Avenue of the Giants

You could certainly spend several weeks in Yosemite but in seven days we had seen the highlights and included some not so frequently visited places so figured it was time to head to the west coast of the USA - along interstate 5, through Sacramento on to an area called Clear Lake. From what we had initially read it sounded like a beautiful area and was about half way to Eureka California - a good starting point for the coastal highway. As we drove Rose did a little more research on the town of Clear Lake and discovered that the lake is full of mercury! A legacy from the mining days. The area is beautiful and there were people swimming in the surrounding lakes but given that we were there early as for only about the fourth time since starting this journey, we had hit the road before 8.00 am, so decided to keep going. It was a hot day, we had plenty of mountains to climb and the temperature was 112 f or 42 c. We had done Death Valley in the heat and although we had steep climbs on this leg nothing will ever match Death Valley. As expected the truck never missed a beat. In the end we made it all the way to Eureka a trip of 665 klm or 400 odd mile - a big one!

As we drove into the Eureka the area was covered in what we thought was a smog haze, but a quick check on the iPad weather app confirmed it was in fact fog, yes fog at 3 pm. The next days weather prediction was fog till 11am, clearing, then fog from 1pm. Apparently this is quite normal for the area - fog can blot out whole days and sometimes multiple days!

Eureka! We made it! The bar is open



The main attraction close to Eureka is the Avenue of the Giants, yes more massive trees, so after a day off we headed to Humboldt State Park. The state and national park services in the USA do things so well - we picked up the self drive pamphlet with designated stopping points. Let the photos do the talking!

Just magical


Tree hugging Rose ( in reality she is practising for my waistline after 12 months holiday)



These trees are huge and and you realise just how big when they have fallen. Can you find Rose?



Yep they are big


Hobbit country?


Beautiful



We stopped in at a "mom & pop" cafe to have some lunch. Out back they had a tree that was once lived in. The house was built into the base of the tree, windows included.

A Real Tree House



The main reason for stopping at Eureka was to view these massive trees - check - done!

Oregon coast here we come!




Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Eureka CA