Our Travels

 

The next morning we woke up to find ourselves in this awesome redwood forest and found a fabulous swimming hole. Again, we took turns jogging amongst the giant trees and then swam for about 2 hours at this spot, completely alone. Just fabulous.

We left about noon for 5 hour drive to SF. The temp was 110 degrees – ugly.

Alas, now in SF, and a warm welcome from the Eckhouse clan.




 

Now, it was 8:30 and we needed to start thinking about where we were going to sleep. The kids wanted to watch a movie in the car and chill out, so we kept driving south. I started calling campgrounds and everything was full. I found a campground in a state park that looked promising, but it was about an hour south. So, we decided to gamble and continue on. We ended up at this awesome campsite at 10:00, under the redwoods. And, it was hot again – a day of extreme temp changes. We pitched our tent in the dark and crashed very hard – after a long day of fun.




 

So, at this point, it is around 5:30 and still hot. We were over 8 hours from San Francisco where were heading the next day. So, we decided we needed to get some driving done so we would be closer to SF.
We started heading south down the Redwood Highway, which is a beautiful drive. We stopped at Paul Bunyan and the drive-thru tree – pure kitsch, but fun.




 

Around 7:30, we stopped at a picnic spot on the beach. It was just gorgeous. The sun was setting, the fog was rolling in and it was freezing COLD. Yes, I put on my pants, fleece, jacket, socks, everything I had in the car just to stay warm. We hung out here for an hour and had a great dinner (Pesto, thanks to Karen & Jon!!).




 

The redwood trees were an unexpected treat. I am not sure what I was expecting, but they really were just amazing to see – so big and so tall. Majestic. Incredible. 

A ranger had suggested that we go to this remote Redwood grove called the Stout Grove that was down a very narrow dirt road. So, off we went in search of the giants. We parked and hiked down this trail into this incredible redwood forest. The trees are so massive that it is hard to describe – very surreal. And, even though it was over 100 degrees, in the grove it was very cool and shaded. Noah and I took turns running while the kids swam at the third swimming hole of the day.




 

We still had not seen the big trees, so we continued on. About every 4-5 miles, there were these incredible swimming holes with lots of people hanging out and trying to stay cool. We stopped at another spot about 10 miles further down where people were rock jumping. Noah and the kids insisted on another swim and some rock jumping.




 

A Day of Extremes

We are now over 5500 miles and 30 days into our journey. It is safe to say that there is no typical day – we manage to find fun and adventure around every corner. But, to give you a feel for our ramble, I thought July 22 would be worth documenting.

We woke up at our campsite in Crater Lake. It was cold and raining and the mosquitoes were absolutely terrible. Important note: there was snow on the ground and we were in our fleeces. The mosquitoes were so bad that we literally packed up our tent as fast as we could and bolted out of the campsite without breakfast. We went up to the Crater Lake visitor center to get the kid’s Junior Ranger badges and count our bites (Michela had the most!).
We left Crater lake around 9:30 to head for California and the redwoods. We drove for about 2.5 hours and finally crossed into the Golden State. When we stopped for gas and got out of the car, the temp was an extremely hot -- 100 plus degrees. We were in Redwood National Park along the Smith River. We pulled over into a picnic area to have some lunch and had by pure luck landed at a swimming hole. After a quick lunch, we all changed into our bathing suits for the plunge. The water was crystal clear and very refreshing.



 

Running up to the edge, our first view of the crater (a collapsed volcano!)

It was still pretty cool at 7700 feet. We tried some sledding, too.


The lake -- 1,000 feet straight down to it from the top of the crater.



Last year they had 570 inches of snow! Because of the heavy snowfall, the mosquitos were overwhelming. So buggy that we couldn't eat breakfast at the campground...