Woke up late this am, around 9. Took Mikey on a nice
on-leash walk in the woods around the Mystic River RV campground. Then
Mom and I went to the Trees of Mystery, a natural memorial to the trees
in this area. It also has a path through the trees with carved statuary
attempting to convey the stories of Paul Bunyan. There is a new (2001)
sky gondola which we took to the top. Very informative. I didn't know beforehand
that I could take Mikey through the site with me. Turns out that most of
the site is recovered from logging that occurred in the 1950's, before the
land was bought by the family
We finally left the RV site around 2pm, headed south through some of the
most beautiful forest anywhere. The most fantastic section was along Newton
B Drury Scenic Pkwy, a route that parallels HW101. We stopped at a site
with a "Big Tree", and knew it must be fantastic if someone labeled it as
being "Big". It was about 26 ft in diameter and estimated to be 1500 years
old. Just south of the where 101 exits Redwood National Park, we saw a large
herd of Elk grazing along a river bed. The coastal fog was only a mild intermittent
problem as we moved down the coastline.
Only made 65 miles today before we stopped in Eureka. Only place we could
find was a KOA campground. Like a mini-city in some ways. Dad went fishing
on the Mad River claiming to see huge (read 40+ lbs) salmon swimming. We
had a quiet time without him in the RV. whew.... Plan is to stay
here tomorrow night as well, to let Dad fish some more and for Mom & I
to go and check out Eureka.
