One last redwood picture

We are still in Grants Pass, sitting at the RV maintenance shop.  They finished the front of the RV today and promise to have the back done by mid afternoon tomorrow.  That will mean one more night here and then to Crater Lake for 1 night on Thursday.  BUT! We have electricity here and considering the triple digit temps today and forecast for tomorrow, we are happy to stay.

One last redwood picture.  These trees are just mind boggling.  Note the adults at the bottom of the picture.  Big, big trees!

Sweat, pant, puddle, sweat....repeat....

whew.  We left the cool NW coast line - highs of 64, lows of 54 - and ventured only 88 miles to the NE, just into Oregon.  Wow - it was 60 when we left, 108 when we got here.  OMG!  IT IS HOT! 

We are having some suspension work/maintenance done on the RV.  Fortunately for us and Smoke, they have us hooked up to electricity so we can run the air conditioning when the RV is not inside the cooler garage.  Hope to be out and on our way tomorrow. 

Still in the Redwoods

Still in the Redwoods, we drove up to a cliff overlook to view the bay/inlet near our campsite.  It was foggy, (not unusual) but a good picture of the relatively small body of water area.

We drove back down the "mountain" and found a local tribe fishing in that small area.  About 8 boats were out and they were catching salmon.

Working together with gill nets, they caught a LOT of salmon!

These fish were specifically caught to give to local police officers who participated in a much appreciated drug raid in the area.  Very nice!

We spent a little time at the beach, full of rocks.

Son-in-law Mat and Simon found ones to walk on.

On our way home, a rainbow~

We have also visited the Crescent City lighthouse.  This is a privately owned and run lighthouse.  First, you have to get there, only at low tide, as you have to walk across a shallow cut to the island while the water is out.

The view from the rocky cut is nice.

Up the hill, and you are at the lighthouse.

Luke sat on the rocks and gazed wistfully at the sea.

The view of Crescent City from the lighthouse is beautiful.

We left as the water began to rise.  It wasn't deep, but we did have to walk through a couple of areas with a few inches of water to get back.  We got back just in time.  Turning around for one last look at the lighthouse, and poof!  The fog was rolling in.

Luke and I visited the port area of Crescent City.  There were only 9 fishing boats there.

A lot of them are away, at either northern Washington or Alaska, fishing.  Some are south, fishing the lower California waters.  Crescent City used to have a packing house for fish and was a bustling spot.  But the packing house left and so did many of the fishing fleet, ushered along with disastrous tsunamis in 1964 and 2011. Actually, Crescent City is the most tsunami prone city in CA, with 34 tsunamis in 80 years!

Ahhhh....sunshine makes for a happy cat.

Oh, and we moved campgrounds.  Lisa needed better internet so she could "work from home" so we both moved to a city run campground on the ocean in Crescent City.  No trees but what a view!  The first RV in the picture is us. 

We will be here for a couple more days, then northeastward for about 90 miles to take the RV in for an evaluation of our suspension system.  Hoping they can make the ride and handling a little easier!

Redwoods National Park

The redwoods.  No, THE REDWOODS!  We were amazed by the Douglas Fir and Giant Cedars, but the redwoods!  These trees are the world’s tallest living trees.  They are a living link to the Age of Dinosaurs.  The scientific species name for the coastal redwoods is “Sempervirens” – that translates to “everlasting”.  And no wonder.  Some of the trees we saw – still living and thriving – are over 2000 years old. Most of the redwoods grow to over 360 feet, they can grow to 30 feet in the first 20 years, with most of the height achieved in the first 100 years.  Their full height will reach the forest canopy by 200 years.  Trunks are 10-15 foot diameters.

Look carefully at the bottom for the people for a size comparison!

 

 

Their foot thick bark makes them almost impervious to fire and insects.  In addition, if numerous fires over the centuries do manage to burn through the cracks in the bark to the heartwood, the mostly water resin does not propagate the fire.  A tree can be completely burned out in the center, but still thrive and continue to grow.  Lisa, Simon, and Bompa stand inside a burned out tree...

Or, you can simply cut them out and they continue to live...yes, we drove through it - twice!

Massive clusters of bud material is collected in swollen bumpy knobs called root collar burls.  Burls form under the ground or, if a tree has the top blown off, at the site of the “topping”.  Burls may remain inactive for generations, but when a tree is stressed by low rainfall or intense fire, the sprouts awake, and new trees begin.  Burl....

 

Ferns grow well in the rainforest atmosphere.  These sword ferns and maiden hair ferns, along the walk, are at least up to Luke's waist.

 

Elk are native to the area and abundant.

 

The trees were heavily logged by the 1870’s and into the early 1960’s.  Fortunately, the State of California recognized the growing depletion of the redwood forests by the early 1920’s and established 3 state protected redwood parks.  But it wasn’t until 1968  that the federal government finally established Redwood National Park!

 

Into Northern California!

Onward southward to Northern CA!  First we had to cross one of the many rivers that run into the Pacific.  This one gave us a nice view of a bridge opening - don't see that very often from this view point.  Usually we are the ones going through it.

We stopped for one last lighthouse site, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. 

We couldn't get in, but our viewpoint gave us a great place to eat lunch.

We weren't the only ones that thought so - this doe was happily munching in back-high bushes.

And then, California!

The coastline of Northern CA looks suspiciously like Southern Oregon....

But, we are camped in the Redwoods National Forest!  Can't wait to start exploring the area.  Last night we enjoyed the campground's Saturday night BBQ - salmon! yum! A band and bon fire to top it off.  Today we are relaxing, took showers, Luke is talking to a fellow camper about small remote control airplanes, and we are headed out to the nearest town (15 miles) for laundry and a few groceries.  Lisa and her family will be here by tomorrow morning.  It's good!

More Oregon coast

On Wednesday we drove northward and explored the historic (aka “quaint”) town of Newport, OR.  BUT!  We intentionally left in time to be at Seal Rock, en route, at low tide.

 

At low tide, vast expanses of sand and tidal pools are exposed, giving us a look at the coastal water creatures.  We did see this non-water creature along the path.  Ugh – a Banana Snail.  Luke’s hand gives it some dimension.  It was huge.  And slow.

 

Here are the tidal pools that we explored.

 

Lots to see – green anemones

 

Pink anemones

 

2 different types of sea stars

 

  

 

Dungeness crabs (ok, I admit, this one is dead and only the shell, but the live one that I got underwater looks like a blob)

 

Seaweed polyps, waiting patiently for high tide.

 

Seagulls, thankful for low tide!  The pickings were easy for this fellow.  He just peeped under the rock shelves and plucked off sea stars

 

Mussels – thousands upon thousands of mussels!

 

From Seal Rock, we drove into Newport, a cute waterfront town that still has an active fishing business.  Of course, if you want to catch your own, you can go out on a “head boat”, bring in small tunas, and pay to have them washed, cleaned, filleted, and iced down.

 

This future fisherman was crabbing off of the dock with mom and dad.  He was quite apt at handling the large crabs.

 

Commercial fishing boats work the waters, too.  This one is rigged for tuna and salmon.

 

There are also commercial eeling boats…ugh.  We talked to one of the fishermen on this eel boat – the eels are big and fat (3 to 4 ft long, 3 to 4 in in diameter) that are lured into big tubs with bait and one-way entrances and then shipped off to Korea for 1) food 2) oil 3) eel skin products like wallets.  These boats are not quite the caliber of the tuna boats – we didn’t want to risk having the nice guy see us take a picture of his boat, so we sort of fudged the shot.

 

Harbor seals are a real nuisance for the fishermen and are occasionally shot. But damn, they sure are cute, lazing in the water!

 

And boy, did we make a happy purchase!  Several of the boats advertise “fresh tuna”, so we thought we’d give it a try.  The first boat explained that sanitary regulations require that they sell only whole fish.  After the customer buys the fish, he can fillet it for them, but the customer has to take the whole fish. A fisherman can’t sell a fish that is older than 4 days from the date of catch.  Some of the boats go out for a hundred miles and stay out for 2-3 days.  That means sell, sell, sell when you return!  He suggested that if we just wanted a piece of fish, we go to a fish market.  We’ve seen the market prices of $8/pound.  So, undeterred, we visited the eel fisherman and then wandered over to another boat.  The nice guy there gave us the same story, but offered to sell us a small (11 pound) fish.  By the time they filleted it, it was 4 large (15 inches or so) fillets and several smaller “belly” pieces.   By the time I cut it up and froze most of it, we had 7 large meals.  Last night’s meal was so large that we had enough left-overs for tuna salad for lunch today.

The boat ---

 

The fish haul ---

 

Oh, and our cost?  $30!!!!

In the afternoon we visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  The lighthouse was built in 1873.  At 93 feet tall, it is Oregon’s tallest lighthouse.  And it still uses the original First Order Fresnel lens, 12 feet tall!  The parts of the lighthouse and lens were brought in by sea (no coastal roads in those days) and assembled on site. 

 

 The setting reminds us very much of Maine.

 

Lots (thousands) nest on the rocks off of the point of land of Yaquina Head Lighthouse.  This mama seagull decided that one of the windows would work just as well.

 

Basking seals are also on the rocks.  Happy fellow ---

 

And look carefully at these two  - rolled over on their backs, taking in as much sun as possible on the bellies.  Not a bad life.

 

 The coastal wind is relentless and hard, probably 25-30 knots constantly on the shorelines.  With July temperatures in the low 60s, we were worn out by the time we finished our tidal walk.  Thought the wind would blow us down at the lighthouse.  The climate is pleasant, but the wind!  Oh, wow!

On Thursday, southward to the southern part of the Oregon coast.  Not nearly as many pictures, as we took our time at our stops, plus wandered around a couple of little towns (ice cream!!!)  Our first stop was another wind blown beach, this one with high dunes.

 

This “rock” is actually a sand ball, formed much like a snowball by being blow by the wind along the beach, picking up size as it goes.

 

Tsunami debris warnings are posted at all beaches.  I have a picture later of a boat that is washed up on the rocks for the tsunami in Japan 3 years ago.

 

Next lighthouse, Heceta Head Lighthouse.  This only 56 feet tall, but due to the strategic location, it is rated as the strongest lighthouse on the Oregon coast.  Again, a First Order Fresnel lens, this lighthouse can be seen 21 miles from land.  We got a tour up into this one.

 

Here is the lighthouse, lighthouse keeper’s cottage, and associated buildings, from a nearby point.

 

We were idly curious by the mention of a natural site where carnivorous plants grow.  Oregon has a fantastic free guidebook; one that takes you milepost by milepost along the coast, with descriptions of every interesting site along the way.  Now, we’ve seen carnivorous plants – like the little Venus Flytrap sold in Wal-Mart, but decided to go the mile of so out of our way to see what the excitement was about.  Oh, my!  Thousands upon thousands of Darlingtonia carnivorous plants in one small bog area!

 

 

Not only are there thousands of the plants, but they are not 6 inches tall, they are over 3 feet tall!  So beautiful! (and no bugs in the area, either!)

 

Friday, further south to explore the Oregon Dunes.  This large dune area (you can’t see it all) is set aside specifically for recreation.

 

What type of recreation?  ATV’s and OHV’s!

 

The parking lots associated with these dunes are filled with enormous RV’s pulling enormous “toy haulers”.  I can’t imagine negotiating the roads in something this long! And speaking of motor homes, campers, trailers, all sorts – there are more here per square foot than we’ve ever seen!  Federal campgrounds, state campgrounds, commercial campgrounds, side of the road, waysides, everywhere, motor homes.  They are packed in every imaginable spot.  And there are lots of spots.

 

The Umpqua River Lighthouse oversees the dunes.  It is identical to the earlier visited Heceta Head Lighthouse, perched on a 165 foot elevation.  The site is also the location of the family housing for the Coast Guard.

 

We did walk to see some of the dunes closer.  This one is slowly being reclaimed by the native red fescue grass.

 

Lunch in Coos at a recommended fish market/café.  Rather small!  But the clam chowder was thick and wonderful.

 

After lunch, one more lighthouse.  The Cape Arago Lighthouse is not available to visit, as it is owned by area tribes.  Luke caught a nice view of it.

 

This same viewpoint gave us the classic Oregon coast – so beautiful!

 

Last stop for the day was at the Simpson Reef, where the largest haul-out on the Oregon coast for marine mammals such as sea lions and seals.  The Stellar sea lions and the seals were there!  The California sea lions won’t arrive for another week or two, but the volunteer said that when they do arrive, there are thousands of the noisy rascals. There was one Elephant Seal.

 

Yet another classic Oregon coast picture from that viewpoint.

 

The volunteer pointed out tsunami debris in the area.  This picture shows the debris, the hull of a boat, floated over from Japan.

 

Here is the actual location and why they have not recovered the debris.

 

We still have no internet or cell at our campsite, so I am preparing this blog and will try to post as we travel tomorrow.  ************whoo hoo!  posted!! *****

Our new campsite will be in Klamath, CA, near the Redwoods National Forest.  Lisa and her family will be joining us there for the next week!