Port Orford, OR

Battle Rock area at Port Orford, OR

Cape Blanco LIghthouse

Up until a couple of hours ago, these pictures are the only proof that I had that the sun actually shines along the Oregon coast.  Think "rain forest" when visualizing the Oregon's coastline.  Pretty, green, drizzle.  Even the weather channel couldn't get it accurate.  A sunny, 10% chance of rain forecast for today was actually a drizzle, overcast,  one-and-half hour trip up the coast to Winchester Bay.  But the sun is out now, and we can see the bay out the back window.  And it's clear all our windows need cleaning!

View from the Coastal Trail at Camp Blanco State Park

Port Orford was a nice stop over.  We stayed at the Camp Blanco RV Park.  It's a small park, but you could walk all around the small town if you wanted to do so.  Owner was great.  Power and water was fine.  But Port Orford wouldn't be a stop I'd recommend for a week.  You'd be better off staying at Gold Beach and driving up for the day or make it an overnight stop on a trip along US 101.

Gold Beach (from Cape Sebastian)

We manged to get in visits to the Camp Blanco State Park & Lighthouse and Cape Sebastian.  Turns out the point where the Lighthouse sits at Camp Blanco State Park is the most western part of Oregon.  Plus it was interesting to visit the Hughes House and learn about the settlers in the area.  Cape Sebastian was a state park overlook with easy access to the Coastal Trail.  We took walks at both and enjoyed ourselves.  We'd got out more, but the rain/drizzle just sort of "dampened" our stay.    

View from along the Coastal Trail (Cape Sebastian)

Rain or shine, the views are gorgeous.  As you can see it's a rugged coastline.  No idea how to reach the beach from Camp Blanco State Park.  Probably a trail from the Hughes House.  To reach the beach from Cape Sebastian, you climbed a rope down. You could reach the beach at Port Orford, and we saw people doing that.  But if it's beaches that you're after, go to Gold Beach.  Just more to do there.

So that's it for us.  We'll let you know how Winchester Bay turns out.  We've always heard great things about the RV Resort here and it's nice.  Only problem I can see at this point is that there's good crab cakes within easy walking distance of the RV park.  And fudge.  And shrimp.  Later, David

Redwoods Natl and State Parks, Crescent City, CA

False Klamath Cove (Yurok Coastal Trail)

Crescent City Lighthouse

We've had a great stay at Crescent City.  This was our jumping off point to visit the Redwood Natl Park.  Wasn't until we got here that I learned that the state parks (Jedediah Smith, Del Norte Coast, and Prairie Creek) are run in conjunction with the national park as one unit.  As a causal observer, I'd say they're doing a nice job of pulling it off, too.

We delayed our arrival to miss traveling during showers.  Once arriving we had a few good days of weather, but got rain the last couple of days.  Apparently, the trick up here is travel between showers!

Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

We got walks in on the Yurok Coastal Trail (Redwoods), Ah Pah & Revelation Trails (Prairie Creek), and Stout Grove & River Trails (Jedediah Smith) before the rain set in. We also found the scenic drive at Crescent City to be beautiful, too.  Pictures never do it justice, but hopefully the few pictures here can give you an idea of what we saw.

Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith State Park

While here we stayed at Redwoods RV Resort north of Crescent City.  It's amongst the redwoods, so its pretty scenic in and of itself.  Unfortunately, as a full-time RVer, I'm learning to dislike parking under trees.  If we were to return, I'd probably look at another RV park in Crescent City.  And I'd probably stay three weeks instead of one.  Lots to do here!

So after a week at Crescent City, we moved today to Port Orford, OR to check this area out.  Yelp says there some good restaurants here, and the RV park owner gave us some good tips, too.  Now, just how much is it going to rain?  Later, David

Crescent City's Pebble Beach

Redcrest, CA

Trail along the levy at Fortuna, CA

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

We've spent a great week here at Redcrest.  Side trips to Humboldt Redwood State Park, Eureka's Fort Humboldt State Park, the Founder's Grove, a short walk down the Bull Creek Trail, a day trip to the "lost Coast" (Shelter Cove), and the Humboldt NWR were the order for this week.   We stayed at Ancient Redwoods RV Park, and it worked great for us.  It's just off of the Avenue of the Giants (we like to call them "gentle giants"), so every time we pulled out of the RV park it was like driving into a national park.

The pictures here give you a feel for what we saw:  huge, tall trees; flat deltas; and a rugged coast.  Of particular note was the drive over to Shelter Cove.  It appears as a summer hangout away from everything.  Not many people there when we stopped by.  Frankly, you could get there easier by general aviation aircraft than by vehicle.  No major roads over there.  Hence the name "Lost Coast".  Of course we found seals, though, and they're always entertaining.

Founder's Tree

Hope you enjoy the pictures.  We've delayed our move to Crescent City by a day to keep from traveling in the rain.  Turned out to be a good, lazy day, and we were able to wash the truck and re-caulk some areas on the trailer after the skies cleared.  Just wish I could make those pretty, lean caulk lines like the professionals do.  At least it's not too obvious with clear caulk!

Anyway, that's it from here.  Later, David

Dyerville Tree - once one of the tallest.  Now the longest log.

Shelter Cove, CA

the seals, the seals...

Shelter Cove, CA

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes Lighthouse

Point Reyes Beach (looking north)

Our stopover at Petaluma, CA was to allow us to get the truck washed & waxed and visit the Point Reyes National Seashore.  When we were here two years ago, we overlooked this park and wanted to see it while we were still in this part of the country.  We only saw the highlights as we spent just two half-days at the seashore.  Like many national parks, you can spend years visiting this park and learn something new with each trip.  The weather didn't really cooperate on the second day, so our views of the seashore are somewhat muted (but also dramatic in many ways, too.)

First day out was to visit the main visitor center at Bear Valley and get the lay of the land.  As noted above, lots to do here but we concentrated on the easier walks.  We decided to take a couple of walks around Bear Valley.  Here they teach you about the local Native American culture and the San Andreas Fault where they still maintain the fence that moved 16 feet north during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Drakes Bay from Chimney Rock Trail 

Day two was out to Point Reyes to see the light house (closed during mid-week) and walk the Chimney Rock trail.  Jacket weather was the dress code for today.  Windy with fog rolling in kept you cool, but seemed to amplify the elephant seals' calls from the beaches below.  The views are gorgeous despite the low visibility.  Too bad we couldn't see further, though.

Unfortunately, there's no local housing or RV pads for volunteers.  So it looks like this place isn't a future volunteer option for us.  That's way too bad since there's lots to do here both as a volunteer and on your days off.  Oh, well, Donna's already planning to come back!

As for us, the plan is to move tomorrow to Redcrest, CA for a week and start checking out that part of the country.  At least that's the plan...until it changes.  Later, David

Chimney Rock

View from a trail at Bear Valley Visitor Center

The fence that moved during the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

Panorama of Chimney Rock trail (looking west).  Drakes Bay is on the right.

Terry & Wayne fly out for a visit.

Betabel RV Resort, San Juan Bautista, CA

Henry W Cole State Park

Terry & Wayne made it out successfully (and we assume back, too.)  The highlights:  Henry W. Cole State Park, Pebble Beach's 17-Mile Drive, a little of the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.   Pinnacles National Park didn't work out (too hot & crowded), and we never made it to Frog Lake at Henry W. Cole State Park.  But f you look at the pictures, I think we did OK.  Hopefully, they'll feel like they had a trip out vs. feeling like it was just a dream when they're settle in back at home.

Hollister Observatory 

If you decide to come this way, we highly recommend the 17-Mile Dive and a walk through the redwoods at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park.  Visiting the state park will ensure you get a taste of the PCH, too.

On the home front, we finally ditched the (piece-of-junk) Verizon 4510L MiFi.  I kept an eye on the 4620L, but saw it got mixed reviews from those who use it the way we would.  It was better, but I routinely read of people having issues with it on the various forums.

Spanish Bay along 17-Mile Drive

Finally, Verizon brought out the 5510L.  The reviews for it were mixed, also.  But I found a trend where those who were having issues either bought a bad one and the replacement worked fine, or they really had unrealistic expectations (such as: "I've watched two movies and I'm over my 6GB limit.  This thing stinks!  I'll never buy one again!)  Yep, I'm sure that Mifi is why you went over your data limit. For those of you new to this data stuff, you can't buy enough data to download

and watch a bunch of movies without exceeding your data limit. (You have to buy your data if you're using wireless.)  And the fact that you were able to download the movies and watch them means the MiFi is working just fine.

Anyway, our contract ended Friday and no one has swapped out a MiFi quicker than we did on Friday.  And it's working great.  I've set up one browser's home page to be the MiFi setup page so I can easily check its status.  And the transfer rates are better than tethering to our Thunderbolt.  So we're now good on MiFi.  Maybe we can even start streaming the SFCC services, now.  Well...there is that data issue.

So that's it for this week. If all works well, we move Monday to the Petaluma, CA KOA for a few days & then head north for the coast and more redwoods...unless something changes.

Oh, and don't forget to scroll down for more pictures.  Later, David

Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

Pfeiffer Falls at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park

Big trees...

See?