KO and the Turk: Crescent City Capades

redwood tree perspective

We left the extreme heat of Sacramento and drove 7 hours to Crescent City. This drive took us into Oregon briefly, because that is where the road went. Turk liked this path since he could get gas cheaper in Oregon than California AND have someone pump it for him. The temperature dropped over 50 degrees during this trip that took us past Mt. Shasta and the drought impacted Shasta Lake reservoir, formed in 1944 when the Sacramento River was dammed. Little did we know that a month later this drive would be surrounded by fires and smoke from the climate change influenced fire season.

Mt. Shasta in June - actually a volcano!

Turk makes sure I can see the top

The drive became magical as we entered the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. We pulled over just to run around these coastal redwoods, the tallest in the world.

Our first redwoods on this trip!

That's a BIG trunk

redwood tree skin tells stories

the bark slowly curls around as tree grows

After settling into our cute AirBnB bungalow, we explored town. Discovered Kin Khao Thai Eatery - really perfect warming and delicious food. We could hear the chef as she gave orders in Thai to the staff!

Next day we headed to Del Norte RWDSP where 45% of the earth's remaining old-growth redwood forests stand. Our big hike that day was along the Coastal Trail where we saw other hikers only at the start. Lots of wild flowers, coastline scenes (mostly at the beginning). We hiked 4 hours and decided it was time to relax the rest of the day.

Lots to see. We think we got 4 miles in.

Purple heart clover

We found a resting spot on the trail

looks bigger than it was

so many tiny flowers

and so colorful

We hiked the spur trail down to Enders Beach which was a real find. Beautiful rock formations, pools from the nearby creek, and downed redwoods made interesting landscape to scamper around.

Picture perfect view at Enders Beach

Perspective of the stone bridge

A shorter redwood hike still called to us. We found that many of the Redwood groves are named for the individuals who purchased, or already owned the land and gave it to the state park system in order to help preserve some of the trees. With the gold rush in the 1850's and the resulting need for buildings, loggers were cutting down redwoods. By the end of the 1800's, large groves of redwoods were decimated. In the 1910's the Save the Redwoods League helped bring attention to the plight of the trees and get patches of redwoods donated - paving the way for the areas now known at Del Norte, Jedediah, and Prairie Creek Redwood State Parks. Groves that were donated are acknowledged with plaques that you can see on the main hike of each. But by the 1960's, over 90% of the old growth redwoods were gone. in 1968 Redwood National Park was created and provided federal funds to protect these areas and expand them. This is now a World Heritage Site.