Day 42 - San Francisco - Redwood National Park

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Sadly we left San Francisco behind, heading over the Golden Gate one last time and off to Redwood National Park. The road quickly became winding and long, passing through large scarce areas and small towns.
We ended up stopping in one of these small towns, Mendocino, which Todd told us it is most famous for some episodes of Murder, She Wrote. Although I have barely seen the show, as I look on at the town on the main road we pass up and down on looking for a spot to stop, I could picture it all.
I was thankful for the stop, as the journey was over 6 hours long in all, and though I didn’t actually mind long drives, this one was a little too much.
We parked up by a small field, and it was quickly decided that we would be having a teddy bears picnic in the field. So the roll mats were unloaded and spread out for everyone and the food, and the mayhem that was lunch, took place.
Afterwards we were allowed to walk around the town, but the only good thing we could find was an ice cream shop down one street off what appeared as the main road. After those who have found the place got some cold goodness, we soon headed back onto the winding road, and eventually we reached the Camper Corral just outside Redwood National Park.
The campsite was quite open, with the field appearing as one big area, with a gravelled path for the vehicles and posts every few metres for taps.
The road we had just turned off from was up above the site and across the other side of the big field was wooded area. Our sites were to the left of the main office area, and we were put a few sites away from the next set of campers. We may be closer to the dumpster area at the end of the field than the office buildings, but we didn’t mind.

Whilst Group B prepared and made dinner, I made another fire, and as the fire pit was bigger I got to make it much bigger than the others, but that was all put on hold when talk spread that there was a bear on site, and it turned out that it was quite close to us, hanging around the dumpster nearby. Quickly a camp worker pulled up in his golf buggy and his dog, and quickly scared the bear, a black bear, off into the woods. I think most of us were more excited than scared to see the bear.

After dinner, everyone hung around the fire until one by one they all headed off to sleep. Despite the bear earlier, I was still sleeping out tonight on one of the tables under the stars, which I gazed at for a while, before drifting off to sleep.

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