It was pouring rain and I mean pouring rain when we crossed over into California. The wipers were going as fast as they could and still had trouble keeping up to the pelting and relentless rain. It doesn’t take long to realize that California costs a lot for everything! It is hard coming out of a State (Oregon) that has no tax, into one that charges for everything plus tax!
We continued traveling South on Highway 101 and passed through the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. As we neared the City of Trinidad, we passed a giant herd of elk grazing at roadside. What a magnificent site to see!
Dan and I pulled into Cher-Ae Heights Casino in Trinidad. Where better to spend Halloween night (Monday, October 31) than a casino? LOL Their RV parking is $20 for 1 - 3 nights and there is water available. The RV parking sits high on the hill above the casino and away from the road enough to provide a very quiet space. It is beside the Tribal Office and kitty corner from the local library. So, a very nice spot at the perfect price! On top of that, when we registered our RV in the casino, we signed up for their Crown-Club card and they gave us $10 on each card to start using at the machines! They also gave us a come back tomorrow card that we could get another $10 on. We played the VLTs and lost (of course), we went to their restaurant and shared a prime rib dinner with all you can eat bread, a salad, and prime rib with potato as the main dish. It was a completely ample amount of food for the two of us and the bill? $14.95 plus tax…unbelievable! We did return to play slots the next night and got the other $10 each on our cards, plus by spending $10 of my own, they gave me another $10 for ladies night! We had a lot of fun there, but Dan and I are not big gamblers.
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| Dinner at the Cher-Ae Casino, Trinidad |
Because we decided to stay two nights in the casino RV parking, we took the day, Tuesday, November 1 to explore the Trinidad area a little bit. Thankfully I was able to get wifi to do a little research as to recommended hikes and things to see. Our first stop, we went into the town to a small lighthouse where there were a series of steps leading to the ocean. The website trinidad-ca.com called this area below the Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse, Indian Beach/Old Home Beach which is the site of an ancient Tsurai Indian Village. Dan and I couldn’t believe how close the village would have been situated to the water. This hike I read about on trinidad-ca.com said their was a trail we could take from the lighthouse heading South to Parker Creek Trail, but we quickly discovered that the trail was gone. It had been washed away. So, when we descended to the beach and the waves were so close, we did a lot of running to miss being hit by the waves to see if we could find another trail, but to no avail there was no other trail from that area. Running on the beach and timing the waves was fun and exhilarating though! LOL
Onto the next recommended hike…
We parked in the Trinidad Bay Harbour parking area down Edwards Street in the Trinidad State Park and found the recommended trail North of Stagecoach Road. The hike takes you up onto the sea cliffs high above the ocean. It was a gorgeous and invigorating hike, just what we all needed.
Next, we drove back towards the casino and beyond it down the scenic and winding seaside road South of Baker Beach to Luffenholz Beach with sea stacks projecting themselves from the foamy water. Again, viewpoints are high above the beach here and apparently if you are lucky you may spot sea lions and seals.
After two nights at the Cher-Ae Heights Casino, on Wednesday, November 2 we pulled out and headed South again towards Eureka. Eureka has amenities, but we were warned by locals that this is not the safest of places due to their high homeless population and to be careful as to where we go as it can be “kind of sketchy”.
I found a website, redwoods.info, that recommended some sites to see as we traveled towards the Avenue of the Giants (Redwoods). At Eureka, we crossed over a bridge West then South toward Samoa to go to a restaurant called the Samoa Cookhouse (circa 1893). It was amazing! The building housing the restaurant was the original cookhouse used years ago for loggers that were working in the area clearing the giant redwood trees. They were given three incredible meals a day in this camp style kitchen. Everything seemed to be original in the old building. Dan pointed out that the glass in the windows was original as you could see the waviness looking through them. That was the way of glass years ago. The restaurant itself continues to be set up in the ‘camp kitchen style” with long tables (likely original) that seat ten or more people at each table. A menu was non existent other than the listing on the wall that stated prices for each meal through the day, Breakfast, Lunch, Supper. Each day the main meat staple changes for lunch and supper. Lunch on this particular day was roast beef and this comes with soup, salad, vegetables, potato, brown beans, bread, coffee, iced tea, water, and finally dessert! Wow! Who has room for dessert? Dan did! Lol This is also all you can eat! What an incredible meal and what a cool place.
The back part of the restaurant houses a museum that exhibits old items like gas powered chain saws, cook stove, pictures of workers during the logging days, manual tools, and many other goodies. It’s definitely a sweet find and we would highly recommend a visit to the Cookhouse if you are in the area.
After lunch, we continued South of the Samoa Cookhouse to the Samoa Dunes. On the way, we pulled over and took Piper for a run on the beach. When we returned to our truck and trailer, there was a fellow scouting with his metal detector and he very seriously looked at us and said, “do not leave your trailer where you can not see it. There are people that live in the bushes out here that watch you and when they have opportunity, they will break in to your trailer.” Here again was that warning. Always listen to the locals, they will always tell you what the area is like and what to watch out for.
Continuing down Bunker Road, we went to the Samoa Dunes Recreation Area. This area houses numerous underground bunkers that were set up years ago for protection in case of a potential attack. Doors on the bunkers are welded shut now. The area has since been turned into sand dune recreational land for ATVs and dune buggies.
While we were in this area, we had a weather warning come up on the phone that said in our area to be aware that there was a Sneaker Wave coming that night and to be prepared and always keep an eye on the ocean if you are close to it.
We decided to continue back into Eureka and travel on through the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ where the giant redwoods are. The trees were humungous.
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| Start of our drive through Avenue of the Giants |
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| Look at the size of the tree beside the trailer!! |
We stopped at Founders Grove in Humboldt Redwoods State Park to hike Founders Trail. There is a short hike and a long hike. We opted for the short hike as dogs are not allowed on the trails and we had to leave Piper in the trailer. These are beautiful ancient forests that are protected. Founders tree is said to be the tallest redwood in the area standing at 346.1 feet! The tallest tree before falling was the Dyerville Giant in the same area that fell on March 24, 1991. Measurements after falling showed the tree was 370 feet tall, 17 feet in diameter, 52 feet in circumference, and likely weighs over 1,000,000 pounds! The size of these trees certainly remind us of just how small we are in the scope of the world!
Information taken from: (Founders Grove, Humboldt Redwoods State Park pamphlet, text by Ron Jones, drawings and layout by Larry Eifert)
Continuing on that same day, at Leggett, we turned off of Highway 101 onto the ever winding Highway 1 towards the West Coast again. After sending a personal message via Facebook to our friend Anthony B, he graciously sent us a list of things he recommended we should check out and suggested we follow the Highway 1 scenic route. (Thank you Anthony) It was getting dark and our desire to find a place for the night encouraged us to take a spot at the Westport Beach RV Park and Campground, Westport Beach, CA. The lady there was very nice and gave us $10 off for being a later “walk-in” which we really appreciated as the rates are higher along this stretch of coastline. This was the most we have paid for a spot yet at $46 for the night (regular $56) with full hookups but right near the beach. Beautiful place, but a bit pricy and they charge another $8 for firewood if you want to have a fire.
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| The setting sun, Westport Beach, CA |
In the morning, (Thursday, November 3) we went for a nice morning stroll along the beach and sat with our coffees to watch the waves hit the shore before hitting the road again.
Remember that Sneaker Wave I mentioned earlier? Before we left the RV Park, a gentleman walking by said, “Did you feel that earthquake last night?, 3.6 on the Richter Scale.” We told him that it probably was because of the Sneaker Wave we had been warned about and later as we thought about it, the trailer had seemed to move in the night. I just thought Dan had been up and was moving the trailer a bit as he got back into bed! But apparently that was not the case!
The day was a beautiful, sunny one. Finally we were getting the weather that we were looking for! Highway 1 California coastline lends itself to scenic ocean views and quaint seaside towns. Mendocino is one of these beautifully, quaint seaside towns with cute little shops and restaurants. As it was lunch time, we decided our first stop in town was to eat something. We found a cool little bakery style cafe, ‘Goodlife Cafe’, that seemed to be a very popular place to eat serving healthier dishes such as variety of salads, burritos, sandwiches, and baked items, to name a few. Very delicious. I took some time to look in the various little shops in town while Dan was looking after emails and messages by picking up the local Wifi and cell reception. The Mendocino Country Store located at 10481 Lansing Street in Mendocino is one store I went into where I met owner Michael Gordon. Michael’s store carries a variety of unique gift ideas and boasts a country flare complete with country music lending to it’s country ambiance.
Website: www.mendocinocountrystore.com
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| Panoramic of waterfront cliff area, Mendocino, CA |
The original main street gives way to beautiful ocean views and captivates that small old town feeling. Everywhere you look in this little town, there are old water towers that used to be used to collect the rainwater that was the town’s main freshwater source. Buildings are original and upon speaking with a local resident, we were told that the entire town is ‘a historic development and architecturally protected’. We spent a few hours of our day here taking in the beautiful town. This is a must stop if you are journeying out this way.
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| Original Main Street, Mendocino, CA |
The day was getting away on us, so we decided to find a place to park for the night again. This trek took us down the road past Sea Ranch and Gualala to the Salt Point State Park area. We found a beautiful campsite. In promise and as we have been sworn to secrecy to not give out the location by the regular folks that go there, we can not tell you the specific name of the camp spot. But, it was absolutely beautiful. We camped right near the ocean again, no utilities, $30 a night. We met a group of wonderful people here and we liked them and the surroundings so much we decided to stay for three nights.
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| Sunset from our top secret location! lol |
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| Some shots from our hike... |
Shout out to our new friends, Stephanie, Gus, Heather, Kurt, Natalie, Dave, and Jim. Three different parties of people plus us and we got along like we have always been friends! Thanks to all of you for making this leg of our journey so remarkably fun, for all of your advice and insight as to what to see and do in our travels, and for all of your RVing tips! We sincerely hope that one day our paths will cross again.
For the next couple of days, (Friday, November 4 and Saturday, November 5) we had a great time with our new friends, visiting and exchanging information, and really feeling a sense of belonging somewhere for the first time since our trip started. We went hiking along the ocean and took a look at Stump Beach. We saw the local handful of deer and a their very handsome stag grazing in the nearby field. Driving back to Gualala on Saturday, we went to a little book store and bought a road atlas book of USA, Canada, and Mexico. As sometimes it is difficult to get wifi and get the internet for research, we felt a paper map would be a great thing to have! We stopped at one of the two local grocery stores for a few food items (fairly expensive here). It was nice to take a couple of days to just relax and enjoy the fresh ocean air surroundings.
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| Ahhh...another glorious sunset! |
Sunday, November 6 we hooked up and headed back on Highway 1 South towards San Francisco. Our first stop on this day was at Jenner. We had a bite to eat at Cafe Aquatica located along the highway and an inlet of water that is calm enough for kayaking. A musician was set up alongside the cafe and people were sitting outside eating and enjoying the views and music. Again, another beautiful sunny day!
We continued to Olema passing through Point Reyes Station and Stinson Beach. Olema Campground would be our final stop and overnight for the day. The campground was very lovely and it had full hookups and laundry. (It has been my goal to do our laundry every Sunday) We went to sleep that night thinking about what it was going to be like to pull our trailer over the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco and into major traffic. We knew there would be challenges to come in our next leg of the tour…
Stay tuned, next - Part 2 of California
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