We are headed south, out of Oregon and into California! Redwood National and State Parks – we are looking forward to walking among the giants… and sleeping among them too!
We are hoping our visit isn’t marred by smoke from the forest fires. But we are in luck; although the air is thick with smoke as we are driving through southern Oregon, the smoke disappears as we cross the border into California. We are camping in Jedediah Smith State Park – among the redwoods. We are really excited for this campground. Shortly before we pull into the campground, a small black bear dashes across the road in front of the truck. He (or she) just burst out of the woods! And it happens so quickly (s)he was gone by the time we grab a camera.
Jedediah Smith Campground is lovely – it sits beneath a canopy of trees and the Smith river runs alongside the campground. The inside roads are quite narrow and tricky to navigate, but our site is spacious, an easy back-in – and very private. Although our campsite is beautiful it is shaded, dry camping so we have the battery worry – there are no hook ups and our batteries like sun! We pull out the generators and schedule in time each morning and evening to ensure our electrical systems on the Airstream remain fully operational. Our first night we attend a nighttime ranger program on tidal pools, which the adults find interesting but the 8:30 program is a little late for Elle.
Some of the most beautiful viewing of the trees can be done from Rte. 199 – the views from the road are as stupendous as the views from the trails. We drive south to the Kuchel Visitor Center to stamp our passport, get hiking advice and obtain Elle’s junior ranger book. After the visitor center, we take a short loop hike thru Lady Bird Johnson Grove. Towering huge trees and a cathedral-like feeling being among them. Another short hike among the redwoods to Trillium Falls – the bear spray comes with us once we see berry-filled bear scat on the trail.
We drive back up north to the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. On our way we see a huge herd of elk – just lounging on the side of the road. We continue on to Prairie Creek State Park – more enormous trees – including “the Big Tree” – 286 feet high and estimated to be about 1, 500 years old. Next stop is the Drive-Thru Tree in Klamath, CA. We weren’t sure the big red truck would fit! But we managed to make it through! Then back to base camp for a junior ranger program for Elle.
Next day, after more hiking thru the enormous trees at the Leiffer Ellsworth Loop, we race off to make low tide for the day – but it is not very low and results in a very poor tide pooling experience. We only see a few hermit crabs among the rocks. So we return to the redwoods for a 6-mile drive through a scenic (and rustic and unpaved!) road, leaving just enough time for restocking runs at Safeway and Walmart.
