Redwood and Shoreline HWY's - Crescent City to San Francisco

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We left Crescent City yesterday morning, first driving by their docks for a quick photo of Battery Point Lighthouse. You can also see, and hear, sea lions on the rocks nearby. We left the city, still on Highway 101, now also called Redwood Highway. And for good reason! Within minutes we were deep into the redwoods, surrounded by TALL and WIDE redwoods. It was really pretty impressive and the sunglasses came off as it got dark enough that signs warned us to have our headlights on.

Our first stop was the "Trees of Mystery". It was easy to spot as they have a 49 foot tall statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe out in front. I wanted to have the experience of walking through the redwoods and also to learn a bit more about them. This particular attraction was sort of known to me as the Paul Bunyan statue is on nearly every ad of this area that I had ever seen since I was a kid. It really was a fun and slightly educational walk through the woods, but, I don't think anything has been kept up since the 1950's. Everything is old and rotting and the recorded information that you can play at each point of interest along the paths was obviously recorded half a century ago, reminiscent of the type of info we used to hear on our Canadian "hinterland" TV commercials. They do have a newer gondola ride up to the top of the mountain that's included in the $15 entry fee so we did that and it was a really nice ride but the fog was so thick we couldn't see anything at the top.

The remaining trails after the gondola are OLD huge chainsaw carvings of the life of Paul Bunyan. Unfortunately, most of them have been damaged heavily by age, weather and vandalism and aren't really worth seeing, unless you are a kid or have a kid with you that is really into Paul Bunyan. I'm glad that we stopped here, but it was quite sad to see how poor the condition is of everything.

After leaving the Trees of Mystery, the road continues on through redwood forests, getting narrower and curvier, often feeling like we were on a small park roadway rather than a highway. We made a quick stop at Klamath to drive through a redwood. There are about four of these available at different privately owned tourist attractions but this was the first one. So for $5, I squeezed the Miata through the hole in the tree while Chris took a photo.

Thirty miles north of Eureka, a short detour off of Hwy. 101 took us to Patrick's Point State Park. The roadway in the park was buckled a bit here and there from tree roots and the Miata had difficulty getting over the small bumps so we only made one stop at Wedding Rock. A short hike provided some great coastline views as well as a grey whale sighting.

Back on the 101, the road continued to narrow and wind around huge redwoods off and on until we reached the town of Trinidad. We had a great lunch at the Trinidad Eatery and Gallery then snapped a few photos of their beautiful harbour and lighthouse.

Hwy. 101 continues from here, but we detoured for a few miles to follow the Highway of the Giants. This was a VERY narrow and winding road through a tall and dark redwood forest. We stopped near the end of it for a couple of photos then back onto the 101 and then turned off to follow Hwy. 1 at Leggett. This is an even narrower road, with tighter twists and climbs over the coastal mountains for about 22 miles then hugs every twist and turn along the coast for even more distance. We drove in 2nd gear half the time, rarely getting above 3rd gear and frequently going down into 1st gear. And along the way we passed a lot of cyclists and met a number of HUGE logging trucks, dump trucks and motor homes that somehow managed to make it through (I think). To add to the fun and adventure, there was no shoulder, and usually a SHARP drop off immediately at the edge of the line where the shoulder ought to be. And by SHARP, I mean several hundred feet down to the rocky shoreline. I guess this road was built before they invented guard rails, or they just decided there was no room for them.

After a couple of hours on this white-knuckle road we finally made it to Fort Bragg for the night. We had pizza and beer at the North Coast Brewing Company then fell asleep quickly, to prepare for more Hwy. 1 adventures.

Wednesday morning was much warmer so we had the top down right away on the Miata. Back onto the twisty Hwy. 1 along the coastline, with incredible viewpoints (Vista points they call them in California) all the way. This trip would take a lifetime if you stopped at all of them and it's difficult to drive by the incredible scenery but we managed to stop at only a few.

Our first stop was in the Mendocino Headlands State Park for some great foggy coastline views. We drove in and out of the fog for much of the day.

Further along the Shoreline Highway (Hwy 1 along the coast) we stopped at the Point Arena Lighthouse, established in 1869. We skipped the $7.50 entrance fee to see inside the lighthouse, and chose instead to hike the trails around it and along the shoreline for some incredible views not only of the lighthouse but of an incredibly rugged shoreline with some wild waves crashing and also some sea lions playing in the water below the bluffs.

We stopped for lunch at the Jenner Inn Cafe and Wine Bar in the town of Jenner. This is a great restaurant with VERY California hippy type staff. The original building was an old Victorian home that burned down and was rebuilt by some Swiss fisherman in the shape of a boat and then a few months ago renovated to be a small Inn, restaurant and bar. We highly recommend this place!

Another few miles twisting and turning along the Shoreline Highway brought us to the mouth of the Russian River where harbour seals and sea lions sun themselves on the beach at goat rock. As I stood along the cliff-top beside the highway shooting photos of the seals, a couple of California Condors flew by right in front of me, actually a couple hundred feet off of the ground for them but eye-level for me for a great photo op.

Just a little further along the Shoreline Highway we turned back towards Hwy. 101 and entered the freeway and the steadily increasing traffic volume and speed as we neared San Francisco. Just before reaching the Golden Gate bridge, we turned off into Corte Madera to find a motel room for a couple of nights and visit with friends in the area.

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Photos

Paul Bunyan and Babe
"Trees of Mystery", Redwood forest near Crescent City

Grey whale spouting
Patrick's Point State Park, California

View off the "Wedding Rock"
Patrick's Point State Park, California

Avenue of the Giants
Chris inside a felled redwood

Our Miata at the Jenner Cafe and Wine Bar
Jenner, California

California Condor
Over the mouth of the Russian River, California.