Entering Redwood country in California

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following is Trev’s account of our experience.

We were camping right on the beach at the base of a hill in a little town that was near a town that was smashed by a tsunami in 1964 killing 12 people. This was all due to an earth quake in Canada. Our camp ground also sat just below the town’s fire station. So in the early hours of the morning, we awoke with a jolt when very loud sirens went off.

Cathy jumped up in major panic and yelled, “A tsunami is coming! We got to get out of here!” … and she was dinkom!

Well you can imagine what panic that caused in the RV. Kaitlin jumped out of bed as fast as lightning and started pulling in the slide outs on the van (now Kaitlin is usually the last out of bed!). Flynn almost fell from his bunk looking for somewhere to run and all the other kids sat starry eyed wondering what was going on and why their mother was frantically running around.

Cathy yelled at me to get out of bed which I did in a hurry. (now that was something as I had badly bruised my ribs the day before trying to sand board and my body was in pain). I tumbled outside to see what was going on.

We had kids’ bikes and skateboards everywhere and all our cables, hoses and septics were plugged in, so I had to make sure Cathy didn’t drive off with everything in disarray. Nobody in the neighbouring vans seemed alarmed. In fact, apart from the siren, all was calm.

Suddenly the siren stopped and you could hear a mass of police and ambulance sirens heading off out of town (obviously an accident down the road). The ocean was as flat as a pancake.

There wasn’t going to be a tsunami today! By Trev

 

 

 

 

 

 

So………..in my defence………….when you see signs like the one at the top of the blog everywhere, read about the neighbouring town being destroyed by a tsunami in 1964, park 200 metres from a beach in a low lying area, dream of tsunamis all night, then get woken with a start with a tremendously loud siren blasting 3 times, I think I can be forgiven for jumping out of bed at 100 mile an hour and yelling at the family to wake up and go as a tsunami’s coming!

But, thankfully…………..a false alarm! It was funny afterwards to remember the faces of everyone as I raced around moving things so the slide-outs could go in, and we could hightail it out of there! Honestly, we have never seen Kaitlin move so fast (maybe even faster than me)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left this area, stopped at Brookings for morning tea. It was great travelling along the coastline – much more interesting than travelling the highway. We passed through the Oregon border into California and so started our journey down the California Coast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The visitor Centre is nearly always the first port of call when we go into a new state and this was no different. Luckily, there was a lovely playground to keep the kids busy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped along the way and found another colony of sea lions. This time Trev got up close and personal to get the “perfect” shot. The kids followed him for a while, but then the smell got too much for them and they left him to watch from the comfort of the RV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We travelled further towards a town called Klamath. On the way we drove up a steep, but scenic road to see if we could spot the Grey Whale migration. To our disappointment, we didn’t see any (although Chayse insisted that the “rocks” were really the whales and that we had a really good view!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the evening was drawing near, we set up camp at a very scenic spot in Klamath. Whilst it didn’t have all the facilities we needed, the view more than compensated and the kids had fun playing the Horse Shoe game which is like Aussie Coyts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back into town which seemed to be an Indian community and visited the Indian Museum and Mystery of the Trees. It had some great icons outside of the building, and we managed to spend around an hour inside learning the history of the native Indians in this area and other parts of America. It was touristy, but very well set up. We also loved the signs made of natural materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on until we reached the Redwood National Park. Redwood trees are supposed to be the tallest trees in the world. They can reach over 350 feet in height and can live for up to two and a half thousand years. We had to bypass the actual drive that went on for a few miles as a huge Redwood tree had fallen across the tourist drive and would take over a week to clear. We came in from the other end at the Elk Prairie Visitor Centre in the State Park. There were several trails visitors could take to really get a feel for the forest and the magnificent trees, and we chose what we thought was a simple one so we could take the pram (or stroller as it is called in the US). The Forestry Department won’t tell people where the tallest trees are in the forests as they have a shallow root system and would probably die if tourists found them. But the ones we saw were pretty tall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst on our walk, we couldn’t work out why we were the only ones on the trail. We even saw signs saying to only come this way in Summer, but on we went. Then we came to a dead end and found out why this trail is best in summer only……….there was a little river blocking our path. Now, normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but we had the pram with us, the water was thigh high on Trevor and the water was freezing! So Trev found the shallowest part (which didn’t have an actual  path to the water’s edge.) We managed to fight our way through the undergrowth, roll up our trousers and walk through the water at it’s shallowest point. I’m sure all of this took just as long as if we’d turned around and found another trail route, but Trev insisted on us having an “adventurous spirit”, so across we went!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it and continued our walk through the forest. It would have been nice to see the tallest tree in all it’s glory, but the trees we saw were good enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We camped nearby Redwood town and met the first Aussies we have seen on our travels so far (two girls working in Canada).

The next part of our journey takes us through some more touristy Redwood tree icons and a campsite on the beach. From there we go inland on my search for a Natural Practitioner to help Akaisha as she wasn’t very well. But more of that in our next blog. Until then…………………