Primeval Forest

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The twisting, turning, up and down CA-1 two-lane road from Mendocino to CA-101 was made great fun by the sporty Eos with its excellent responsiveness in the tight turns often marked 20 mph and sometimes 10 mph. After four hours of driving, tired and hungry, we stopped at the magnificent North Coast Co-Op in Eureka for lunch and groceries. How fortunate to find this and other co-op and natural food stores on this trip: a natural food store in Dillon, Colorado, the Corners of the Mouth co-op in Mendocino and Harvest Foods in Mendocino and Fort Bragg. We are looking forward to more in Eugene, Moab and Santa Fe where we can again stock up on fresh, organic and often local fruits, vegetables and bulk foods that allow us to buy only what we need. After a short hike on the majestic Lady Bird Johnson interpretive trail in the Redwood National Park (a World Heritage site), we drove to our quaint, bare-bones, television but no wi-fi cabin just north of Klamath. Roomy, with kitchen and bathroom, it is quite a let-down after our enchanting Mendocino cabin-in-the-woods. However, early online reservations snagged a cabin up in the woods away from CA-1 where most of the cabins are situated. We dined on delicious spinach spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, Frey Petite Sirah from the Redwood Valley and our homemade Greek salad all from the North Coast Co-Op.

From the 304-foot tall, 1,500 year-old Big Tree to the Cathedral Trees through the rhododendrons and along the Brown Creek, we walked the following day more than eight miles in the magnificent old-growth Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We walked beside and around huge redwoods growing straight up from the path, we walked through several towering over our heads and still healthy although their centers were burned out by centuries of periodic forest fires, we walked under several giants fallen due to strong storms and across the fallen sides of some that now sprouted many plants and young trees from their sides. Once we got away from the Big Tree and the Cathedral Trees that were close to the road, we were alone for several hours on our hike wary of bears since there was fairly recent droppings on the path. But we encountered none, so our only danger was tripping on stones or uplifted roots in the path as we craned our necks in wonder at the magnificent giants of our world.

The heavy fog that had been clinging to the coast had cleared out Saturday morning when we drove through the Redwood National Park to the coast on a hard-packed winding dirt road made dark and primeval by the redwood trees and sword ferns growing so close to the road most of the two-way road was essentially one lane. The intermittent cars had their lights on and took turns pulling over at the occasional wide spot. After a few miles, the road suddenly opened to the coastal prairie, sunshine and the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean and we entered the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. After eight more miles on the dirt road that included four small stream crossings, managed efficiently by our little Eos, we arrived at the trailhead for our day hike. Our nine-mile, five-hour hike was in the magnificent redwood/fern coastal forest of the Murrelet State Wilderness. This lush forest obviously benefits from its proximity to the fog of the ocean. The old growth redwoods are enormous and the dominant sword ferns taller and greener than any we have seen. But the most stunning part of the hike was the Fern Canyon with its sheer 50-foot canyon walls draped with five-finger, deer, lady, sword and chain ferns interspersed with curtains of water-soaked, brilliant-green moss.

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