Going Under Cover

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The fog cover was fairly heavy early this morning when Wilma walked out on the beach. Couldn’t see very far in any direction, but by the time we were all up and around, blog and pictures taken care of, and breakfast out of the way, it had lightened up quite a bit. As we got underway going north on 101, we were in and out of the foggy patches.

We pulled into a rest area that was in a redwood grove. There are mostly snags of the huge trees, but a beautiful setting. The only drawback was the state worker yelling at Barney that he couldn’t park in the car section and had to move over to the truck area. He was not friendly at all, and kind of ruined the mood of the grove.

Our first stop was in Trinidad to find a lighthouse stamp. The actual lighthouse was not visible, but there is a replica overlooking a small harbor. Our info sheet for the lighthouse stamps indicated we could get one at a B&B just across the street from the replica. We rang the bell, and the host offered us two stamps. He was very helpful, and one guest said she was really enjoying her stay there.

On up the road, the Thomas Kuchel Visitor Center produced several stamps for our park passport book, and we walked out through a short dune area to the ocean.  There were lots of unidentified plants along the trail, and some very brilliant magenta color wild sweet peas.

  We were in and out of stands of large redwood trees all along this route, and lots of huge rhododendron bushes in bloom. It is awesome.

Heading on north on 101, we stopped for sandwiches at a wide viewpoint along a lagoon, then made our way on up to Crescent City to get both park stamps and lighthouse stamps. The museum in town produced two lighthouse stamps and said if we hurried we could go out and see the actual lighthouse. They would be open until 3:30, so we had about 45 minutes. The walk out to the lighthouse is kind of interesting. There is a switchback ramp that takes you down to a rocky beach area that you pick your way across up to a paved walkway. By the time we got out there they had taken the last tour in, but we talked to the son of the keepers for the month, and he was very informative even though he had just arrived from Kansas City the night before. His parents knew someone that told them about this lighthouse. The keeper actually runs the light, so they take volunteers for a month at a time to stay out there. That could be a lot of fun!

  Leaving the lighthouse, we stopped at the National Park VC and picked up another stamp for our passport book, then made a quick stop at the Grocery Outlet before heading out of town to a campground. We got side by side sites near the end of the campground, and are under the cover of gigantic redwood trees. It is absolutely beautiful. It is a little pricy and will really skew our average cost per night, but the showers are cheap!

The undercover around our campsites is lush with trillium, but too late in the season for the flowers.

After a dinner of orange chicken stir fry, spring rolls and fried rice, we are settled in for the evening. Our meals are excellent. The Roadside Inn is highly recommended!  More from the rock pad tomorrow.