Day Five

Day 5 involved more driving with lots of stops along the way. We left "Camp Grocery Outlet" in Florence, OR in the morning and went out for coffee to get some wifi. After that we took off toward our ultimate destination of the day, Northern California, specifically Redwoods National Park.

First we stopped by John Dellenback Dunes Trailhead and went for a leisurely mile-long walk in a trail that emerged from wet woods to massive sand dunes. It looked like we had walked into another world. A 30 minute walk turned into a 90 minute play day. Grace rolled down a dune and we walked around without shoes most of the time; it was spectacular!

The trail that led down to the sand dunes was a mossy forest full of huge Madrone Trees and Rhododendrons.  I would love to see it in the spring!

Ten feet farther, vegetation completely changes.

 The plants had roots like spider webs that stretched out seeking water

 The root systems form these 'clumps' under the plants

Looked like wild soybeans.

Some rare native red fescue grass. 

Some leftover Rhododendron blooms.

After playing in the dunes we left and Grace wanted to see some lighthouses, so we stopped by Yumpqua Lighthouse. It's still in service, being used by the National Guard, so we didn't get to see much.

After driving for a while, we needed to stop for some lunch (apples and peanut butter) so we stopped at Cape Blanco State Park to see another lighthouse, but there was a lot more in addition to the lighthouse.   If you could cut and paste Scotland unto the Oregon coastline I suspect Cape Blanco is what it would look like. It was situated atop a huge cliff with really strong winds and awesome views. The pictures don't do it justice, the camera take out the height and depth.  There was a trail down to a beach that we walked down and it had some amazing boulders jutting out of the sand.

I can't believe how the camera shortens these hills!  

Cape Blanco lighthouse, built 1870.

Once we ate lunch we took off for California! We drove through the Redwoods and it was wet and rainy, like Washington but trees that are 100x as big. It was beautiful to drive through.

We pulled into an RV campground in Kalama, CA, and finally had real showers! I'd had sand in my hair since day 2... Here's us hanging in the camper using wifi and playing cribbage. We're having  Crib and Chess tournaments all trip long. Current series record: Cribbage-Grace 3, Todd 2. Chess-Grace 0, Todd 1.