After spending a month living among the redwoods in Redcrest, California, we decided to spend a week at the coast in Northern California. We ended up in Crescent City, not very far from the Oregon border.
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| Untamed coastline |
The coastline up here is beautiful and pretty much untamed and there are redwoods here as well. Neither Jim nor I were familiar with this part of California so it was a real adventure for us.
We stayed in an RV Park I chose, sight unseen...It was a pretty run down park, with quite a few permanent residents in older, well worn rigs. But, the price was right, so we stayed. After all, it was only for a week, right? Situated on Highway 101 right across from the beach, Sunset Harbor RV Park was our home for the week. It was really ideally located for us to explore the area.
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| So much beauty (Jim's photo) |
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| Coast near the redwoods |
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| Jim and Babe |
One afternoon we hit the requisite tourist trap, "Trees of Mystery". Our paid admission included a rambling walk through the woods, guarded by a HUGE statue of Paul Bunyon and another of his sidekick, Babe, the Blue Ox, with various works of carved wood art throughout.
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| "Wedding Chapel" among the trees (Jim's) |
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| The Gondolas (Thanks, Jim!) |
Around the middle of the walk, we got on a gondola tram and rode up the hillside through the redwoods. The perspective was a great way to see the trees. At the top there was a viewing platform to check out the surrounding area and we could see all the way out to sea. All in all, an interesting (touristy) stop on our journey.
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| The Locals |
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| Commercial Fishing Supplies |
We spent one afternoon down on the commercial fishing docks after hours, wandering around and taking some photos.
Another late afternoon was spent north of the town, riding up the residential coast road, stopping often to admire the coast in the rising tide, taking lots of pictures. The Battery Point Lighthouse is located in Crescent City and is accessible only at low tide on foot. It was beautiful in the late afternoon sun.
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| Battery Point Lighthouse at Sunset (Jim's beautiful photo) |
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| Where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean |
The weather played a part in keeping us from doing much more....we only had 2 days without some kind of windy conditions and we had a few mornings of foggy conditions. Both of us are glad we stopped there though. Staying right on the ocean is a different experience.
OREGON
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| One of the many water wonders we encountered |
We took two days getting up to our park in Oregon, Foster Lake RV Resort, located directly across Highway 20 from Foster Lake, a manmade lake just northeast of Eugene. The lake was gorgeous and we could see a sliver of it from our site. We stayed here in Linn County, the "Grass Seed Capital of the World", for a month, visiting my brother, Marty, his wife, Trecia, and their kids and grandkids.
One of our first exploratory trips was to a mill on the Calapooia River. Thompson's Mills State Heritage Site is a mill with quite a history dating back to 1858. Jim and I got our own private tour by one of the docents which took about an hour and a half.
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| Millkeepers House built in 1904 |
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| The Mill |
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| Loved the Graphics |
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| Jim and the Docent working the Elevator |
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| The grain shafts |
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| The turbines |
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| Grist Mill Displays |
My sister-in-law took me to a couple of my favorite wineries for wine tasting, the Ankeny Vineyard Winery and the Willamette Valley Winery. Of course I bought some wine! They make great Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris in Oregon. I also found a tasty Sauvignon Blanc at Willamette Valley. Another day, Trecia also took me to downtown Lebanon and we went "Thrift-shopping". There is a whole street with almost nothing on it but 2nd hand and consignment shops. We had a ball wandering around all the "pre-owned" items. I even found a couple of perfect glasses for our tequila shots!
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| Brother Marty |
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| Nephews Marty, Jr. and Glenn |
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| Nephew Michael |
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| Great-niece Davina |
While most of our time was spent visiting family and taking drives, we did manage to visit some of the covered bridges in the area.
"Oregon has the largest collection of covered bridges in the West and one of the largest in the nation. The covered-bridge-building tradition in Oregon dates from the 1850s. Out of necessity, pioneers built with the materials at hand. Douglas fir was abundant in western Oregon and well-suited to bridge construction. To increase their useful life, houses were constructed over the timber trusses to protect them from the damp western Oregon climate.
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| Weddle Covered Bridge |
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| Hoffman Covered Bridge |
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| Crawfordsville Covered Bridge |
The heyday of covered bridge building in Oregon occurred between 1905 and 1925 when there were an estimated 450 covered bridges in the state. By 1977, this number had dwindled to 56."
(Borrowed that section from Oregon.com's section on covered bridges)
We took a drive to Sisters, Oregon one day. It's a quaint little town located south of Foster Lake. When we do our sightseeing drives, we try to do loops so we are seeing new sights both ways. On the return "loop" we ended up driving through the lava fields which surround the Sisters Mountains. Really breathtaking, austere scenery.
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| Sisters Mountains and Lava Field |
Not much hiking at all during our time here. I've been taking it easy, trying to cure some issues I've been having with my hips....lots of improvement so I'm hoping our next stop has us being more active outdoors. Played poker a few times, Jim and I left some money in Oregon!
A BIG THANK YOU TO MY BROTHER AND HIS WIFE FOR THEIR WONDERFUL HOSPITALITY!!
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| Barn on Upper Calapooia Road |
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| Tiger Lilies on Upper Calapooia Rd (Jim's Photo) |
