Northern California Coast Road Trip 2022

This is Vicki and Pete’s 7/27-8/1/22 road trip from Cypress, CA to Crescent City, CA (1500 total round trip miles) to experience the wild N. Cal coast. Big thanks to rover-in-chief step-daughter Crystal for great recommendations and spots to see in and about the Redwood Parks! On day one we drove to San Rafael which is about 15 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County.

 

Vicki and I driving over the Golden Gate bridge

There we visited China Camp State Park- a historic shrimp-fishing village established in the 1880s by Chinese Americans, many of whom had moved from San Francisco to escape racial prejudice and persecution. The population went from about 500 to 10,000 in 1906 following the San Francisco earthquake.

Vicki in front of historic China Camp poster boards

 On day 2 we drove to Jenner on the Pacific coast and the mouth of the Russian River- a long-time tourist area. The river’s name comes from Russian settlements in the area around 1812.

 We then headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Fort Bragg. We found this part of the PCH quiet and calm although slow going with less traffic and people. There were old logging towns like Fort Bragg, redwood forests, and natural beauty in every direction. The area has a laid-back, relaxed feeling, which may be a real draw to people from high-stress areas like LA.

 We stopped in Mendocino for dinner. Lots of bed & breakfast places and New England-like architecture. We walked a couple of miles on the Mendocino Headlands State Park. A lot of unreal seaside bluffs, ocean views, and beaches.

 

Pete above a sea arch

We spent the night at Fort Bragg, a former Georgia-Pacific Company (my former company) lumber mill town, home of the glass beach. The beach glass comes from household trash glass disposed of in the ocean until the early 1960s and smoothed by the waves. Kind of underwhelming to us though.

 Fort Bragg Glass Beach

 Next up on day 3 was a drive up a wild part of the PCH to Eureka. On the way, we stopped to see the Chandelier Tree in Drive-Thru Tree Park. The tree is a 276-foot tall coast redwood tree in Leggett, California.

 

Pete and Vicki at Chandelier tree

 We next went to Humboldt Redwoods State Park Visitor’s Center where we saw the Charles Kellogg Travel-Log, a fully restored “Travel Log” on wheels, made from a single redwood tree driven around the U.S. in 1917-21.

 

Pete in front of the Travel-Log truck

  

Vicki in front of redwood tree at Humboldt Redwoods, next to the Avenue of the Giants

 We spent the night in Eureka. We saw a lot of homeless people, not a very vibrant town. We stopped by Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, CA which was described in some tourist literature as one of the most liberal-minded Cal State schools. It seemed like a great college town.

 

Entrance to Cal Poly Humboldt

 On day 4, we stopped in Trinidad CA, and visited the Redwood National Park and saw a lot of elk.

Elk near the Park Visitor’s Center

 We did a hike starting next to the Visitor’s Center and came across this big redwood.

 

Pete in front of big redwood

 We then visited the Lady Bird Johnson Grove (redwoods), dedicated to her by President Nixon in 1969.

 

Dedication Plaque of Lady Bird Johnson Grove

We drove the Klamath Beach Rd Coastal Loop, a beautiful drive including the big Klamath River, a World War II radar station disguised as a farmhouse, and High Bluff Overlook.

 WWII disguised radar station

 We spent the night in Crescent City, our northernmost point, not much to remember there. We continued the road trip with a night in Santa Cruz, CA, then drove around UC Santa Cruz before returning to Cypress.