Eureka!!- Friday, April 26, 2013

At 9am we were on the road heading west toward the Pacific coast once again.  There was only one route to take across this mountainous region State Route 299, a squiggly line on the map.  Although signs advised semis to avoid this route we passed numerous large vehicles .  The country we traveled through was just beautiful- I enjoyed looking, Tom had to mind the road.  Whiskeytown Lake came into view a couple miles west of Redding.  Whiskeytown is a piece of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area that surrounds the town of Redding.  There were switchbacks, pull-outs to allow traffic to pass, road construction, narrowing roads and long ascents and descents.  After crossing several mountains the road then followed the Trinity River with its curves.  As we were nearing the end of todays journey, we saw clouds moving in from the west.  All day we had been in warm and sunny climate.  When we stopped at Shoreline campground in Eureka, 151 miles from Redding and 4 hours later at 1pm,  the temperature was in the 50's and cloudy.

After eating lunch we drove south on Freeway 101 (Pacific Coastal Road) to Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the 32-mile Avenue of the Giants.  The Avenue of the Giants has 8 Auto Tour Stops along the route of the forested Redwood trees.  The Redwoods are the tallest trees (can grow to 360 feet) and like the Giant Sequoias can live for 2000 years.    Surprising in this area (about 35 miles south of Eureka) the sun was shining and temperatures were in the 70's.  Signs along the way were about floods in the area as well as about the Redwoods. Dyerville, a town along the Eel River, was destroyed by a flood in 1955.  At the Visitor's Center a 35 minute film is about a flood that occurred in 1964 that devastated the area by crumbling bridges, destroying homes and communities, washing out roads and rail lines.  Returning back to the campground we were back in cloudy weather and chilly temperatures.