We are determined to get on the road even earlier this Friday morning, so we packed up the kitchen the night before, were up at 6AM, coffee and cereal for breakfast - miracle - we are decamped, packed and on the road by 8AM! It is another glorious sunny day. We have a lot of highway driving today - Newport to Brookings, Oregon - probably 6 hours driving. Our plan is to camp near Brookings overnight and then take a loop through California - Crescent City, the northern Redwood forest, and scenic 199 through the Cascade mountains to Medford, Oregon before finally arriving in Ashland, the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival by Saturday night. We have tickets to see Henry VIII.
The coast highway has breath taking views and we have not gone far before we have to stop at the Devil's Punch Bowl, an area where the ocean has carved out a deep, cavernous inlet in the rock next to a beach surrounded by potholed rock out croppings. Wonderful tidepools and star fish gazing. We have to explore.
We carefully pick our way through the rocks to find orange starfish and bright green sea anemones. The surf pounds the black volcanic rock and it is hard to stay dry.
By 2PM we have made it to Brookings on the very southern border of Oregon. NO LUCK with the campsite at a beautiful beachside State park though - you must reserve and they are already FULL. This is now a bit of an emergency situation as it is a Friday and after 4PM chances are slim for finding another good campsite. We are directed to the Redwood Forest in California.
In a bit of a panic, we race to the Calfornia border and find that it looks like the Canadian border - it is the fruit patrol! Do we have any fruits or vegetables? Tomatoes are OK but NOT the cherries we bought and certainly not the lime for our G&T's! As a long line forms behind us - the Canadian car - I have to get out, open the trunk, dig into the cooler and forfeit the offending items.
We make it to the Jedediah Smith State Park a Redwood forest campground by 3PM and it looks absolutely gorgeous (4 stars). The park is named after Jedediah Smith, an early explorer, fur trader of legend and history. NO ROOM. OMG. They recommend campsites down the road 20 miles more or we can cut back 5 miles to a County campsite (a 2 star type of campsite).
We are worried about getting anything now, cut back and find a beautiful site, on a beach under a Redwood next to a salmon spawning stream called Smith River. It is a great location, though the bathrooms are less than clean and camped next to us is a family from Crescent City that could be cast in the Gerry Springer Show - we are not there 5 minutes before the mother, in need of some dental work, asks if she can use my cell phone to call her mother.
However, we are won over by the site and pitch our tent. It has really heated up now, so I decide to go for swim in the stream, Huck Finn style. It is refreshing and exhilarating to swim against the current and then float down to the deep blue pool under the rock.
After setting up the tent, we drive off to find the largest trees in the world the Giant Redwood - correct name, Giant Sequoia - grove. The winding, narrow paved highway gives way to a winding, narrow gravel road following the Smith River and we enter the majestic temple of the Redwoods just as the sun is low and the light is a rich gold filtering through the trees. It is awe inspiring to think that some of these trees were seedlings at the time of the Trojan War and centuries old by the time of Pericles and the Golden Age of Greece.We have a delicious Mexican dinner of tortilla soup and enchiladas in Crescent City in a dark, cold and oppressive blanket of fog which we leave behind as we drive back into the mountains and a beautiful hot sunset in our river valley.
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