Blogs from Crescent City, California, United States, North America

Today we an easy drive up Hwy 101 to Crescent City. We arrived early afternoon to a wonderful camp site among the redwoods. It has been raining or an on all day, but forecast is for clear skies tomorrow. We plan to spend two night here and visit Redwood National Park tomorrow.... read more

THE BASICS We moved rather slowly for a week or so through southern Oregon, and have finally arrived in California, our "last" state for this segment of our trip. Now we are looking for a place to store the two vehicles for a few months so we can fly home in two or three weeks. THE FLUFF We really liked Oregon very much. I especially liked that there were so many book stores with good selections of used books, and coffee shops everywhere. But overwhelmingly the scenery was the best, and we had an abundance of sunny, warm weather, which we know is not always the case out here (75 days without any rainfall is a bit of a stretch in Grants Pass). We spent a few days near Eugene, hanging loose. We sat in the ... read more

Here are the pictures. The internet at the last motel didn't work. https://picasaweb.google.com/101506993269424417039/Day20?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIXUh-y669jEoAE&feat=directlink... read more

Preparing to leave Richardson's Grove the next morning, we saw about twenty types of moths had been attracted to the bathroom light overnight. It was a good chance to examine some of these interesting insects up close. Since we were in the redwoods, it seemed like logical to drive out along the Avenue of the Giants, a road through some tremendously old growth groves. The floors in these vast cathedral-like spaces were dotted with redwood sorrel, douglas iris, and trilliums. We stopped midway through the auto tour at the Humboldt Redwood Visitor Center. They had interactive exhibits showing the native flora and fauna and the history of the area. One interesting chapter in that history was the saga of Charles Kellog, a man who could uncannily imitate birdsong, put out fires with his voice alone, and ... read more

California here we come! We arrived at the Crescent Beach Motel and could hardly believe what a great find it was. Our room was on the beach with nothing in between us and the water except for some rocks. We had a view window; the sky was blue and the sun shining. We had three days here and nothing planned except to enjoy the beach. The first night it was very stormy. We had rain the next day, but we filled the day with grocery shopping, catching up on emails, visiting antique stores and we also went to see Dolphin Tales which was great. We walked the beach morning and evening. We sat out on the porch just outside of our room eating smoked salmon and watching surfers and horseback riders.....oh and we played a lot ... read more

August 18-19, 2010: We knew we were heading to see the Giant Redwoods, but we didn't know what lurked in the bogs along the Smith River before we got there: Pitcher plants! That's right, carnivorous plants which grow in nutrient-poor, serpentine (the rock, that is) bogs where almost nothing else will grow. The pitcher plants hold water containing microbes, which eat the insects which get trapped, and the plants can then absorb the released nutients, especially the nitrates, which aren't available in the soil. The pitcher plants, also called cobra plants—can you see why?--have upper hoods with transparent sections which allow light in, a kind of sunroof arrangement, toward which the insects fly to escape, but they can't get out and evenutally succumb to the liquid lake below. Oh dear, save me from pitcher plants! I ... read more