The Explorer Gene

Our first California mission thanks to Kelly Dodson was to drive the coastal highway from the Oregon border to San Francisco. We invested just over 12 hours on this assignment but still came up about 45 miles shy of San Fran. It is difficult to summarize everything we saw on this tour so I will just include a sampling of images.

Our first stop of the morning was at Jedediah Smith State Park in The Redwood Forest. Your history lesson for today is this - Jedediah Strong Smith was a mountain man, cartographer, and trailblazer of the west. He was also my Grandma Smith's great, great, great uncle so my traveling lineage is strong. I truly do get my unquenchable thirst for travel and new experiences, as well as my appreciation for the natural world from my mom and grandma and I've never properly thanked them so a photo op seemed the least I could do.



As we journeyed into Redwood National Park, the fog from the coast was still there. Watching the sunbeams, that were able to break through the thick forest, light up the fog was spiritual!



There is no way to describe the size of those trees and how small you feel among them.






And then the occasional wildlife moments....



But of course the coast is all about this:



We found a black sand beach (and yes my toes got their pedicure since my last toe pic)



And we thought we were going to be camping on a beach with a gorgeous Pacific sunset but as we entered what ended up to be the last hour or so of the day, a dense fog rolled in fast. This was the new view



Driving was almost perilous and we debated camping but the temperature was dropping quickly and the idea of camping / cooking dinner in the cold fog and waking up damp after a long day wasn't that appealing so we found our way inland to a cheap motel and cheaper dinner! All is well and we are ready for mission 2 (Donnie and Lisa take San Francisco) tomorrow.

Stats:

457 miles
Gas $86.45
Ice and dinner $7.40
Rodeway Inn $45.59

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad