Klamath is Kool

The last couple of days were some more tough ones. Sunday we worked our way another 20 miles up the coast and Monday we took on 60 miles!! Yes - a whole 60 miles - which really made for a long day!!!!!

The Chamber of Commerce writers for the towns of Eureka and Arcata are really something. Based on the “101 Things to Do in Humboldt” (county), we decided a move 20 miles up the road to Eureka was in order to check out these two ‘cute’ little towns. NOT! Don’t think we even have a picture. The best I can say about the two is - a little Mexican restaurant in Eureka provided a venue to watch the miserable Laker game on Mother’s Day and Arcata DID have a couple of cute little shops.

So - not to let any grass grow under Magic’s tires, Monday took us 60 miles on up the road to Klamath. Most of this day was guided by cousins, Walt and Jan, who had provided their wonderful travel log of this area.

Since our mornings are getting later and later - we didn’t pull out of our parking spot in Eureka until around 10:30! (In fairness - a couple of errands had to be accomplished in Eureka this morning. A long overdue package needed to get in the mail and Gary needed a Notary. A good thing is in the works. Perhaps you remember that we spent about 10 days in CA in the early part of our trip getting Gary’s Mother’s house ready to sell. Well it was listed on April 1 - they had an offer on April 29 - and it is to close on or before the end of May!! REALLY, REALLY good!! But, this means that he is regularly getting documents that have to be read, signed and returned. Some notarized. AND, trying to do this with ‘sometime’ internet connections and ‘almost never’ cell connections! It has been a REAL challenge. Thank goodness for his brother, Ken, who is coordinating all of this from California and dealing with the ‘sometime working’ Skype connections;-) )

So - back to our travels from Eureka to Klamath. Barely on the road and it was lunch time. Looking at the map and Walt and Jan’s travel log - it appeared that Patrick’s Point State Park via Big Lagoon would be a wonderful, beautiful place for lunch - and we could hunt for agates. The entrance to Big Lagoon was picked because it had a boat ramp - so must have room for something like Magic, including room to turn around. Turns out it did - it was just the getting there that was - ‘interesting’! But then, we are OK with these roads - and in fact, LOVE them. They make the trip that more interesting.

Watch out for low hanging limbs!

Our lunch spot was exquisite - and the agate hunting was fun and productive.

Big Lagoon.

Hmmm, is this an agate?

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but almost the entire distance along the beach we encountered these Tsunami warning signs. Would have never given them a thought if not for recent events in Japan.

Paid closer attention to these this trip.

One more quick stop - the Visitor/Information Center for the Redwood National and State Parks to get info to plan the next couple of days’ activities. The flowers were so beautiful at the Visitor Center we couldn’t resist a picture -

A thorn amongst roses?

Time to check out the recommended (again by Walt and Jan) RV parking spot for the next three nights. What a find! Right on the Klamath River just before it empties into the Pacific Ocean. AND, again, we are at that time of the year - just before the rest of the world is drawn to this type of place - so we have it almost all to ourselves;-) AND, what a view out our front window!

Today's destination.

Views are not bad.

Lots of room and nobody around.

Good morning, river! (View out the front window.)

After a great dinner of flank steak, corn, rice and s’mores, we planned our next day and ‘hit the sack’.

Tuesday, May 10, was a wonderful day! The ‘Ancients’ were calling again - so after obtaining a pass (free) for the Tall Trees Grove from the Ranger Station, we were on our way. Seven and a half miles past the Lady Bird Johnson Grove is a turn-off for the Tall Trees. Then you go thru the locked gate (got lock combination along with day pass) and travel six and a half miles down the dirt road to the trail head.

Let's see, you put the thingamagiggy in the whatchamacallit and then twist.

Another adventure!

The hike is 1.3 miles in to the loop trail of 1 mile, then 1.3 miles back out (with an elevation climb out of 600’). This is one of the most beautiful - if not the MOST beautiful - hike we have ever taken!! If you are ever in the area - DO NOT MISS this one! While it is described as taking about two hours - we used up every bit of three. Of course, there were a LOT of pictures to be had of the Tall Trees.

Tunnel of love! Trees are too BIG to move off the path.

Elizabeth just about fell over backwards trying to see the tops of these guys.

Not much to say, they are humbling

Part of the reason it took so long to hike in is that Gary has developed a fascination for the Banana Slug - a VERY gross looking ‘thing’ that eats everything on the forest floor and redistributes it along its way. Given the color of the slug and the first color of the old VW vans - makes one wonder if this is where “Slug Bug Van” came from?!?!?

This banana slug is about 5 inches long. BLAH!!

We ‘did’ the loop in the Lady Bird Johnson Grove - which was quite nice - but, after the Tall Tree hike it was more like a manicured garden. Not sure what my fascination is for the redwoods that have been burned out - but, it just intrigues me that they can be hollowed out from fire with a hole that dwarfs Gary and still be living!

Open sesame.

One more picturesque loop on the way back to the bus - The Coastal Drive. Beautiful views of the ocean from the bluffs -

Great view from the coastal road near Klamath, CA.

There is also an old radar installation from WWII. Due to Japanese sub activity off the coast of California, this radar unit was installed and placed in these buildings to appear as part of a working farm. Pretty interesting -

Believe it or not, a WWII radar site.

Did you notice that the dormer windows are just mounted on top of the roof shingles.

All in all - another wonderful day that wore us out!! Gotta get to bed for another busy day tomorrow.

See ya - Elizabeth & Gary from Klamath River