April 22, 2010: Northern CA Coast and Redwoods (Ukiah, CA to Crescent City, CA)

Today was intended to be a rest day though it turned out to be another day with lots to see and do. I did at least get to sleep until 7:30am instead of getting up at 6am as I had the previous three days.

As I didn't have Internet access, I had to pick my next hotel "blindly" and make plans for the day based on the brochures at the hotel. I chose an Econolodge in Crescent City, CA since it was close to Redwood National Park.

I wanted to drive along the coast on the way up. I needed to get to California Route 1. It was only about 30+ miles to the coast, but because the road twisted and turned so much, it took an hour. There were spectacular mountain views along the way. This was the first of many drives with numerous sharp turns. I used to think the twists and turns of West Virginia, Virginia, and the Ozarks in Missouri were tough. Those states have nothing on the twists and turns in Northern California.


View Larger Map

The first few beaches I saw were state parks. They wanted $8 (cash only) just to park there. I decided not to do this because I would probably only be a few minutes and that was quite a lot. As I continued north, I found plenty of parking areas along the road with free access to the beach.

The water was freezing cold and of course nobody was swimming. On a number of beaches I visited, there were typically large rock formations in the water, plus chunks of odd shaped wood. The wood is typically white or gray in color.

After seeing a few beaches, I decided to visit the Humboldt State Park, which was along the Avenue of the Giants. The road is named for the Redwood trees. I took a number of pictures of very tall and wide Redwood trees and the photos will hopefully be posted soon.


View Larger Map

I passed through a few cities along the way such as Eureka, Fortuna, etc. I had planned on staying in one of these cities on Wednesday night but ruled them out because they were so far away. Beyond that, US 101 (after being joined by California 1) twisted and turned so much that it would have been difficult driving these roads at night.


View Larger Map

There were a number of beautiful views of the ocean from US 101. In particular, there was one I really liked. The road angled in just the right way and it seemed as though 3/4 of what I could see was ocean. Often, US 101 was along cliffs with great ocean views. But, it also moved inland fairly often too. Sometimes it would run right through groves of tall Redwood trees.

As I drove further, I noticed something familiar to my 2008 visit to Washington state. There were all sorts of signs for "Bigfoot" plus various shops selling chainsaw carvings. These are very intricate designs, typically in the shape of animals such as bears. These were all over the Washington state coast and their popularity evidently extends into northern California.

I saw a number of tourist traps along the way, such as ads to drive through a hollowed out but still living Redwood tree, the "mystery trees," the "tree house" (in a Redwood), etc.

It was fairly cold and sometimes windy all the way up. When I got to the hotel, it seemed very cold inside. I needed to turn on the heat, but the heat wasn't working. I had to get the hotel staff to fix the heater. However, in fixing it, there was no way to turn it off. By the next morning, it was 80 degrees in the room.