Eureka, Brookings and The Redwoods

We left Fort Bragg on Thursday morning, in the sunshine, enjoying the coast drive for another hour before the road veered eastward, away from the ocean.

The sky turned overcast and then it became downright dark as we drove through the towering Redwoods. Highway 1 twists and turns just as wildly through the Redwoods as it does along the coast.

Pictured is The Doll House Redwood, on Highway 1.









We pulled into The Shorelines RV Park at Eureka, back on the coast of California, about 2:00pm. After setting up we went for a walk around the downtown area, which is graced with a lot of beautiful wooden architecture. Some, like the one pictured below, built by a lumber baron, have been completely restored. Its now a private club for the people who paid for the restoration. Other buildings look as though they’re probably in constant need of a paint job.












Pictured is one of the main intersections in historic downtown Eureka.









In the evening we went to a Chinese restaurant so Janice could indulge herself in her, once yearly, All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. I’m not as big on Chinese buffets as she is because often the places are not real clean. You know, greasy fingerprints everyhwere from the front door to the sneeze guards. It was good though - clean and not entirely deep fried stuff. Cheap too, Bill. Just $8.99 each.

On Friday we hit the road for Brookings, Oregon. It’s the southernmost town on the Oregon Coast and is self-described as the Banana Belt of the north coast. Janice’s brother, Alan, had guaranteed us good weather if we went there and, sure enough, just as we pulled into the Driftwood RV Park, the sun came out.

We spent the afternoon getting an oil change on the truck and replacing a safety chain hook on the trailer that had somehow come off on that winding road. Because of the sunshine we were able to BBQ some burgers and then sat around a camp fire until dark.

Saturday morning we woke to sunshine again and so decided to book another day here, as well as backpeddle about twenty miles to the part of the Redwoods that we missed because the weather had been crappy. About fifteen miles down the road we crossed back into California and then took Highway 297 about five miles to Jedadiah Smith State Park.

We were the only ones in the park when we got there. We walked the Nature Loop Trail and came back to the river to have lunch. The Smith River is a brilliant turqouise colour and contrasted kind of unworldly with the new greens of spring on the trees. Of course some of the Redwoods are massive. We were glad we made the effort to make the trip back.

Pictured are some shots of Jedadiah Smith State Park and the Smith River.

























Back in Brookings we visited the Azalea Park but it was pretty well done this late in the spring and then we followed the Chesko River to Loeb State Park.

Pictured are: Janice, with her new hair colour, at Loeb State Park. I said the Smith River was brilliant - well, the Chesco River was unbelievably blue, as pictured.












Aftet going for groceries we took a sharp right at a sign that said Chesko Point and then walked out to where we could get a view back to Brookings.

Pictured are a couple of shots of Brookings from Chesko Point and, The Little One, as we return along the path.















Tomorrow we're headed for Coos Bay, about halfway up the Oregon Coast. We're going to be in Langley by Friday!