Humboldt Redwoods-Avenue of the Giants-a humbling experience
It never gets old, that humbling feeling of standing in the presence of something so magnificent you are left speechless.
Located along the Eel River in Northern California, Humboldt Redwoods State Park contains some of the world’s most majestic ancient redwood groves. The park encompasses over 53,000 acres, including 17,000 acres of old-growth coast redwoods.The world-famous scenic drive, Avenue of the Giants is a 31-mile portion of old Highway 101, that parallels Freeway 101. It is by far the most outstanding display of these giant trees in the entire 500-mile redwood belt.
There are multiple pullouts and trails along this stretch, one not miss is the Founders Grove and the visitor center!
The State Park Campgrounds are lovely, but the sites are mostly too small for Myrtle and very dark so we have opted to stay at the Ancient Redwoods RV Park along the Avenue of the Giants, and also home to the Immortal Tree. The park is lovely and open, with both pull through and back-in sites to the woods. Possibly some of the friendliest RV Park owners we have ever encountered. They take reservations, no credit cards needed, when was the last time you ran into that! They have a wonderful store, local beer and wine, touristy trinkets and always a smile:) They delivered our mail to our door! Big rig friendly you DRV folk:)
Bonus, if you come in October the entire park is ringed with berries for breakfast! We just got to see all the blooms-and Banana slugs! No, not slimy, really cool to the touch and well, cool!!! They are awesome!
If you are driving up the US 101, it is not to be missed! There are several side trips worth doing, Ferndale is a beautiful Victorian town to the North, groceries can be had in Scotia, it is a company town founded by the Pacific Lumber Company, formerly known as Forestville until 1888, to house workers for the lumber industry. The town was entirely owned by PALCO until 2008, following the corporation’s declaration of bankruptcy. It has a sad air to it, somewhat depressed, the girl in the grocery store obviously did not want to be there, we won’t be looking for homes here:(
We decided to drive to Fortuna, why of course, there is a brewery there;) Eel River Brewery, we decided to give it a try after our visit to ACE hardware-needed screws for the loose trim on the front roof of Myrtle and now we were thirsty. While the beer was lovely, the food should be missed…very dissapointing, but we came for the beer:) The organic IPA was great! We had a rainy day, glad we caulked the front trim in place and held it down with a 10lb dumb bell;) ah, RV life…When it dried out the next morning climbed up on the roof and screwed it back down! Ready to roll…but that, is another story and I won’t let the cat out of the bag, or will I;) ha! She decided to let herself out;)
Time to say Goodbye to California and HELLLOOO Oregon, we needed some sunshine after the dark woods and spot on the coast sounded grand! Stay tuned amigos and the adventure continues! Groot says he’ll back in the next blog, camera shy this week:)
Ah, you are arriving in Oregon just as we are getting ready to leave and drive down to California. Maybe we’ll pass each other on the road.
Could have done without pictures of the banana slugs!! but the rest were amazing 🙂