Sunday, February 10th 2013
Fort Bragg to Eureka
Similar morning, woke up around seven,
get ready and packed and leave. It was a bit hazy and cold in the
morning. We got gasoline and coffee and drove towards the beach. It
was quiet and peaceful. We could not imagine better beginning of the
day. We left the town and were heading towards the first redwoods and
apparently famous Avenue of Giants. It took us about two hours (or
longer) with many stops along the way to enjoy the scenery.
The beginning of the “redwoods area”
was kind of mixed bag. The nature was beautiful, some of the human
creation (houses, gift shops etc) were less appealing. There is
probably the never ending question about the balance. Leave the
nature completely alone or make it somewhat accessible? Our first
stop was a Chimney tree, which was on private property (seen better
days), it was actual room in the living tree. Cool.
We continued along 101 (by the way very
interesting highway, switching from four lanes to two and again and
again). At well marked intersection we left 101 and drove along
Avenue of Giants. It was interesting drive, though we did not think
it was as impressive as portrayed in booklets and information boards
along the way. We stopped few times and I guess half way thru stopped
at the visitor's center. Open. There were closed campgrounds and
other places, partly because of the season and partly because of the
budget cuts. We looked around (pretty nice display and center) and
later asked about places to visit. We got some information and talked
about trip to Alaska, as the guy was from Alaska (volunteering in
state parks). He told us that scenic route along the coast was really
bad and almost impossible to drive. We were reconsidering that plan
and were going to decide later.
We continued along the Avenue of Giants
and were going to visit to shorter trails. Founders Grove.
Rockefeller grove. They were pretty close and highlights of the
Avenue. Founders Grove was pretty busy (measured by our experience)
and it was somewhat noisy. Still, the trail was breath taking and our
necks were hurting from looking up. Going back on the trail we
encountered very interesting human unit, woman with three children,
one child had a tiny dog and the other a rabbit on the leash. Oh well
… I do not really have words. Rockefeller grove was somewhat
similar.
We were on the coastal scenic drive, we
decided to continue on that road and see. It was more less one lane
road through the rest of the forest, then it became two lane road (we
were looking for dirt road as told in visitor center). The drive was
scenic, we enjoyed some incredible views at the valleys around, hills
rolling around, many cows and sheep and it was awesome. The road got
narrow, there was some damage to it, but it was not worse then
Michigan. We were wondering how the guy from Alaska could describe
the road like almost impassable. Who knows? The drive along the coast
was quite short, but really pretty. The same applies to the drive
back to the inland. We actually had to climb some serious hill and
were rewarded by some impressive views of the ocean and the coast. It
took a while to drive it, but it was well worth it. We ended up in
Ferndale, California around 3.37 pm on Sunday.
Without much warning we just descended
into small Victorian Ferndale. The main street looked really pretty,
with well kept store fronts and houses. It was kind of like stepping
back in time. We walked through the main street (there were plenty of
stores, luckily closed, not super interesting). We spent some time in
blacksmith store, where we saw many amazing practical or artistic
peaces. They even had small house (or whatever it used to be) with
the public restrooms there (bravo!). Even our timing was not the
best, it was really interesting place. We made quick stop on the
cemetery (looked a lot like European).
We had about 20 miles to Eureka.
Entering the city was not the prettiest one. It was industrial and
then modern shopping mall. There was still a daylight so we parked in
the center of town (older town) and walked around. Again, most of the
places were closed and it was getting cold. It was interesting how
quickly the weather changed. There were some nice places, there were
some empty buildings, it was not bad but it was not great.
We had some time before sunset, so we
decided to drive a bit from the town and get on the beach to see the
sunset. It was on kind of half island (apparently there was an
airport) and took a while to get there. I could say that we were
chasing the sunset. We parked and got on the beach to watch sunset in
progress. There were some people with dogs and it was nice to see sun
gong down and the sky to change the colors. And it was getting
colder. Drove back to Eureka, motel and sleep.
