The Redwoods

 

Hello from Redwood National Park! Another amazing location but no WiFi or cell service so we are just catching up again with this post. Looking at the pictures they just don't seem to capture the immensity of these trees! With some of them being over 2000 years old and over 300 feet tall, everything is dwarfed around them. That is our F-150 driving thru a tree...crazy! 

We hiked the Lady Bird Johnson Trail and apparently it was just high enough my cell phone rang and surprised the heck of of me! Luckily I got to talk to Michelle for a few minutes before it dropped my call. 

We walked the ocean beach behind the Kuchel Visitor center and found some shells along the way. On our drive there just outside of Orick we saw some Elk but to me they looked pretty lazy just hanging out in the front yard of some homes. I'm thinking someone must be feeding them...they were pretty content!

 

We had a day that it didn't rain so we took advantage and went kayaking down the Klamath river all the way to the Pacific Ocean! It was quite a paddle, especially with the tide against us. Also new to us were the seals just a few feet away. They were so curious popping up all around I felt like I was in the middle of a wack a mole game among 20-30 seals! It was an amazing experience but man, were we tired afterward!

More hiking in between the rain drops but it was still so beautiful with the lush vegetation at the base of those incredible trees. If I had a dollar for every time Dave said "Oh my, look at that one!"

Check out the truck again in between the two trees...you still just can't imagine how big these things are! I had to walk about a 100 yards away just to try to get the tops in the picture.

We hiked Trillium Falls which you get to after about half a mile but the loop still goes another two and a half miles (which according to Dave was all uphill). It was a great hike and more amazing trees. We drove the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and saw the Corkscrew Tree and the "Big Tree" and were lucky enough to run into another hiker along the way to get our picture together. This next sign seemed to sum it all up though!

We were rewarded at the end of the day with this breathtaking view from our campground the last night there. GOD IS GOOD, LIFE IS GOOD!!! We will have another post soon with our journey down the coast and Glass Beach.

What you do when you get evacuated...

You go to the coast!

We found some fun places to go, thanks to our Harvest Hosts for suggestions. If you aren't familiar with Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome it is a network of either homeowners who have land or a place to park your RV on their driveway or businesses with land or a big enough parking lot. We lucked out with some fabulous hosts in some great locations.  That view is from Willapa Bay Heritage Farm and we were just minutes from the beach...that you can drive on!

 

We saw the world's largest frying pan (good grief, who could cook in that!) and went to the Blue Heron Cheese Company. They also had wine but the smoked Brie was terrific!

The best stop for Dave was the Evergreen Air & Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. The home of the "Spruce Goose", the world's largest seaplane built from 94% wood but not spruce. It actually was built from birch but the media dubbed it the "Spruce Goose" with all the controversy over it. Designed and engineered by Howard Hughes to carry tanks for the war, it was so big they never thought it would ever fly. Given it also had federal funding Hughes was challenged in Washington over it. His response was to take it for a test water taxi and then took it into the air! I think Dave was almost as giddy as Hughes must have been sitting in the cockpit. We had the best docent, who spent extra time with us and even let me go into the restricted area to show how the German Messerschmitt ME-262 got started...by pulling a cord...like your lawn mower! It was a cool place with lots of planes including the one Dave's son Brian worked on in the Navy, the F14 Tomcat.

We are so enjoying the drive down the coast on 101 and there are so many beautiful spots along the way...

One of my favorite's was Cove Beach. It was quite a hike down from the road (top picture shows the tree from the beach and bottom picture is from that same tree looking down) but the view was amazing. I wrote Dave a little note :)

Cool bridges and tunnels...and fog! 

We are now in Coos Bay, OR and our campsite is right on the bay. Clearly Pappy & Noodle are enjoying the views!

The location here is great because there are 3 state parks within 15 minutes. Gorgeous views and from the overlook at Simpson Reef we saw so many sea lions, seals and whales! It was so cool! Our cameras couldn't capture the whales but all those brown blobs are seals & sea lions.

We have enjoyed Oregon but as you can see in the pictures we're wearing long pants and shirts so it's time to head further south! Noodle wouldn't cooperate with a smile but even he is snuggling in getting ready for the Redwoods. Thanks for reading and following our blog!