Sara&Grant, Too: Northern California Coast

Grant surprised me Monday morning (the day before Election Day) by asking me if I wanted to take that trip to the coast he'd promised me we'd take "one day". We took off Tuesday. Grant drove over Highway 36 out of Red Bluff so that he could show me where he goes to do his cowboy thing with his best friend, Ben.

Pit stop!

The ranch where Grant visits Ben

The water supply

What's the password?

The little general store/restaurant/post office where we ate lunch in Platina

We think this is some kind of madrone, but we'd never seen them this big or with berries

So pretty!

We turned onto Highway 101 at last and started up the coast.

Not sure of the actual name, but I call this "pampas grass" and it's everywhere! Lovely when backlit!

Roosevelt Elk cows grazing in the sunset

We stayed at a little motel here that had no Wi-Fi or cellphone reception. It was great!

On Wednesday morning, after finding out that we had (I didn't) elected Donald Trump for President, we decided to focus on enjoying ourselves in Nature. Grant had a place he wanted to show me, so we headed up the coast a little ways to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park just north of Orick, CA. From there, Grant took the road to Gold Beach and Fern Canyon. It winds at length through the redwoods, then along the beach through moss and lichen forests, ferns and plants, and mist everywhere!

I wouldn't pick mushrooms, but I guess some folks would.

It's amusing that along the road, I said to Grant, "I hope we see a bull moose elk!" and he laughed, because there's no such thing as a bull moose elk, but he knew what I meant. Guess what met us in the parking lot? These are Roosevelt Elk and this guy was with a harem of about 5 cows. They were magnificent!!! And not at all disturbed by the presence of humans.

We started up the path to Fern Canyon. Everything was drenched with moisture. There was a constant roar in the distance. It took me a while to figure out it was the sound of the ocean!!

Grant at the head of Fern Canyon

We crossed the creek and headed up the hill into the forest.

Banana slug

We decided to walk back to the truck and get Grant's flip-flops so we could walk up the creek into Fern Canyon. We took a detour to the beach while we were there, but found that there was a marsh blocking our way. Also, our friend was out there, enjoying the grazing.

These signs are on all the picnic tables

Hoof prints

Back up in Fern Canyon. I wasn't going to hike up with Grant since I only had faux Crocs, but after several other visitors returned and told me about what to expect, I headed up, shoes and socks be damned. There was definitely no way anyone could get up there without getting their feet wet!

Grant headed out to explore

The walls were running water everywhere!

It gathers in pools which flow into the creek

The heart of redwood

This was as far as we went

On the way out, we stopped at Gold Beach. The sand is fine and white. The beach is pretty flat and the foam that was washing in on the waves was light and frothy. Chunks of it were blowing along the sand in the wind. Grant even took off his shoes!

Every old stump in the forest was a nursery for ferns, plants, mushroom, lichen, fungus, and baby trees!

We headed north again and stopped at a very cool place where Grant had been before, the Trees of Mystery. He wanted to show me the museum they have. I posted pictures from his last visit on this blog, but I took some photos of things he didn't.

Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox

And the gift shop

On the road again. We're headed for Crescent City, but Grant wanted to stop at Wilson Creek Beach. It's very steep and the sand is coarse and black! We will come back to this beach two more time before we leave for home.

We arrived on the outskirts of Crescent City by late afternoon. We drove past a little motel right on the beach, but decided to check it out. It was perfect! We got a room facing the ocean, which we could walk to in 10 steps! We later went into town for dinner and saw that we had made a wise choice. We stayed 2 nights.

Grant call this "bull whip" kelp

One-legged gulls

Indiana Irving

One of the guardians at Ocean World

I only took this picture to show the gawd-awful bedspread

I'm so glad we got this room. I was able to wake up before Grant did and go out with my coffee and camera to greet the morning. The light was glorious. The tide was going out. We looked up a chart of tides for Crescent City so that we knew that at 2:10 pm that afternoon, the tide would be at it's lowest. It would reach high tide at both 8:04pm tonight and again at 8:04 tomorrow morning.

I cut into this kelp to see if it was solid or hollow.

Peace!

My view of Grant from out in the water.

We decided to kind of hang around today and explore Crescent City and environs. We went over to the jetty and lighthouse, drove down again to Wilsons Creek Beach, and then just hung out walking the beach at our motel. At low tide, we walked as far out as we could and I put a rock to mark the water line. It was underwater within an hour.

Ice plant

The park near the pier, jetty, and lighthouse

Wilson Creek Beach at low tide.

Back on Crescent Beach

Our motel from the water line at extreme low tide

Last day. It's Veteran's Day. We're going to head south to see Barbara and Judy and then take Highway 299 home to Redding and then drop down to Highway 36 out of Red Bluff. We left Crescent City at 8:30am and made it to Quincy before 7pm.

First light

Great spot for fist cig and coffee

Misty morning - tide coming in

Couple walking the beach at high tide

Sunrise

Weird, it could be a snake or a piece of cable.

Last looks - peak high tide

Our motel

High Tide on Wilson Creek Beach

The bear outside the Trees of Mystery Museum.

Bigfoot Crocs

There are 4 of these bears on the bridge over the Klamath

We stopped in Arcata to visit with Judy and Barbara

Pit stop

We stopped in Weaverville, CA to visit their museum. It's Veteran's Day, so the streets were lined with flags and it was obvious that there'd been a parade earlier in the day.