Once again, the wether looks great for todays drive. We are heading North to Crescent City CA and expect to see more stunning coastal, scenes and giant redwood forests. On the road at 9 am, there doesn't appear to be much more to see, as their major tourist attraction, Glass Beach, is closed for access. It is apparently a beach made up entirely of pebbles of glass (broken glass from all sources) that has been shared by the sea into multi coloured pebbles.
So once again on highway 1, we refuel in town, land only have to go a fews km before we pull over to take in the view.
Looking South in the direction of Fort Bragg
Not long after we pulled over at a vista point, just past Juan Creek, which promised if we walked around 200m down to the water line, we were certain to see wildlife of some type. We did see the white seal (below) finding it's way back down off a rock to get back into the water.
The little cove below was covered in sea shells
Our last glimpse of the coast before we head inland
Not long after this stop, we turned right and headed uphill for a long time, into heavily wooded redwood forests. We are amazed at the number of cyclists on this road (it is a designated bicycle zone), but the hill climbs are incredibly long and steep. From the time we left the coast until we reached the peak of our climb, the temperature had dropped by 20F. Not to be deterred, we saw a
never ending number of cyclists, mostly old enough to know better, taking it on.
After driving through kms of forest we approach the town of Legget, which is where Highway 1 ends, and joins Highway 101. We see a sign which guides us to the drive through tree, which we decide we must see, and after parting with $5 we drive through a small park of redwoods, go through the tree ( and take a photo , and we are on our way). As the day went on we saw about another 3 drive through trees along the way, so our unique experience lost a bit of its lustre.
Our next highlight was a drive through the Avenue of the Valley of Giants, in the Humbolt Redwoods State Park ( 29 miles , mostly of redwood forest which ran parallel to Highway 101 (we suspect it was the old highway. In any case it was a fantastic drive, and the cyclists seem to enjoy it even more, as the traffic was light and it was quite cool in the forest. The trees are enormous, many more than 2000 years old.
At the end of the drive, we rejoined Highway 101 and headed to the town of Eureka for lunch. In no time we have pooled out of the forest and are back on the coast, this happens many times over todays drive.
Eureka is one of the largest coastal towns on the Pacific Coast with a population of around 25,000. It was a major port in its heyday, and now still appears to have a substantial fishing industry.
The marina area where most of the fleet seem to be based
The town has a long history and many well preserved old buildings in the "old town" area down near the harbour. We have a good walk around before settling on a harbour side restaurant for lunch.
We settled in to have lunch at the Bayshore Inn, on the waterfront, and I decided to try the calamari steak sandwich. It was delicious ! The restaurant had a Japanese themed menu, which seemed to go down very well with the locals.
Bayshore Inn, Eureka
Back on Highway 101, and on our way to Crescent City (our stop for tonight), we are tempted by yet another drive through a redwood forest state park, so once again indulge. It is so much more pleasant than tearing along the freeway at 65 mph.
Not long after we are back on Highway 101 there is a sign inviting us to view wild elks, at an elk meadow not far off the highway, so once again we turn off in anticipation. Only a short drive off the highway, we arrive at the meadow, but the elks seem to be taking time off. There are a couple of short bush walks available, so we read about watching out for the bears (somewhat put off by the bear proof design of the garbage bins) and took off into the wild, towards a waterfall.
We only did part of the walk as we needed to get on to Crescent City, but this has to be one of the best places in the world to go bush walking. Along the trail we get close hop to some of the redwoods and it puts their size in better context.
No elks (or bears) were seen, so we headed back to the car to finish our days drive. It wasn't long before we arrived at our motel on the Southern side of Crescent City, near the harbour. The room is very comfortable and there are a couple of nice restaurants near the harbour only a few hundred metres away.
Once settled, we received a call from David Small, saying he had just checked his email, and there had been a major change to our cruise arrangements. Our vessel has sustained propellor damage and has to go into dry dock for repair, so the trip has been shortened to 21 days, from 28, and we will now join the ship at Boston, not Quebec, missing the whole Canadian part of the voyage. Generous ?compensation is offered, but it now leaves us with 7 days to fill in before boarding !!!!!!
We are hardly in a position to cancel outright, as we are now here, so will have to make the best of it.
Will wait to hear more.
In the meantime, we had a lovely meal at The Chart Room Restaurant, an easy walk from our room, and enjoyed a lovely sunset. We can hear the surf breaking and the seals barking as I am typing this at around 9.30pm.
The beach and surf next to our motel
Sunset over the harbour as seen from the restaurant
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