Califoregon Living

Shelter Cove has a lighthouse and we decided to visit it on our way out.  This lighthouse used to be stationed at Cape Mendocino, but the cliff was eroding, and no one was maintaining the lighthouse.  It was in disrepair.  35 years ago, it was transferred to Shelter Cove and refurbished.  It is not a big one, but it used to sit on a very high cliff, and did the job it was built for.

These are turkey vultures.  They are common in the area…

The gentleman in the blue jacket was an attendant for the lighthouse and shared with us the history…

We noticed that the tide was out a bit and decided to explore the tidepools.  We were in  for a wonderful treat!!   I was raised spending alot of time poking around tidepools.  These tidepools were the most healthy, vibrant, active pools I have ever witnessed.  Look at who else we ran into…
SEALS!   The cove was full of them!

David discovered what he describes as a “brain”.  It is the size of two adult fists.  I am guessing it is a chiton of some sort…

This was a special trip, with special memories that will last a lifetime!

Bright and early Saturday morning, we psyched ourselves up to do the insane drive back up to Hwy 101.  This was our “Avenue of the Giants” day!

Our first stop was to see the “Chimney Tree”. ..

This is the door entrance into the tree…

Looking up while inside the tree…

As you enter the “Avenue of the Giants”, you can pick up an auto tour map, which shows different areas of interest to visit along the way.

Stop #1 F.K. Lang Grove
This was a small loop trail that was set aside to honor Franklin K. Lang , the Secretary of the interior under President Wilson.  He was also the first volunteer President of the Save-the-Redwoods League.  This is where we learned what poison oak looked like.  It was everywhere.  Fortunately, there were signs educating us on this and were able to avoid it.

Poison oak…

Stop #2 Bolling Grove
Dedicated to Colonel Raynal Bolling, an american officer who died in action during WW1.

Stop #3 Visitor Center
Everyone was ready for a break to stretch the legs and eat a picnic lunch, so we stopped at the Visitors Center…

Inside the Center was an attractive historical display of the area, as well as an interactive area for the kids…

There was a man named Charles Kellogg who could replicate many bird sounds.  He had albums made of them with music in the background.  He also had a log hollowed out and made into a car.  He traveled around, selling war bonds, and educating people on the Redwoods…

Stop #4 Weott
This was one of my favorite stops and we almost missed it!  We did not see the sign amongst the tall grasses.  Reading the sign, we learned that the town of Weott (and Pepperwood, and what was left of Dyerville) were all destroyed when the Eel River flooded in 1964.  It did not seem like it was that dramatic, until we turned and saw the post behind us…

See the top of the post??  That is how high the water was!!  Here is a drawing of the town of Weott as it used to be.  It is kind of surreal for me to think how towns were wiped out as recent as 1964…

An interesting grass in the area…

Exploring the old sidewalks of Weott…

Stop #5 Founders Grove
Big trees.  Really big trees.  We went on a nice hike that made us feel tiiiiiiiiny…..

I think this tree was the largest one I have ever seen.  It wasn’t marked, so I can’t be certain, but it felt HUGE!  (Do you see Dado?)

This reminds me of an old man in a tree…

For Christie…long live Aloha…(no, I did not do that…)

This ground cover was everywhere!  ‘R’ said he wanted to make it his blanket and spend the night there.

Stop #6 Dyerville Overlook
The town of Dyerville was named for it’s oldest resident in 1890, Charles “Dad” Dyer. (BTW: Eel River was named because of the lamprey in the river.  People thought they were eels.  Homeschool assignment for you:  Look up a graphic of the lamprey…)

The final two stops were Chandler Grove and Drury-Chaney Grove.  Both had small hikes we could have gone on, but it was getting late and we were ready to move on.

20 minutes north of the “Avenue of the Giants” is a town called Ferndale.  We drove there to explore a little bit.  Much of the downtown corridor and nearby homes are in the victorian style…

The town had a very large cemetery.  We did not explore it, but I find old cemeteries fascinating…

We all decided we were hungry and looked around for a place to eat.  Nothing piqued our interest, so we opened our handy iPhone app, urbanspoon.com, and found the Eel River Brewery in Fortuna.  Aside from a couple of questionable t-shirts the staff wore, the meal was a delicious end to an active day, and the service was friendly and professional.

My wonderful in-laws, Fabio and Esperanza  (AKA Dado and Dada) flew down from Washington state for an incredible weekend exploring the majestic California redwoods with us.  We chose a stretch of redwoods called the “Avenue of the Giants“.  Located along a 31 mile road parallel to Hwy 101 in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, some of these trees are documented as the tallest in the world.

Just south of the “Avenue of the Giants” was our first tourist stop:  The Chandelier Drive Through Tree.  We did not drive our van through, but were able to watch smaller cars make it and larger cars think about it before bailing out.  The tree really does kind of look like a chandelier!

A sweet meadow behind the gift shop…

There was a carved sign with a neat poem (author unknown by me).  I took a picture of the carving, but it is to hard to read in the picture.  So, here it is…

Here, sown by the Creator’s hand,
In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand;
No other clime is honored so,
No other lands their glory know.

The greatest of Earth’s living forms,
Tall conquerors that laugh at storms,
Their challenge still unanswered rings,
Through fifty centuries of kings.

This is their temple, vaulted high,
And here the pause with reverential eye,
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul,
For here we sense life’s proper goal.

To be like these, straight, true and fine,
To make our world, like there’s a shrine,
Sink down, Oh, traveler, on your knees,
God stands before you in these trees.

On our way out, we saw these two darling fawns.  We know mama wasn’t too far off, but did not see her…

I tried to find lodging for us around this area, but was unsuccessful.  This turned out to be a blessing because I ended up reserving two rooms at the Inn of the Lost Coast in Shelter Cove.  To get here, we had to take a very winding  road for what seemed like forever.  Just when I thought Icould not take it any more, we entered a small town right on the ocean cliff.

This property was perfect for us.  It was not fancy, and it definitely had that salt-air sea damaged look, but this was our view…not bad, huh??

We picked up some pizza, and stayed in for the rest of the evening. (Tip: if you decide you want to REALLY get away from it all, Shelter Cove is a great choice.  But, look into dining options and make sure the properties are still in business, and will be open when you are there, or buy items in Garberville before coming down the hill. There are a few small markets in Shelter Cove, but we did not check them out.   Our lodging had a small fridge in the room, a sink, and a microwave.  I think they also had a BBQ of some sort as well.)

After dinner, we read from “Mr. Popper’s Penguins”…

I love this picture.  We were playing around with squeezing each others cheeks and trying to say words.  It was pretty entertaining…

We capped of our evening with a few games of ‘Sequence’, a family staple…