California - Day 31 - through Redding to Oroville

Oroville/Feather Falls Casino KOA, Oroville

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Before leaving the Mt. Shasta campground, I finished the blog post for Day 14.  I'd written all of it yesterday afternoon, but the internet connection was so incredibly slow I couldn't insert the photos.  For some reason, speed wasn't a problem this morning, so I got that one done.  Now only 14 more to do to be caught up.

today's route

Google wanted me to go directly to the interstate from the campground, but I chose to drive through Mt. Shasta all the way to the end of the town.  (Not being related to James James Morrison Morrison - or his mother for that matter.)

What I saw once I passed the main business area was a nice little town with Mt. Shasta itself visible from just about everywhere in town.  The mountain is about 15 miles away, and since it's over 14,000' high, you can imagine that it's not able to hide.  It really is beautiful.

Just past Dunsmuir, I saw the highway exit for the Pacific Crest Trail.   In fact, I crossed it several times today and realized I saw it at other points as I drove through California.  I'll be seeing it again in Oregon and Washington.

I saw another of those bear signs - just a picture of a momma and her cub with no words.  But you know how many words they say a picture's worth.

I saw a CA license plate that read: BEAMZG - which I assume is Be Amazing.

I passed a large area where there was burned ground instead of forest - the result of one of CA's devastating wildfires.  This one was from the Delta fire in 2018 that burned more than 63,000 acres.  Given how many fires CA's had in recent years, and how much land they burned, I'm surprised I haven't seen more areas like this.

I passed a large lake to the east, which turned out to be Lake Shasta.  It's the result of the Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River - this dam being the 9th tallest in the US.  Pretty lake.

A sign told trucks to watch out for "sharp curves, steep grades next 1½ miles."  I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and roads like this are a problem.

I got to Redding (pop. 93,611) and stopped off at a Target, which is the chain where I'd bought my first space heater.  This one didn't have any (though the staff thought they did), but I did find latex and non-latex gloves which I haven't been able to find until today.  I use them for dumping my waste tanks and cleaning my bathroom, so they're an essential in this household.

I had to fight with Google but I got a route through town and saw a nice old downtown area and several pleasant parks.  Snow-topped mountains to the east.  It seemed a pleasant place, though I learned that it has unusually high temperatures in the summer - it got up to 126° in 2020.  The 2018 Carr Fire destroyed a good part of Shasta County (Redding is the county seat), burning 1,100 buildings and killing 6 people.

On the drive today I saw several signs and heard several mentions on the radio about the State Of Jefferson.  That's it - just the name.  So I looked it up and learned that this is a proposal to have chunks of southern Oregon and northern California break off from their states to form a 51st state.  This is only one of several such proposals around the country, and I feel certain that none of them is likely to succeed.  But it seems to be strongly under discussion in this area, so if you're interested, here's the Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Jefferson-proposed-Pacific-state

I started seeing mountains on both sides of the road that had snow on them.  As I drove south I started thinking I was seeing the Sierra Nevada mountains rather than the Cascades, and finally looked it up.  Although I didn't bother to find out exactly where one stops and the other starts, I did learn that the Cascade Mountain Range forms the northern portion and the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range forms the southern portion of the stretch of mountains that runs from the Mojave Desert into British Columbia.  The Sierra Nevadas include Mt. Whitney (in CA), the tallest mountain in the Lower 48; Yosemite National Park (also in CA); and Lake Tahoe (in both CA and NV).  So a variety of geographic stars.

Near Red Bluff I started seeing huge orchards.  The leaves were only just starting to come out but I thought they might be pecans until I saw a sign saying "Sunsweet - 100 Years."

In fact, I saw a variety of orchards with trees of different heights (I think I saw their natural heights, not that some were younger or something) and different amounts of leaves having appeared.

Not far from Chico, I almost ran into oncoming cars from lack of sleep.  I've just got to get this problem solved.  

Obviously needing to take a break, I ended up stopping on the street in Chico and walked around some office buildings with lots of flowers and bushes, not having found a park.  Turns out Chico is home of Bidwell Park, one of the world's largest urban parks, but I never saw it.  Chico's 2020 population was 101,475, a substantial increase over 2010's 86,187.  They must be doing something right to attract so many new folks.  I thought it looked like a pleasant town.

As I drove on down the road, I passed lots of horses and cows, lots more orchards, and found quite a few bugs hitting the windshield.  I haven't been seeing many bugs anywhere else so far this year, but they seem to be happy in this area, since there were so many of them.

I've seen several billboards saying, "Wide Open Spaces - Courtesy of Your Local Cattlemen."

And then on to tonight's campground, which is a KOA attached to a casino.  The campground was very pleasant, though with maybe too much pavement (i.e. the whole campground), and although I had a little trouble finding places for us to walk, it was still a nice change from dirt-only campgrounds.

California - Days 28 through 30 - Mt. Shasta City

Mt. Shasta City KOA, Mt. Shasta

Monday, 28 through Wednesday, 30 March 2022

I kept fairly busy during these 3 days.  I finished 6 blog posts, catching me up to Day 13.  Woo-hoo!  Now only 2 weeks behind, instead of 3 weeks.  Doing this work was harder than you might think, because the internet connection was very slow.  When it takes several minutes to upload to the blog a photo that's already on the computer because I took it myself - well, it gets discouraging.

My water pump finally stopped working completely, so the only water I have in the RV is what comes in when the hose is hooked up to campground water (or what I've saved in jugs, just in case).  

Further, my heater stopped being reliable.  I could only get it to come on now and then, and I could detect no pattern to tell me when it would or wouldn't work.  Nighttime temps were getting down into the 30's, with a prediction for freezing on Wednesday night, so heat was imperative.  On Tuesday morning, I finally turned on the engine (not the generator but the truck's engine) so I could turn on the heater in the cab.  My poor puppies were huddled in front of the vents for the hour I ran it.

I was getting increasingly worried about the state of my tires - I'm sure at least 2 of them need to be replaced.  And I think it's past time for an oil change, but the last time I had one, they didn't have those little stickers they put in the windshield to remind you when the next one is due, so I really had no idea.  Of course, that just gave me something else to worry about.

And Extra Space Storage, where I have everything stored that I didn't want to cart around on this trip (like my mother's piano), told me I needed to get my annual payment to them by Friday because it's due on Monday.  (Don't understand that; the post office still delivers mail on Saturdays and Mondays, and neither is a holiday, but I didn't argue.)

I finally called my poor brother and asked if he'd mind if I whined for a while, and he very generously let me do it.  I felt much better after dumping this stuff out, and David had a brilliant suggestion, which was to buy another space heater to replace the one I've been using that died a month or 2 ago.  I felt like I was one of the Peterkin family getting advice from the Lady from Philadelphia, and very lucky to have it.

So on Tuesday we left the campground for a long list of errands.  First on the list was to stop at Shastice city park that was just a little over a mile from the campground.  I like to take the dogs new places because I think they must get really bored when we're in the same campground for days, sniffing the same places all the time.

We went next to the post office in Mt. Shasta and I paid an extra $9 to send the check to Extra Space Storage where it would likely (though not guaranteed) arrive on Friday.  (Spoiler alert: it got there on Thursday.  Let's hear it for the US Postal Service!)

Then we stopped at a hardware store where I did indeed find a space heater that I hoped would keep my kids warm.  The clerk who helped me said they'd never had that model returned, so I took a chance.

The hardware store was right next to a local grocery store, where I got some supplies.  And that was right next to a Chase bank, where I replenished my supply of $100 bills.  I use those to buy gasoline (sometimes getting a cash discount) and CA's high gas prices had thoroughly depleted my stock alarmingly fast.

From there I went down the street (Mt. Shasta has 3,223 residents (2020 census) so its business area is compact) to the CVS to get my blood pressure meds refilled.  That CVS was in a building that I'm sure was originally a gas station - maybe from the 1950s or 60s, from the look of it - and inside it was nothing more than a place to pick up prescriptions.  None of the sundries that take up most of the square footage of a usual CVS.  I found it refreshing.

I'd intended to stop at a garage to see about the oil change and tires and even/maybe the water pump.  But I'd already called the one the campground folks recommended and they'd said they didn't do any kind of work on an RV, though I was welcome to bring it by and they'd take a look at it.  But I decided why bother if the chances were nearly 100% they were just going to look and say yep, we can't do it.

Instead I went on to another park, this one called Mt. Shasta City Park.  Its claim to fame is that the headwaters of the Sacramento River are here and easily accessible, so I thought that'd be a good place for the dogs and me to go.  I still do think that but I changed my mind once we got there.  Even though it was a Tuesday, I saw quite a few people heading that direction from the parking area - almost all of them with dogs.  Not a situation I could trust my dogs with, so instead we walked around the area near the parking and the adjacent senior center.  Too bad but there it is.  If you're curious about this headwaters business, I found something online that does a good job with both pictures and description.   https://californiathroughmylens.com/headwaters-sacramento-river

One thing I saw there was a demonstration in the forest by local forestry experts showing folks how to reduce fire hazards around their homes.  You know, cutting back the brush and overhanging tree limbs and so forth.  They showed one area where nothing had been done and another area next to it that had been thinned out.  The thinned area wasn't bare or unsightly, but more like the difference before and after you've gotten a haircut.

One night I ordered a pizza from a local place - Say Cheese Pizza.  Actually, I think they might be the only pizza place in town.  They were really expensive - especially when I added in a tip for the delivery person - but that pizza had more pepperoni on it than I've ever seen on a pepperoni pizza.  It was great.  So I ordered the pizza and watched Soapdish, one of my favorite dumb movies, and had Halloween in March again.  I think I did this last year, and it was a good idea.

This campground was built on a hill so we had to climb almost everywhere we walked.  Not that that's a bad idea, but neither Gracie nor I has a strong set of lungs, or legs, or stamina.  In fact, we're both falling apart, but something like this is good for us.  It's in a large mixed grove of trees, mostly redwoods but also other species, and it's really very pleasant.  

The dog park was a decent size and one time we were joined by another dog & owner.  That other dog was bigger than mine but still very young, and Dexter had a great time playing with her.  Gracie tried but she just couldn't keep up.

The trees in this photo are planted inside the dog park and my guess is some kind of eucalyptus.  There was an unusual odor in their vicinity - and I'll confess I can't remember what eucalyptus smells like, but this smell made me think of them so maybe?  I looked eucalyptus up online and the best answer I got was a maybe.  Still, they smelled nice and Gracie liked to lie in their shade.

All in all, though I still have several major things to worry about that I couldn't take care of here, this was a restful stop for us.

California - Day 27 - to Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta City KOA, Mt. Shasta

Sunday, 27 March 2022

I forgot to say in any of the last several posts that I've been occasionally seeing a small dark squirrel in the various campgrounds.  I looked it up and can't tell for sure what kind of squirrel it is.  They don't have any brown on them, which rules out the Eastern Gray Squirrel, the Fox Squirrel and the Red Squirrel.  That just leaves the Western Gray Squirrel, which is the largest of the squirrel species in the US, and the Black Squirrel, which are supposed to be fairly rare because they're a genetic mutation.  The squirrels I've been seeing aren't black - I saw those back East - they're definitely a dark gray and they've all been small.  So I've doubtless discovered a new squirrel species.

today's route

When I first planned this part of my itinerary, I thought the map showed me I could get from Crescent City to Mt. Shasta while still staying in CA.  But when I actually sat down to figure out a route, I found the only way I could do that was to go all the way back almost to Eureka before I could head east.  That route would take many hours extra, plus be a difficult winding road, as I know from driving it the other day.  So I decided to bite the bullet and break my self-imposed rule about not leaving a state once I've started my month there.  I still had to go all the way north to Grants Pass, OR, before I could go south - 80 miles north and 112 miles south.  Presumably the lack of roads is due to the many mountains between the 2 towns - the Cascade Mountain Range in the east and the Klamath Mountains in the west, to be exact.

I found heading north that I had not yet left behind those winding roads through the redwoods, mainly because I was still driving through redwoods.  The road paralleled the Smith River, so it wound around tight curves with huge trees growing right at the road's edge.  I passed a warning sign that read, "Narrow Winding Road Next 6 Miles."  It was soon followed by another sign saying, "Road Narrows."  And it did get even narrower than it had been.  And this was US-199 I was driving on, not some little state or local road.  It took me an hour to drive 28 miles.

That got me to Collier Tunnel, which I hadn't known was there and which was a half-mile long.  Just on the other side was a rest area, which I needed by then.  There I saw this sign:

Something about this inscription struck me as odd so I looked it up and learned that the tunnel was built at the strong urging of the state legislator it was named for.  Although the tunnel isn't particularly long and only made the drive shorter by 3 miles, it lopped off 128 turns and 5 switchbacks that were on the old route.  (I told you the road was winding.)  So I too am happy to celebrate Mr. Collier's activities.

Three miles further on, I learned that Oregon Welcomes Me.  Because I'll have my month in Oregon in May, I won't say anything much about what I saw there today except for 2 notes.  One is that gasoline here was $4.75, even in small towns (a dollar less than in CA); the other is that in the farming town of Kerby, I saw signs advertising "CRON" and "SWEET CRON."  (Good thing for that 2nd sign because I wasn't sure what "cron" was.)

Ashland, OR, isn't far from the border, and it sits at 5,013'.  Yreka, CA, is not much further from the border on the other side, and it sits at 2,589'.  That meant the road did some serious dropping.  Just past Ashland I saw a sign saying, "Warning - Long Steep Downgrade Ahead."  And another one saying, "6% Grade for the Next 7 Miles."  So I downshifted and did my best to stay out of everybody else's way on the way down.

Just past the Welcome To California sign, all traffic had to stop at one of the state's agricultural inspection stations.  They asked me if I was carrying any fresh fruits or vegetables, and I said yes, but I'd bought them in CA.  I'd've gone on to explain about having come from Cascade City but what I'd already said was enough, apparently.  If they'd really pushed it, I could have produced receipts for what I had, but I guess being an older white female puts me in the reliable category for them.

I started having serious trouble staying awake and was lucky that the road was no longer narrow and winding.  I just haven't been sleeping well lately, and that can make driving dangerous.  I drink coffee all morning and then switch to Diet Coke to get more caffeine.  And if NPR is either not available or not stimulating enough, I'll put on Buddy Holly or something else vigorous and sing along to wake up.  All of that usually works enough to get me over the hump.  The sleepiness period only lasts for a few hours.

I started being able to see Mt. Shasta while I was still many miles from Mt. Shasta City, which is built near the mountain's base.  Here's one I took from a rest area.

Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta, 14,179' tall, is a still-active volcano that shares characteristics of Mt. St. Helens in WA, that erupted in 1980 and produced a cloud of ash that spread as far as the central US.  Yeah, that's Mt. Shasta's relative.  I assumed it wouldn't decide to erupt during the next 4 days and drove on, but I noted that the USGS rates it as a "very high-threat volcano."  If you're curious about the mountain (it actually has 4 cones, not just 1), here's the Wikipedia page.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Mount-Shasta

It's really beautiful, though, isn't it?

Past the town of Weed (named for an early white settler), the highway became part of the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway, one of only 42 in the US designated as an All American Road.  From Mt. Shasta City, the byway runs east to Lassen Volcanic National Park.  And from Mt. Shasta City, the byway runs north into Oregon to Crater Lake National Park, which was created when Mt. Mazama (another relative of Mt. Shasta) erupted and collapsed.  That's a place I want to visit when I'm in OR.

I saw indications all the way to town that this road had recently been icy and chains had been required.  I was glad I'd left this part of the state until last; if I'd come here early in the month, I might not have been able to get here.

And then on into Mt. Shasta City and the campground.  Once again I was too tired to drive around the town, and anyway the dogs were ready for a walk.  Actually, they're always ready.

California - Days 25 & 26 - in the redwoods

Crescent City/Redwoods KOA, Crescent City

Friday, 25 and Saturday, 26 March 2022

My first impression of this campground was that it was a dump, and definitely not the level of facility I'd expect for a KOA.  That was my second impression too.  But I gradually realized it seemed that way because nothing was paved - or even graveled - so when it rains, the ground gets muddy everywhere.  It's fine in good weather - which we had one of the days I was there.  But the dogs and I tracked so much mud into the RV it took me days to get it all out.  

The fact is that this area functions as a rain forest, much like Juneau, AK, where I used to live.  That means it's got gorgeous scenery and yucky living conditions (the latter creates the former).  This campground is built in the middle of a redwood grove with a small cleared area for RVs and thick trees for small campers and people in tents.  It really was beautiful, but the trees blotted out a lot of the sun.  Between that and the cloudy times, it was grey often enough while we were here that I came to find it depressing.  That, after all, is why I left Juneau - and Seattle for that matter - in the first place.

But lest you think I'm exaggerating by saying so often that it was scenic, here are some photos I took.

Ferns beside a small stream

Ferns and big trees

I wanted to show how big these
tree trunks were.

These are the trees that belong to
the trunks at left.  They really are
big - and these are relatively
young trees.

Note how that tree contorted itself to get enough light
to grow next to the tree that once grew on that enormous
tree stump.  For reference, that's a cabin at far right.

The other side of those same trees.

The trunks of these trees are big and their
root systems are even bigger.  That's a
cabin on the left for size comparison.

The same fallen tree.  Note, for size, the
 Airstream not far away.  Note too the new
tree growing within those old roots.

I took this while standing up, not lying
on the ground as it might seem.
They're just this tall.

The tree that once lived here was more than 6' across.
This is an old grove of redwoods.

This is what redwood needles/leaves
look like - sort of feathery.  Perfect,
I guess, for lapping up coastal fog.

And one more of beautiful trees and ferns.

Near the office at this campground is an enclosure with chickens on one side and goats on the other.  Great for little kids, I guess, and the staff told me the chickens lay a lot of eggs, but they really limited where I could walk the dogs.  Dexter could just about handle the chickens running around and scratching and making chicken noises, but the goats got him all excited so we had to steer clear.

Just about the only place for us to walk here were the paths leading to the campsites hidden among the trees.  Which was fine except they didn't look anything like what was printed on the campground map and I kept getting lost, going down roads that weren't on the map and discounting as not real paths the ones that were.  I went down one road that turned out to be seriously muddy, only to find at the other end that there was a sign saying don't go down this road - it's dangerous.  There was nothing at all like that where we came in and I don't know what was dangerous.  The mud?  Strange place.

But it was peaceful, thanks to the forest.

When we got here, I was 3 weeks behind in posting to my blog.  This was partly due to moving around a lot, but it was mostly due to not having been able to get a reliable internet connection most of these last weeks.  Crazy not to get an internet connection in California, of all places.  I mean, this is the state where Silicon Valley is, for heaven's sake.  But over and over I found the various campgrounds had weak to nonexistent signals and my own hotspot could only get an intermittent connection.  

Anyway, I wrote 3 posts while I was here, but I could see the catch-up process was formidable.  It'll get done, though, because I don't want to forget what I saw here.

California - Day 24 - Redwood Highway to Crescent City

Crescent City/Redwoods KOA, Crescent City

Thursday, 24 March 2022

On our early walk around last night's campground in Benbow, I think we surprised some raccoons - at least, they're my guess.  Dext got really excited about a critter he could smell but we couldn't see (he couldn't either), and on our later walk I saw that trash had been pulled out of a trash can and strewn all around the ground.  

It doesn't feel to me like we're particularly out in the country, but from an animal's point of view, I guess we are.

today's route

Because last night's campground was almost on top of the town of Garberville (pop. 818), I drove through just to get an idea of what was here.  I passed the Eel River Cafe and through its windows could see an old-fashioned small-town cafe.  It looked wonderful and I was really sorry I'd already had breakfast or I'd've stopped just to enjoy the ambiance.  Local gas stations were selling gas for $5.99/gallon.

The road followed the Eel River for many miles, and between the river and the mountains in the neighborhood the road was even more twisty than it looks on the map above.

At the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, I pulled off the highway into the park.  I just drove a short distance there but can tell you it's got some pretty gorgeous trees.

I started seeing signs for Avenue of the Giants Scenic Alternative.  It turns out to be a 31-mile drive through this state park and includes several attractions, such as a couple of drive-through trees and the Founders Tree, which was for a while designated the World's Tallest Known Tree at 346.1'.  Others have since remeasured and come up with different figures and think it was incorrectly measured in the first place.

California doesn't despair, however, because it can still claim having the world's tallest tree - the Hyperion, at 380.81'.  It's in the Redwood National Park (where I'll be going later today).  In fact, California brags about its trifecta: the world's tallest tree (Hyperion), the world's largest tree (General Sherman), and the world's oldest tree (Methuselah).  Not that the state can take actual credit for growing these trees, but it's still definitely something to brag about.

Anyway, about that "scenic alternative" bit - I'm sure it's a wonderful drive but I have to say that the main route, which I took, wasn't exactly a blight.  I saw huge evergreens, mostly redwoods, growing alongside the lovely Eel River (must have been named because of its twists and turns, not its appearance which is really pretty).  It's been designated a Wild and Scenic River by both the state and federal governments.  The Eel River, by the way, is the 3rd largest watershed entirely in CA and flows for 196 miles.  Its very size makes it even more remarkable to me to still be so untamed.

Low clouds covered the tops of trees on the hills/mountains for much of the drive, but it contributed to the picturesqueness, rather than being a hazard.  The road included a 7% grade (there really were a lot of hills).  And I started thinking that every bridge in the state must have been designated a memorial to someone.  And CA has a lot of bridges.

I passed small (Alton, with 275 residents) and large (Fortuna, with 12,516) towns and then came into Eureka.  With 25,936 residents, it's easily the largest town in the area - in fact, the largest coastal city between San Francisco, CA, and Portland, OR.  The gas wasn't cheaper, though - I had to fork over $5.99 because I needed the fuel and hadn't found anyplace at all cheaper all day.

I drove through Old Town Eureka, an area of 154 buildings from, mainly, the Victorian era, and the whole neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It's a very attractive area, as you might imagine, right along the waterfront, also as you might imagine in those original towns.

College of the Redwoods is here, as well as a branch of Cal State Polytechnic Univ.  Eureka's an attractive town, with a boardwalk along its waterfront, where a company offers harbor cruises.  I saw a large marina including some commercial fishing boats, and stacks of hundreds of crab pots.  The local high school is Home of the Loggers - meaning, I guess, that many people value the area's trees for something besides scenic beauty.

We stopped here for lunch and for a walk, and I drove around town a bit.  Despite the price of gas, I liked it here.

Leaving town the road ran at sea level, right alongside the sea, which is how I know.  And farther along the road at Arcata, pop. 15,700, the highway continued at water level.  This is the home of Humboldt State University.  Here are 2 views of some of that well-known coastal California beauty.

Famed US-101 is called the Redwood Highway along here, and it's hard to beat the scenery.

I heard on the radio that the Yurok Tribe is releasing several California Condors into the wild in the Redwood State and National Forests.  They were put on the endangered list in 1967 and, in 1987, became officially extinct when the last wild birds were captured.  Except that's not as sad a story as it might seem because by capturing them, rather than waiting until they'd all died out, scientists have been allowed to try to continue the species.  And those efforts are bearing fruit right now, as the Yuroks, who consider these birds sacred, are putting them back out into the wild in hopes they can be reestablished.  I do indeed wish them well.

A road sign warned me of "sharp curves next 3 miles - reduce speed" right before I came to a 6% grade.  Not a great combination.

Several times today I passed signs saying I was entering or leaving a Tsunami Hazard Zone.  I wondered about this and looked it up and learned that tsunamis aren't common in CA but have been known to cause multiple deaths.  Consequently, the state has designated these inundation areas with maps to help people get to safe areas in the event of danger.  And I have to say there's certainly a good chunk of the state's population that's living near the ocean.

The Redwood National and State Parks include 1 national park and 3 state parks that are cooperatively managed.  I couldn't usually tell from the signs which one I was in, which is why I can't say where I drove today, except that I was in the .  There are several drives into these parks, and I chose one that was about 10 miles long.  I tried to take photos but was hampered both by the size of the trees and by the bright sunshine that kept hogging the picture.

These 2 photos are of the same tree, with the
top one being higher up than the lower one,
which is a photo of the base of the tree.
Maybe you can tell how huge these things are.

There's nothing to show how huge
these trees really are - but
they're certainly beautiful.

Note both the relative sizes of car vs. trees,
and that the one tree is growing right at
the roadside.

The park service was thoughtful enough to provide places to pull off the road fairly often, each one fairly close to especially large trees, which is the only reason I was able to get these photos.  The road certainly didn't have a shoulder or any other possible place to pull over, so I was glad of these.

A sign told me elk frequently crossed the road in this area.  But maybe not right now?  I didn't see any, at any rate.

Moving down US-101, we came to the town of Klamath (pop. 600+), which touts its "Tour Thru Tree."  I didn't bother but I suppose others do.  This town, by the way, is part of the Yurok Indian Reservation.  The Klamath River, which the town is sited on, seems to have plenty of water in it, so maybe the drought isn't as bad in this part of the state as in the interior/farm country.

A sign told me Welcome to Del Norte County - The Redwood Gate to the Golden State.  You might be able to see on the route map above that the Redwood National Park continues for a long way up the coast, and then moves inland near Crescent City with separate redwood state parks.  That park ranger back at Kings Canyon National Park told me the coastal redwoods thrived on coastal fog/mist, and I guess that's what I'm seeing.  

And sure enough, the sun disappeared and the clouds came back down.  But it was nice having the bright sun while I was in the redwoods, even if it made picture-taking harder.

Crescent City, pop. 6,673 in 2020 (down by almost 1,000 from 2010), lies at 44' elevation.  It seems to be a pleasant enough place, but by now I was pretty tired and went straight to the campground.

California - Day 23 - in the Benbow campground

Benbow KOA, Benbow
Wednesday, 23 March 2022

This campground seems to be part of a place that bills itself as a resort.  I'm guessing that designation is based on having a golf course sharing a property line with the campground.  The main part of the facility was a quaint-looking hotel, the Benbow Historic Inn, a short walk away from both the golf course and campground by means of a walkway through a tunnel under the highway (strange experience).

The inn claims its "historic" title both because of its age - built in 1926 - and because of the luminaries who once stayed here.  Those include Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Basil Rathbone, Alan Ladd, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Joan Fontaine.  I'm guessing nobody like that was there when we were, based on the lack of fancy cars or anything suggesting bodyguards or entourages or reporters.  But still, it looked like a pleasant place to stay, even if they don't keep horses stabled there for guests to ride like they used to.

I did some chores and walked the dogs often.  The weather fluctuated but was mostly pretty nice and peaceful.

California - Day 22 - northern California country

Benbow KOA, Garberville

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

When the dogs and I were out for our just-about-to-leave walk this morning, Dexter pointed out 3 deer to Gracie and me.  I tried to avoid bothering them by taking us back the way we'd come, but one of the deer ran away, which prompted the others to do the same.  They were grazing on a big grassy area near the office in the campground.

today's route

You can see on the map that I drove through the interior of the state, mostly on US-101 with some side trips into towns along the way.  Google told me the drive would take less than 3 hours, but it took me 5 instead.

I drove first through Cloverdale, pop. 8,996, elev. 331'.  Seemed like a nice little country town with gasoline at $6.45/gallon - about the highest I've seen, and I hoped that wasn't what to expect in other towns here in northern CA.

On the highway, I saw a sign saying: Experience Mendocino County - Wilderness   Waves   Wineries.  Which is actually a pretty good summary of what the county has to offer.

I crossed the Russian River, which runs through both Mendocino and Sonoma Counties.

I saw a few llamas mixed in with a small herd of cows - and thought I was imagining things at first.  I also saw a large herd of horses.

All day I saw signs for the World Famous Skunk Train.  They have several historic trains and offer 2 different routes for folks who want to ride through California's redwoods.  I don't know where the name came from, but here's the website if you're interested.   https://www.skunktrain.com

Also all day I drove by wineries and vineyards, bluebonnets and yellow lupines.  You might be thinking of US-101 as an interstate-type of road, remote from its surroundings.  Instead it's more like a well-maintained state highway.  In today's drive, as so often in my travels in California, I went up and down a series of steep hills, sometimes on a narrow winding road, even though US-101 is a major road in the western US, complete with tractor-trailers.

We got off the highway to drive into the town of Ukiah, which the locals call the place "where the redwoods meet the vines."  It has 16,607 residents and lies at 627' elevation.  It's also the county seat, and almost the only place I could find for us to park and walk was in front of the courthouse, which turned out okay.  

I can't find an uncopyrighted photo of the Mendocino County Courthouse, but if I tell you it was built in 1950 in the Modern/Art Deco styles, maybe you'll be able to imagine what it looks like.  It takes up a whole city block, and it's surrounded by grass and flowering plants and trees, and is really a very attractive place.  In the front of the building stand 2 huge old magnolias, and around the sides were blooming azaleas and camellias and other garden flowers.  I walked the dogs all the way around the block, and then we came back and ate lunch.

Lots of the local businesses in Ukiah seemed to be doing well, even with the pandemic, which means to me the town's alive.  And for some reason, gasoline was exactly $1 cheaper here than it was not all that much farther south in Cloverdale.

I saw a sign on the highway warning that tomorrow there'll be a tsunami test from 11:00 to noon.  I looked that up because I thought we were way too far inland to have to worry about a tsunami.  But I guess we're not.  Every year about this time the counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte test their tsunami communications systems.  The tests can include sirens, phone alerts, TV and radio warning broadcasts.  I guess it makes sense they're doing this, because they surely don't need these systems all year long, and they want to be sure everything's working okay in case it's needed.

We continued our drive mostly north and came to the Ridgewood Summit, elev. 1,953', which is pretty high compared to this morning when we were at only 331' in Cloverdale.

A little farther along we came to Willits, pop. 4,988 and elev. 1,391', that calls itself "Gateway to the Redwoods."  Gateway being a fairly broad term, I guess, since the redwood state and national parks were still quite a way farther north.  Willits looked like a normal, small, somewhat isolated American town. 

Past Willits I came to a series of steep hills - a 7% grade, another 7% grade, a 6% grade for the Next 2 Miles.  I'd stopped seeing vineyards but did see a sign warning of elk within the next 5 miles.  And another warning sign saying, "Trucks - Tight Curves Next 9 Miles - Reduce Speed."  They didn't have to tell me twice.  The road has a view way down into a canyon with the Eel River running through it.

Somewhere in there we passed Laytonville, pop. 1,152 and 510' elevation.  There I saw the "World Famous Tree House - Believe It Or Not!" per their sign.

The road began to be lined with redwoods, so I guess Willits' claim wasn't that far off.  For a while I'd considered heading to the coast from Laytonville and driving along CA-1 for 45 miles until I swung back toward US-101.  But I've driven that road before many years ago and remember it fairly well.  It offers fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean and CA's coastal scenery, but it's sometimes a narrow road with no shoulder and rocks jutting out into the road, as I recall.  That means I'd have less time to enjoy the view because of trying to keep from dying as we drove along.

After Laytonville, I saw another warning sign: "Trucks - Tight Curves Ahead - Next 3 Miles - Reduce Speed."  Followed in a while with another one: "Road Narrows."  And that narrowed road threaded between giant redwoods that grew right up to the road, making me worry about my right rear-view mirror.  It was beautiful country but I was glad to make it to the campground in one piece.