Last of Northern Cali

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

After crossing the Golden Gate on Wednesday, I posted a call out to a forum we have been using frequently to try and find a camp site, whether it be fee or boondocking along the northern Cali coastal highway. Being in and out of service, we were not able to check until too late, but we would like to extend our thanks to all of our WTW people that commented and gave us the best ideas possible. We traveled up rt. 1 along the coast.












Perfection.



Stopped along this beach to walk the dogs. I definitely don't want to complain, but I'm sure you guys can guess by now that I don't particularly care for the heat and prefer cold over hot weather. This beach looks like gorgeous weather, but it was chilly and very windy. Not the most relaxed pleasant walk when sand is pummeling the side of your face.






We traveled until 6:30 Wednesday and ended up on rt 1 in Gualala for dinner at a place that unfortunately was not good. After a couple decent, at best, glasses of wine and regrettably the worst sea bass dinner Pete has ever had, I hackled our way our way out of the seabass charge (which by the way, we NEVER do-it was THAT bad!). We ended up tucking into a county campground that was suggested to us by a local and four wheel camper owner, at the restaurant. Good news was that the campground was like being in a Jurassic Park scene! Wonderful old forest redwoods loomed above us and ferns covered the floor. Showers were offered for an additional fee, and we chose to forgo using them. We felt after only 24 hours we were clean enough. We had been lucky that past 9 days having our friends homes to use to cleanup daily! What a luxury, right?!

Here's photos of the private spot we picked at this county campground.






We then traveled up rt 1 more to Mendocino. Pete had stopped here on a previous trip with his friend Jeff on their motorcycles, and they thought that the town was cool. We walked it with the dogs and stopped into Dick's Bar to have a couple of beers. We moved onto a small picnic spot along the coast in a state park and sat on rocks with the dogs having a lunch of leftover egg and cheese sandwich, hummus, and some fresh bottled sauce from Papalote Mexican Grill from San Fran.

We kept moving and thinking it was only Thursday, we had a fairly good chance at a camp site at a coastal park. Boy were we wrong. Whether it be the wildfires taking place south east of us or just the busy tourists staking their ground, everything was FULL. We ended turning around after going through Orick, which seemed to be pretty much a ghost town, twice. We settled on a very nice, inexpensive (as Cali sites go!) spot in Elk Country RV Resort, across from Humbolts State Park, for $25.50. They say the elk come between 7:30-8:00 am every morning here by the old school house. Well, Pete and I got up extra early to use the showers, make coffee and wait for these elk. There must have been a fog delay that day, we waited patiently until 9:30 and finally split. It was a clean, quiet site with many picks of different terrain.

As we drove out, we saw in the horse pasture, there were in fact a couple of young elk. Looks bizarre to me, seeing a wild animal in with the horses!








The school house the elk were supposed to gather around that morning had some fog over it.









The coast was pretty spectacular even under the blanket of overcast.






We stopped to view some elk in Redwood National Park.









Going through all the enormous redwood trees in the park. There was hardly anyone on the road.















The thick fog looked as though it was whispering through the forest. It was like being in a Twilight film.



The view crossing over a bridge in the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation.