MichelleA new year and a beginning of new travels! Happy New Year to everyone! The RV Slide did get repaired in December which is allowing me to get on the road a few weeks earlier than I thought I would. I left Vancouver, WA on 12/27/21, where I spent Christmas with my niece Melissa and family. The rain has been relentless this winter in the Pacific Northwest and although I didn’t want to leave family and friends, I DID want to leave the rain. As well as the snow that started just as I was leaving the area. I headed directly south on Interstate 5 through Oregon, cutting over to the northern California coast and the Redwoods area at Crescent City, CA.
The Redwoods is not just one park, it is multiple State Parks all down the northern coastal area. Crescent City was a nice small town and I stayed at Florence Keller Regional Park that was in the midst of some old growth redwood trees. It was beautiful but dark, wet and cold. I took advantage of several nice days to see Jedediah Redwoods State Park where I walked the Stout Grove loop trail where you can find many large redwood trees; and also the Grove of the Titans trail which I believe was the best trail I walked in this area. The Grove of the Titans were discovered in the 1990s and to save these trees from droves of visitors, a trail was later completed with some elevated areas to protect roots. Very special place if you go.
One thing about travelling here in the Winter is the lack of people. That is fantastic as you can commune all by yourself with those huge trees. Without the scale that people provide in a picture, it is really hard for someone to fathom just how big these trees are. They are the tallest living things on Earth. Some were up to 370 feet tall which is comparable to a 30 story building. Whoa that’s tall! The cons of being here in Winter is that many venues are closed, and many foot bridges across creeks have been removed for the season.
I spent one day in town where I walked to the lighthouse and watched the ocean waves crash on the rocky shoreline. It was a beautiful day and a gorgeous coastline!
At this point I was getting homesick and it was very dark in the Redwoods which didn’t help my mental attitude. After a few days I headed further south to Ferndale, CA just south of Eureka. What a find! Ferndale is on the National Register of Historic Places. Downtown is a nice size and the buildings are all Victorian style architecture as well as many houses. It was a very well kept up town with newer paint on the buildings. There were lots of small shops but many were on winter break given that the December rush was over. Local folks were very nice to me and were willing to chat a bit which was so nice. I stayed at the RV park in the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in Ferndale. It was very quiet at night until the ’volunteer fire department’ siren went off at 4 in the morning. Or when several bands were playing very loudly until close to midnight! The one unnerving thing about this area is the number of earthquakes that occur. Literally every other day and there may be several in one day. Most are super small but I did experience a 4.6 earthquake while here. Yikes!
I drove the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This road is about 35 miles with numerous trails throughout the Redwoods. I really enjoyed the trails in this area so much. The amount of huge trees was fabulous and weather was better here. A little warmer and drier. One tree that was standing when I came here as a kid is the ‘Dyerville Giant’. It fell over in a windstorm in 1991, which is apparently the most common cause of the loss of Redwood trees. This tree was the biggest tree I saw even though it was laying down having a nap! It was 17 feet in diameter and 370 feet tall. They estimated it weighed approx 1 million pounds! It was almost intimidating when standing next to this fallen giant… and a little sad. Only 4% of the Redwoods remain to this day – all the more reason to keep protecting them. It really is hard to describe just how beautiful it is here. Within the Redwood groves, it is soooo quiet! No birds singing, just the slow drip of water that is ever present here in the winter. Green, green, green! Moss, wild rhododendrons, redwood sorel carpeting the forest floor, and ferns everywhere. And the freshest air ever!
As much as I loved the Redwoods, I found a spectacular birding spot at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Reserve. There are trails that wind around small and large ponds of water that are tidal in nature bringing a huge variety of birds. One of the most common here, and a first for me, is the Aleutian Goose. It looks very similar to a Canadian Goose but is smaller and has an added white ring around it’s neck. It is an endangered species and they love to honk, honk honk. There are quite a few Great Egrets here (all white) which was surprising to me. I guess I didn’t think they flew in flocks. I was able to the following: Great Blue Heron, Red Shouldered Hawk (another first for me), Tundra Swans, Black Phoebe, Purple Finch, Northern Shoveler, Yellow Rumped Warbler, Horned Grebe, Marbled Godwit, Whimbrel?, Green Winged Teal, Black Turnstone?, American Wigeon. Some of these I’m not sure about. There were herds of deer in the farm fields around Ferndale, either White Tail or Black Tail. This area is surrounded by pine covered hills while farmlands take up the lower areas. Ferndale is only a few miles from the ocean and the waves are quite impressive on the coast here. Many of the farms tapered off onto the beach and ocean beyond. Another good birding area is the Eureka Waterfront Trail along Humboldt Bay. There is so much to do here and I only scratched the surface. Loved it!
Unfortunately, it is time to move further south to other adventures. If it wasn’t in California, I could see myself living in Ferndale. So long to the Redwoods!
