a week prior.  Our reservation was good between 10:30 and 11:30 am.  During busier times the reservation would have had us parking near Hwy 101 and taking a shuttle in.  The shuttle adds about a 45 min ride each way.  We are here off-season so we were able to park in the main lot.  The main loop in Muir Woods is about 1/2 mile long from the visitor center and is wide, flat, and in most places paved.  This make the park very accessible for those less physically capable.   This parks sees many elderly, handicap, and children in strollers as a result.  There are many giant redwoods on the main loop and the trees are incredible.  It is a magical and beautiful place.  The main loop was pretty crowded and loud.  There are 4 or 5 trails off of the main loop and we took the Fern Creek 1.6mile loop trail.  This trail starts near the end of the main loop.   The trail was much more peaceful and quiet than the main loop.  It also was very beautiful and followed a very nice babbling creek.  The trail had many big redwoods but not as many giants as the main loop.   It took us about 3 hours to see the park, but you could easily spend all day if you are up to the additional trails.  The Fern Creek trail had about 180 feet of elevation change and we were pretty tired after our hike.   I think this park is a must see if you are in the San Francisco area.

Today we explored the Point Reyes National Seashore.   Our RV park was at the entrance to the area but its about a 20mile drive all the way to the point.  The drive is elevated and provides fantastic views of the shoreline both directions.   The stairs down to the lighthouse are only open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.   We were in luck.  Oops, the stairs were closed due to high winds.  It was windy and pretty cold.  It was pretty crowded and many visitors were in t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.  I’m not that tough and many of them seemed miserable.  After the lighthouse we went to Drake Beach.  On the way to the beach we saw Elk along the road.   Unfortunately we didn’t get pics of the Elk.