Woke up and futzed around the RV this morning. Mom and
I did laundry (more Mom then I), while Dad tried fishing again, without
any luck. Mom and I then went for a walk to the beach, where she found
two interesting rocks. The kind you can paint your name on and sell
in a gift shop.....you know the kind. Mikey loved the beach. Finally
on the road by 12:45pm. Traveled through Coos Bay, Bandon and Brooking,
then finally into California. You could tell as soon as you crossed
the state line that you were in California by the presence of four casinos
within the first 10 miles, the homes built close to the beaches, and the
jump in number of liquor stores. Great weather the whole trip, but
ran into some fog in Crescent City. Out of that pretty quickly, at about
the same time that we started first seeing the giant Redwoods. Stopped
at the first RV site just past the Trees of Mystery (giant Paul Bunyan standing
out in front) site? museum? exhibit? (Mystic Forest RV Park, a member of
the Good Sam campground association). Setup the RV site, then dropped
Dad off at Lagoon Lake, the only place around with a fish sign on the map,
then went down to Klamath to check out the area. Klamath itself is about
10 by 3 blocks long, built of prefab and mobile homes. There are several
more RV camps, all about the same. For the life of us, we couldn't
find any Klamath River fishing access, although the national park people
said the this was a good site. We went all the way out route 169.
Will have to try in the morning. The AAA guide says that
the Trees of Mystery is a forest of redwoods containing some odd shaped trees,
some 2000 years old and 300 feet tall. There are chain saw figures depicting
the story of Paul Bunyan. There's also a canopy gondola. Maybe
I can get Mom to do this tomorrow. There's also a "drive-through" tree
somewhere nearby.
Things I've learned about Redwood trees. They only grow along the
Northern California coastline. Their presence has caused the development
of 3 state parks, Jedediah Smith, DeNorte and Prairie Creek, all of which
are cooperatively administered with the Redwood National Park. Redwoods
are the world's tallest living tree, start from a seed the size of a tomato
seed, can live up to 2000 years old (avg 500-700 yrs old), have bark that
is 12 inches thick and a base up to 22 ft in diameter. The roots only
go down 10-15 feet, but spread out 60-80 feet from the base. If cut
down, or burned, new trees sprout up in a ring from the tree base. We saw
many of these near the road this afternoon.
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Southern Oregon Coastline, view south
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Southern Oregon Coastline, view north
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