Day 44 - Eureka, CA

We have sun & clouds this morning.

We decided this campsite in Westport must have been our worse KOA so far. They had lousy bathrooms and when I took my shower, my dry clothes were dodging the drips of rain from the skylights overhead. Not great. I guess we are getting spoiled by some pretty nice ones we have had so far... and yet this was our most expensive one ... go figure!!

After a short drive up the coast (see photo of seagull), we entered the forest, leaving the ocean behind for a couple of days we figure.

This road is one of these famous zigzag ones and after more than 50 minutes (28 miles), we were glad to be on a straighter course. We remembered this one from 1993... This road is situated between two mountains so you are literally climbing through a crevice. The road itself is excellent, very smooth. We have to remember that we have a Corvette driver behind the wheel!!

We enter the Redwood Forests. In Leggett (pop. 315), we take a small detour to visit the famous Chandelier Tree (see photo) at 315 feet tall, it measures 21 feet in diameter. It was cut out in the 1930s (see photo of me, usually a car would be able to drive thru but not with the Roadtrek). This is the famous one! It has been featured in National Geographic and many other publications. It is still privately owned by the same family in its 4th generation. Ross remembers going thru it with his mom & dad back in 1964. We will be looking for the slide when we get home to compare and see how much it has grown in the last 50 years.

It is starting to rain. We are back on 101 now. Town of Piercy. Quite misty ahead. Rhododendrons by the roadside. The rain has stopped, sun shining. Garberville. Hills are yellow with green trees.

We take the Avenue of The Giants, a 31-mile road paralleling 101, from Phillipsville to Pepperwood. What an awesome drive. So tall and straight. They are so close to the road. Humboldt State Park. The rain again...the trees love the rain!! Now the sun is almost shining. We wonder how many trees were cut down to make this road possible.... This is when you would like a convertible or a sunroof to be able to enjoy the site of these trees. In some places, you actually drive around them. The forest floor is covered with moss and ferns.

We parked along the road, under the redwoods, for our lunch. That was very nice.

Raining again!! Eureka (pop. 26,000). Found our KOA campsite, we park and take naps. Nothing we can do, it's raining. As before, the rain stopped, but started again. We did a little carpet cleaning, and then the rain. It didn't prevent the beer & chips. Now we have had our dinner, it's almost 9 pm. I have some emailing to do. We hope that tomorrow will bring brighter skies. Tomorrow will be our last day in California.