Our Travels › Around the USA 2008
The Great Around-the-USA Adventure
Mendocino to Crescent City, CA
California: Mendocino to Crescent City
Our trip up along the Pacific coast continues. What a treat to be able to wander along with no deadline facing us.
For pictures and comments of all the campgrounds we visited, click on "Campground Reviews" in Top Menu or on the links in the journal.
It was so dark down in the campground at Russian Gulch SP that as soon as we got up, we drove up to the day-use area in search of a sunny spot to enjoy our beakfast. This was the view we had.
An interesting geologic feature at Russian Gulch SP is the Blow Hole. Pounding waves forged an inland tunnel, leaving a hole 100' across and 60' deep. Waves enter from the ocean about 150' away and echo as they break around the caves interior.
The left opening is the tunnel into the Blow Hole.
What would a trip through CA be without some characters? In Fort Bragg there was a van with several - four guys, a gal, and two youngsters. The woman had a sign asking for a little "help" and I'm not sure what point this fellow was trying to make with his sign.
This grey whale skeleton was on display at MacKerricher State Park, where we spent last night.
The Coastal Highway, Rt 1, heads inland north of Westport, and joins up with US 101 at Leggett. The scenery here reminded us of home in northern New England.
As anywhere, there were lots of tourist trap stops with large carvings out front.
US 101 is known as the Redwood Highway. For a stretch of 32 miles, you can follow a parallel older road, the Avenue of the Giants.
Here's one of the bigger ones we saw. There were several with holes big enough to drive through cut in them, but they were all privately-owned attractions that charged admission.
This is a replica of the Trinidad Head Light, built in 1949.
There is a one-mile loop trail that you can follow out around Trinidad Head to a vantage point where you can see the original lighthouse......
......sort of. This is as close as you can get to it. You can see the light down to the left, while the remains of an old water tank are at the right.
This is the Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City. It's located on a small island accessible only at low tide.
