Several great rest stops along the way- Josh and I have lunch at one of them. Little towns along the 299 route here have life sized wooden carvings of bigfoot on the side of the road (like the bear carvings we see so often) some tall and wookie looking and some more short and rotund. The biggest collection is in the town of Willow Creek where they have a Bigfoot museum - (I didn’t see this museum part until looking on the map later that night- darn!)
The temp in Weed at 9am was 81, 85 degrees in Redding an hour later & south. Stayed in the mid 80’s until about a half hour from the coast, then the temp dropped to 61 in a flash! Sunny skies were replaced by clouds that obscured the treetops: they were so low.
Arrive at 2:22 pm in Arcata, CA visitor info office.
Mileage: 3335.5 (and our hotel address tonight is 3535!)
Get ideas of the forest layout and ranger stations.
Then drive up the exciting Route 101 north! Stop at the entrance to the Redwood National & State Park - which is where the ocean meets the park. Jeff gets out and attunes with the ocean and waves here. Around the time of touching the cool water and seeing the low clouds, Jeff connects deeper with the sea and sky.
Then onto the "Lady Bird Johnson Grove" of redwoods. Some were 12’ across and 200-300+ feet high. The forest is magical. And 52 degrees in mid afternoon! Ranger said that when the town of Redding gets that hot, which it has been all summer, it pulls the water in from the ocean and blankets the forest here. Some of the trees are well over 1,000 years old. Their bark is up to 1 foot thick. Beautiful rainforest effect: misty, cool and an air of something primeval -before the advent of humans here.
Drive up to another Visitor office for input and trail info. Then drive back an hour or so to Arcata to spend the night.
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