The Redwood Highway and Finding some Really Big Trees!

North America » United States » California » Eureka
October 17th 2006

Published: October 20th 2006

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After the unexpectedly long driving day yesterday it was more than a little difficult to get up this morning! We looked out the window, saw the beautiful blue sky, said we need to get going and rolled over and snoozed… We finally got going and will remember Grants Pass as we seemed to miss every single traffic light in town and then the wait for the green light seemed unexpectedly long…

Statistics

Starting Destination: Grants Pass, Oregon
Ending Destination: Eureka, California
Ending Destination GPS: N: 40° 46.065’ W: 124° 11.529’ Elev: 23’
Miles Driven: 192
Distance Walked: 1 mile give or take a few trees
Day’s best Coffee Shack Name: The Jitter Bean Coffee Company

Getting to the Redwood Highway

Our tour guide from Reedsport had indicated that we definitely shouldn’t miss the road from Grants Pass to Crescent City as it wound down through a deep narrow canyon. So… we took off from Grants Pass, found the road and followed it into California… The road was scenic - windy enough for the local road maintenance crews to be performing “curve improvement” on the road, but not too windy… However, to be honest, most of the road was nothing special… Until we got to the Redwoods National & State Parks… Here the feeling just changed - the trees are so tall, that they make you feel rather insignificant, and the road was constructed to minimize the number of trees that needed to be removed, so there are places where you are sure you are going to clip your mirror with the tree, but don’t… and are thankful that you weren’t the guy who did - because by looking at some of the trees, somebody definitely did!!

Driving Along the Coast

We made it into Crescent City and stopped at the National Park Visitors’ Center, we were rather disappointed as there as nothing much to see in terms of interpretive information - just the bookshop. However, there was a mark on the wall designating the height of the 1964 Tsunami and across the road at the city visitors’ center there was this “Dolo,” despite reading the sign, we are not 100%!s(MISSING)ure what the purpose of the lump of concrete is - we think it (and the others placed around the harbor) is supposed to provide a significant resistance to a Tsunami, decreasing the power of the wave and reducing the damage to the city… We were also intrigued by the advertizing on the "Curly Redwood Motel," made from the "one unique curly redwood tree." We were almost tempted to ask to see a room, just to check it out - but not that tempted!!

We followed the famous Highway 101 out of town and along the coast, again the road was twisty and turny, only this time you had the sea to look at. The Northern California Coastline is quite interesting in that there are lots of “boulders” strewn all over the coast. That is what they look like, but not exactly how they got there. From a geologic standpoint it turns out that these “boulders” are the remains of a harder section of rock that is interspersed with siltstone along the coast. The siltstone is eroded away more quickly by the ocean leaving the harder rock behind. Despite the technical explanation, the rocks really do give the coastline plenty of character. And of course, an excuse to take a picture - the rocks make each new section of beach look totally different!!

Ladybird Johnson and her Grove

The coast road (Highway 101 at this point) winds in and out from the coast and through different sections of the Redwoods Parks (both National and State). The redwood trees tend to congregate in “groves,” where there are a group of big redwoods… So you can be driving along with only average sized trees outside your window, when suddenly there is a group of larger ones… Interestingly, all of the groves (at least along the road) appear to be named/dedicated to someone or some organization. Unfortunately, there is rarely any information to explain why a particular grove is dedicated the way it is… There are many trees and many groves, so we only stopped at a few: (1) The one containing a “Giant” tree, about 78 feet in circumference, give or take, as the guys who were measuring while we were there were not employing rigorous scientific methods (oops… is that the type A coming out again?) and (2) The Ladybird Johnson Grove - this was the grove where the Redwoods National Park was dedicated in 1969… It was interesting as there was interpretive information associated with the walk that you could read on your way around the loop. In both places we attempted to take some pictures, both of the big and the small… However, the lighting certainly does make it tricky!!

After braving the drive up-to and down-from the Lady Bird Johnson grove we passed (well actually re-passed as we missed the turn-off to the LBJ grove the first time) through the town of Orick where there were many Redwood Carving studios and plenty of demonstration pieces in the yard to try and entice you into the “store.” We admired a few and then moved on, as we definitely didn’t have any room in the back of the truck for a 3 foot bear on a fishing trip - at least not without leaving some of our other “stuff” behind!! By this time it was getting late, so we “sprinted” for Eureka, found a hotel and crashed for the night… Looking forward to more “big trees” tomorrow!!

Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: 1943 Feet or 592 Meters, it is 7th deepest in the World
Today’s Question: What substance is contained within a Redwood making it resistant to insects and decay?

The Redwood Highway and Finding some Really Big Trees!