Kathleen Ennen
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APR 24, 2019 – Weott, CA

We left Fort Bragg, CA today after 5 quiet days with a few long walks into town or along the sea. The beauty that continues along this lengthy California coast is hard to describe. We drove to the Avenue of the Giants and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. What an amazing drive and state campground nestled in a great stand of gigantic redwoods.

I’ve always wanted to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, known as CA-1. We first got on it in Morro Bay and then have been driving north, mostly on CA-1, until today when we reached its northern terminus. It just was marked as “END CA-1” and we got on to Rt 101, a freeway. We drove 350 of its 656 miles, through Big Sur, up the coast north of Monterey, then north of San Francisco from Inverness on Tomales Bay and then a long a twisty tour up to Fort Bragg. Today as CA-1 left the coast, half way to the Humboldt Redwood State Park, it turned inland into the forests. The road was up and down and left and right, even coming into one turn with a 10MPH speed sign before it. Many hairpin turns. The hills stretched forever, covered with tall pines and redwoods and little else.

Our spot in the campground is very spacious with a deep fire ring and tall trees all around. There are even shells of former giants that amaze even now, long after the tree’s been down, and probably thousands of years since it started as a young straight newbie.

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Giant Sequoia
Giant Sequoia
Coast (Giant) Redwood
Coast (Giant) Redwood
Dawn Redwood
Dawn Redwood
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APR 25, 2019 – Weott, CA

We took a long walk today, starting at the park visitor center. It seems more like a small nature center as well. There are exhibits and information of the great flood of 1965. There’s a log wagon built by Charles Kellogg that served as an early version of a RV.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kellogg_(naturalist)

The visitor center also had a small garden area where you could see a Coast Redwood tree (aka giant redwood), a Giant Sequoia, and a Dawn Redwood. The Dawn Redwood is found in China. Coast redwoods are located on the Pacific Coast from central California to southern Oregon, grow up to 380 feet tall, and have diameters up to 28 feet. Giant Sequoia are located in the Sierra Nevada from 5,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, live up to 3,200 years, can grow up to 311 feet, and have diameters up to 40 feet.

We followed a trail through the forest of giant redwoods, some massive, and found the river, the S Branch Eel River. The devastating flood in 1965 completed inundated the area and the high water mark in Weott gives an indication of why the town was literally wiped away. What there is now, a post office and general store is set up on a hill above where the high water mark is today. It was another beautiful day, bright sun, clear sky, and the welcome relief of the shade given by the giant trees.