Northern California and into Oregon

We departed the Golden Bear state this morning for Oregon.  Had a drive of only a couple of hours before reaching Brookings, Oregon and Harris Beach state park.  We had no reservations, but lucked up and got one of the premier sites overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Out of  over 100 sites in the park, I thought we did pretty good. We are here for two days.

Yesterday we did quite a bit of riding around the Northern California coast.  The same for late Saturday afternoon.  One of the first things we found was this "farmhouse and barn" tucked away on a beautiful hillside overlooking the ocean.  Apparently, during the early part of WWII, there was quite a bit of fear that the Japanese would invade America and it would happen in a remote area like this.  Thus, the fake farm, which in reality was a lookout station for Japanese invaders.

A part of the view from the farmhouse.

We then drove on out to an overlook, and while reading this;

Turned around a saw this.  I was even standing on the "bad" side of the crack.  Oh, well, it is California.

First thing Sunday morning we headed out to find some large redwoods.  Of course, we had to get in the tourist shot first.

We then headed for the big woods.  The first stop was called "Big Tree".  It wasn't extremely tall, but very large.  The story was that someone around 1900 wanted to cut it down and make a dance floor out of the  stump.  He was going to build his saloon around it.

The undergrowth around all the larger trees was amazing also.  Ferns and moss grew on just about everything, including the road, where traffic didn't keep it rubbed off.

We next found ourselves in the Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park.  Part of Redwoods National Park.  It is thought to be the largest group of old growth coastal redwoods to still exist.  Following are some random shots which in no way can demonstrate the huge size and beauty of the trees and the forest as a whole.  Just try to imagine that it's many times more spectacular than my pictures show them to be.

The cracks in the bark above are nearly a foot wide.

One the way back to the campground, we stopped in Crescent City, CA.  It was one of only a few US cities affected by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.  Their harbor and many fishing boats were damaged by large waves hours after the quake.  All was quiet while we were there though,  only pelicans begging for scraps and sea lions resting and quarreling on the boat docks.

After a short hike up to the local light house, it was back to the CG for an uneventful evening.  That catches things up for now.  Oregon pictures later......jc