Crescent City, CA and the start of the Oregon Coast: Amazing Redwoods, Beautiful Ocean Beaches

On July 15, Friday, we left Napa Valley for Crescent City, CA, located 8 mi from the Oregon border. The trip up was beautiful, but long and a bit challenging in places. The scenery became more rugged as we went up 101.

Then we made our way through the Avenue of Giants...giant redwoods that is, with 101 cut narrowly right through them!

Me...I just snoozed away the 8hr travel day!

Our campground is an old fashion one, with a nice big grass play area in the center. The dirt/gravel driveway makes for extra vacuuming which I detest, but I do like all the grass! Our first day, Saturday, Mom and Dad went to one of the several parts of the Redwood National and State Park System which is seamlessly managed as one unit. On the way they found a whole herd of Elk!

Next they made a stop at Kalmuth overpass where a river inlet feeds the ocean and makes for a lot of local whale traffic, but none that day as it quickly went from sunshine to complete fog, something that would happen over and over as the fog moved in and out of the area!

They made their way down to the ocean...Dad said the water was really chilly but the rocks were so cool...

Finally they made their way to the redwoods at Prairie Creek Redwood Park and boy were they big and serene!

It was like a fairytale land...

Mom said it was truly breathtaking...she was sorry they wouldn't let me on the trails! The next day they took me to Oregon, man what a trip! As soon as we started up the state, it became more rugged, more spruce trees!

We started our trip with a kite festival!

Then we headed to Harris Beach, I loved it!

The sand was very dark, Mom said it sort of reminded her of Hawaii black sand beaches...

While there we saw two whales...no pics, too far out but it was cool! By the time we got to our next stop the fog had rolled in...

Next we had a nice lunch stop at Redfish in Port Orford. Now Mom asked the restaurant if I could come sit on their patio. The owner said, "if you SAY he's a service dog!" So I became a service dog in training! I was on my best behavior!

Our view was spectacular!

On the way back we saw a cool bridge over the Rogue River

And some more pretty Oceanside views...

  

The next day Mom and Dad went back to the Redwoods, this time Jedadiah Smith State Park! This is the park where the latest Star Wars movie shot the forest scene...we will have to see the movie again! Mom said they hiked two different trails, both with huge redwoods but the views were quite different! It is almost impossible to convey the shear size...

Our next spot was Stout Grove where the base of ferns was in sharp contrast to the tall redwoods...

We followed up with a 6 mi drive down a one way road through the park, such stunning trees...

We really enjoyed our stop at Crescent City, Ca. Tomorrow we head to Crater Lake, Or somewhere Mom went when she was 3 years old!

By the way, friends that are also friends of our dear friend Brandon, a big birthday shout out this week!