This is a photo overlooking Crescent City, California, ten miles south of the
Oregon border on Highway US 101.
We had the opportunity to view some places along the way where the
road ran only a few feet above the ocean. Note the whitecaps on the water. The
wind was again cold, gusty, and strong.
Big Trees Country. I thought we would travel to one of the many groves
of standing Redwoods. But, the road soon turned to very loose gravel. Doug
manages to turn around without incident, as did I. No spills.
Another awesome view. This one is in Oregon. Sill on US 101.
A view of US 101 (Still part of the Pacific Coast Highway), in Oregon.
Excellent road so far in Oregon.
We stopped in Gold Coast, Oregon for lunch. Young elk were roaming unmolested and
apparently unthreatened. When Doug approached the doe above she ignored him, and then stopped and left a little something for him before trotting off to the next rose bush.
Day thirteen. Overnight in Coos Bay Oregon. All is well.
We continued north on US Highway 101 out of Eureka, California. The Pacific Coast Highway is now US 101, and so far has been excellent, with few of the curves and turns of the state highway in California. There have been some exceptions to the tight curves, but very few.
We are overnight in Coos Bay, Oregon (Pop. 16,000). Coos Bay is the largest city on the Oregon Coast.
The morning in Eureka started out quiet chilly at 53 degrees. It was dry, and there has been no rain throughout the day. The temperature reached 63 degrees along our route, but by the time we got to our destination it had dropped below 60 degrees (to 59) once more.
Much of the Pacific Coast Highway on which we travelled today was designated as "The Redwood Highway", as it skirted the western edge of the Redwood State and National Forests. Redwoods (commonly known as sequoias) generally refers to a species of trees which occurs naturally only in groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.
Giant sequoias are the world's largest single trees by volume, and grow to an average height of 164-279 feet. As a frame of reference that is as tall as buildings 16 stories to 28 stories high. Record trees have been measured as tall as 311 (That is over 30 stories in height.) feet high and 56 feet in diameter. The oldest known giant sequoia is 3500 years old. Think of that. It was 1500 years old at the time of Christ. If you are interested you can follow the link below:
Doug and I wanted to see some of the larger groves so he followed me (reluctantly I am sure, but being the good sport that he is he did not grumble....as least so that I could hear him.) up a mountain on a one-lane road that went from blacktop to dirt and loose gravel. We continued until we saw that the grove which we wanted to see was still another three miles still further up a road that appeared to be getting progressively worse. We managed to turn around and return to 101, and continued our trek north.
Many of the small towns (And there were a few, with population of less than 5,000) along the coast had ties to the timber industry. Those that grew to any size (Crescent City, Eureka, and Coos Bay) all had deep water ports that allowed them to more easily ship lumber to the great cities along the west coast, principally San Francisco. Several fortunes were made in the lumber and shipping business soon after the turn of the 20th century.
US 101 in Oregon has been a very good road so far, with wide, smooth lanes, travelling through tunnels of trees surrounded by a rain forests. Rain is abundant along the Oregon Coast during the winter months, and drier during the summer season. The coastal regions get 70-80 inches of rain annually, while inland, just over the Cascade Mountains, 75 miles or so, the rain diminishes quickly, with eastern Oregon getting less than 10 inches annually.
All this talk of rain. So far our trip along the entire Pacific Coast has been dry.
Another good day.
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