Way Northern California

I’d never been north of Sonoma county in California, so Mendocino was pushing it for me.  When you leave Mendo, it’s starts getting really crazy and people start doing things like driving through trees.  I’m told you have to watch which unmarked roads you turn down in Humboldt as some of the local “farmers” don’t like visitors.  After leaving Mendocino, we camped in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, then drove up to Ferndale and Eureka for a few hours each before heading up to Crescent City for another night.

Both Ferndale and Eureka were worth a stop.  Ferndale is like visiting the Midwest in the 1950’s… there are no stop lights, the mainstreet is quaint and lined with all the stores you need, the pace of life is much slower (there are no lines or traffic anywhere!), and the small town center is surrounded by farms.  Eureka, on the other hand, is trying to remake itself as an artsy, more cultured place to be – and the downtown waterfront area is in the midst of a transformation from industrial area to walking village of (somewhat) hip shops and restaurants.

On the way to Oregon, we stopped at Myrtle Beach on the Smith River in Redwoods State Park for some spontaneous cliff jumping.  The water looked so clear and deep and refreshing, when we climbed down toward the water, the best way in seemed to be to jump.  We hadn’t planned to go swimming, but it was too tempting, so we went in our clothes.  Nate and Jake in their underwear.

More later… including video of the “cliff” jumping…

Didn't quite make it - Rusty tried to fit through the drive-thru tree in Leggett, CA

Jake during his morning routine of playing with his building set at our Hidden Springs campsite in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Paula and Nate play word games in Rusty.

Eureka! We stopped in Eureka for dinner and some live music - they were having a free concert on their boardwalk area in downtown.

Paula and the boys standing in the crowd for the free concert. The band was Santana-esque, and the bikers and hippies were out in force (you can't see well from this picture) - or maybe that's just the demographic of Eureka.

Boys admire the wooden scuplture garden of Romano Gabriel perserved in a downtown Eureka storefront. (You'll have to Google this one if you want the back story.)

The photo doesn't do it justice, but we came across a herd of Elk just north of Eureka in a viewing area right off Hwy 101.