2020-12-05 Roadtrip to the California Redwoods
Heidi and Erica have been wanting to road trip for pretty much all fall so finally we got our act together and decided to go look at big trees! Instead of renting an RV, we took the all but one row of seat out of the Sprinter and set off for our 740 mile drive from Redondo Beach to Crescent City, CA. We broke the drive up into two legs, spending the first night just north of SF. The day two leg started at 6:00 am on Friday which took us right through the Avenue of the Giants. This 31 mile stretch of highway runs parallel to the 101 and is home to some of the largest redwoods in the area. There are picnic areas, fields, valleys, drive-thru trees, hiking trails and even shanty towns. We didn't have a lot of time to stop this morning since Heidi had to work so we bolted through to our final destination, Crescent City. Heidi set up shop to work remotely in the back of the Sprinter made up of a cooler and roller bags. The rest of us along with the dogs hit the town, with drinks...
There were two very ornate Victorian houses in Crescent City. The Pink Lady is weirdly a vacation home that you can rent like an Airbnb. However across the street is the Carson Mansion and is much larger. Built in 1885, it is now preserved and maintained by the Ingomar Club which is a members only club where you can have an opulent dinner and attend fancy social events. You know you want to sign up.
After drinking, eating and exploring the city all day, we went back to the Sprinter to wait out the rest of Heidi's work day while we take a nap on Ellie's giant Tempur-Pedic dog bed. Then we head out to explore our Airbnb and the great coastline that is next to it.
Day two has Heidi working back at the Airbnb while Erica, Holly and I go back to the Avenue of the Giants to spend some time exploring, unsupervised. We were allowed to do anything, which meant we climbed around and Holly touched every tree she could. We stopped at the very first field and almost immediately realized how lucky we were to be able to roam around by ourselves with no one else around. We tried to limit our time at this first stop but still spend 30 mins at our very first spot.
We finally get back onto the Avenue of the Giants and keep driving but almost immediately see another field with a giant redwood root showing. Apparently redwoods have very shallow root systems that intertwine with other redwood tree roots that help with stability. In addition, redwood trees grow branches in a way that keep the tree balanced and therefore do not require deep roots.
The bark on the redwood are great insulators for the redwood and store a lot of the tree's moisture. This allows for the trees to remain standing and even alive after having their trunks burned from the inside out.
There were small little towns throughout the avenue. This one had a couple gift shops, a motel, and this sweet old saw mill blade. It about the height of the Sprinter ~ 8'.
We stopped in Founders Grove in search of the Dyerville Giant. This redwood was approximately 375' tall, 51' in diameter and weighed over 1 million pounds! It fell in 1991 and is recognized as the "Champion" coast redwood.
We had to go back to the entrance and get a map to find where the Dyervillle Giant was, and this was it! This thing must've sounded awesome when it fell, look at all the splintering!
We finished the day at the Shrine Drive-Thru tree and park. The Shrine tree is one of 3 trees than you can drive though. Of course the Sprinter didn't fit but apparently you can fit a 4runner through it. This tree has one very heavy branch hanging off one side to help counter act the angle of growth of its main trunk.
This park also had a tree on its side that they paved over so you could drive your car on to it and take a picture, but more fun they has two actual tree houses made out of the bases of two redwoods! There were working doors and windows and even a second level with shady stairs.
Okay, day 3 and Heidi doesn't have to work! Yeay! Its a big day for us as we decided to make the 2 hour drive up to Fern Canyon. The highway stuff was a piece of cake and it ended at an Elk viewing preserve. We took a quick hike to the center of the field but didn't see any Elk. We did however catch some amazing greenery.
Once we were at the end of the highway, we still had 8 miles of very narrow road that was pretty rough terrain. On the way in was a piece of cake and we didn't come across any cars trying to go the other way; the way back was a different story. The super windy road wrapped around giant redwoods and douglas firs and even took us through a couple small streams before dropping us off at parking lot. We left both dogs in the car together and hoped they wouldn't kill each other then left for the short hike to Fern Canyon. These pictures speak for themselves and we were lucky to have arrived super early and had the canyon to ourselves for over an hour.
After being spoiled with two days of almost isolated touristing, we headed into the Disneyland of the redwood coast "The Trees of Mystery." Its basically a park with a bunch of really big trees, some history about them, a treetop Canopy Trail, a gondola up to the peak of the mountain, a tree that is a wedding chapel, some weirdo tree carvings and some fun tree facts.
Some of these trees are 3000 plus years old, literally older than (AD) time.
Just a short drive back to the Airbnb before one more night of partying and card games with the girls and the pups to complete our road trip. But first, lets stop at this beach for some pictures, oh wait, its bananas windy.
Fantastic trip everyone! We can't wait for the next trip with you three!
