With such a busy day planned, we were up and out the cabin by 10am. It was only a short drive back to the 'Trees of Mystery' - the tree gondola place. A mere 15 dollars each had us in and soon we were walking up the inside of a fallen tree to start the exploration. Every few steps there seemed to be a information board, so we knew what trees were what. They were HUGE. They towered above us, and some had other trees growing of the horizontal branches. Not just small off shoots, but full on trees which in most parks would be the old big tree... Just sitting on a horizontal branch about 30ft in the air. The path meandered around lots of different trees and after about 40 minutes we arrived at the base for the gondola. Clearly, this level of exercise is too much for many visitors here as there is a shuttle service that can bring you direct from entrance to gondola. I wonder if they also have a forklift to pick them out of their cars too.
The ride up is slow, giving us plenty of time to look around at the different levels of the trees. There seems to be a lot less of the really large trees here, and only large trees instead. At the top of the gondola is a viewing platform set out with binoculars, and an outstanding view across the forest, all the way from mountains on one side to the ocean on the other. The noise up here is different too. Stepping out of the gondola into silence, or what sends to be silence compared to tr noise we hadn't even noticed in the first below, its eerie.
Instead of taking the gondola back down, we out for the 'experienced hikers only' route. This its the walking path back down the 500ft we just travelled by cable. The challenge in it was the slightly steep gradients which in some places could be treacherous if you were wearing flip flops, but they had a rope rigged up along the side where needed to act as a handrail. The information showed it as being nearly a mile long, but it was up and down, showing a wilder side of the forest.
Some chainsaw wood carvings led us out once we rejoined the regular path and we were back in the giftshop where we tried some delicious fudge. Before long we were back on the road, heading for Big Tree. We'd been recommended (and had seen on a map) a different route through part of the Redwood StatePark. It would taker us much deeper into the first, and also slew us to stop at the biggest redwood tree in the world, according to the recommendation. Keeping it slow because of the temporary tire, we worked our way along to the tree. By now after 2.5 hours of trees, suddenly nothing seemed big anymore. Our perceptions of large trees had changed having been surrounded by them all morning. Big Tree...while large enough, had plenty of space around it do you could practically see to the top and suddenly that wasn't big enough for us anymore. We ate lunch in the car, looking out at the forest and enjoying the warm weather. Soon it was time to move on again, and the next stop was just on the border of the State park, to look at the beach we were hoping to have camped on overnight...it looked amazing! Its a shame to have missed it, but maybe tonight on the way towards San Francisco we'd find another one.
Clare was on map duty again, and managed to spot one if the nearby creeks had an interesting name. No idea if one of her distant relations had a part in naming it, but just inland of us was McArthur Creek.
Our next stop was the airport, where we'd swap out the cars. As we travelled we wondered what car we'd get next, hoping it would be at least as big as the Yaris so we'd be able to fit all our things in. No such luck of course - we managed to downsize again. The pathfinder to yaris had been a size reduction, and this was a Nissan, the next step down size wise. We spent far too long trying to squeeze everything in, but eventually managed it and were able to hit the road again. Not only was it a smaller car, but it had none of the comforts of the Yaris, and no where near as many as the Pathfinder - it didn't even have central locking or remote locking. Having just got used to the ideas of locking up as we walked away from the car, we'd now have to get out of the habit!
A few miles further on, we pulled into a information centre to get an idea of where to go and where we night be able to stop. Partway through the assistant pointing out windy scenic roads on the map it hit me - the camera was still trapped to the Yaris! Arms stuffed full of flyers, we jumped back in and traced back to the airport - luckily the car hadn't gone anywhere, and the time lapse video was saved!
Of we went again, feeling like the day had been very stop start. Next stop was Eureka, 15 mulled down the road. Finally we've made it here after days of planning on being here. I've wanted to come to Eureka ever since I saw it on the map. Having been a fan of the TV series I wanted to see of it really was a normal town. It was called a city here, were still not sure how that classification worths, but separated with an 'Old Town' area. We stopped here for a cake and a drink and to jump on the internet, finally able to post the latest installments of the blog and research a little further where we should get to this evening it was nice to suit and chill, looking out the window at the sun and the horse hitching posts dotted around.
We pushed on, by now it was 5 pm and we'd need to get to our selected beach camping spot before the sun set - there's better than sunset over the ocean sitting on a beach with a roaring fire. An hour later, still 50 miles from our destination we knew it was a bust. The beautiful cookies in the sky told us the sun was starting to set and it was pretty dark already under the trees where all the campsites were. We had to find a motel again, not too ready a task around here apparently as we probed up and down small 1 block Towns with no luck. Nothing send to be lit up conventionally out here, lid of fairy lights and the like, but no informative signs. We eventually spotted a vacancy sign as we backtracked along the highway.
Clare went inside to see about a room, and managed to sweet talk us into an upgraded room at a regular priced rate with a discount on top! Luckily the owner was Scottish and understood what it was like!
Our room was excellent, one of the best we've stayed in so far and included a kitchen so we didn't have to go out for dinner.
After the busy day we were glad to get to bed, and I was especially looking forward to the lie in tomorrow, caused by the clocks changing! whoop :)
The ride up is slow, giving us plenty of time to look around at the different levels of the trees. There seems to be a lot less of the really large trees here, and only large trees instead. At the top of the gondola is a viewing platform set out with binoculars, and an outstanding view across the forest, all the way from mountains on one side to the ocean on the other. The noise up here is different too. Stepping out of the gondola into silence, or what sends to be silence compared to tr noise we hadn't even noticed in the first below, its eerie.
Instead of taking the gondola back down, we out for the 'experienced hikers only' route. This its the walking path back down the 500ft we just travelled by cable. The challenge in it was the slightly steep gradients which in some places could be treacherous if you were wearing flip flops, but they had a rope rigged up along the side where needed to act as a handrail. The information showed it as being nearly a mile long, but it was up and down, showing a wilder side of the forest.
Some chainsaw wood carvings led us out once we rejoined the regular path and we were back in the giftshop where we tried some delicious fudge. Before long we were back on the road, heading for Big Tree. We'd been recommended (and had seen on a map) a different route through part of the Redwood StatePark. It would taker us much deeper into the first, and also slew us to stop at the biggest redwood tree in the world, according to the recommendation. Keeping it slow because of the temporary tire, we worked our way along to the tree. By now after 2.5 hours of trees, suddenly nothing seemed big anymore. Our perceptions of large trees had changed having been surrounded by them all morning. Big Tree...while large enough, had plenty of space around it do you could practically see to the top and suddenly that wasn't big enough for us anymore. We ate lunch in the car, looking out at the forest and enjoying the warm weather. Soon it was time to move on again, and the next stop was just on the border of the State park, to look at the beach we were hoping to have camped on overnight...it looked amazing! Its a shame to have missed it, but maybe tonight on the way towards San Francisco we'd find another one.
Clare was on map duty again, and managed to spot one if the nearby creeks had an interesting name. No idea if one of her distant relations had a part in naming it, but just inland of us was McArthur Creek.
Our next stop was the airport, where we'd swap out the cars. As we travelled we wondered what car we'd get next, hoping it would be at least as big as the Yaris so we'd be able to fit all our things in. No such luck of course - we managed to downsize again. The pathfinder to yaris had been a size reduction, and this was a Nissan, the next step down size wise. We spent far too long trying to squeeze everything in, but eventually managed it and were able to hit the road again. Not only was it a smaller car, but it had none of the comforts of the Yaris, and no where near as many as the Pathfinder - it didn't even have central locking or remote locking. Having just got used to the ideas of locking up as we walked away from the car, we'd now have to get out of the habit!
A few miles further on, we pulled into a information centre to get an idea of where to go and where we night be able to stop. Partway through the assistant pointing out windy scenic roads on the map it hit me - the camera was still trapped to the Yaris! Arms stuffed full of flyers, we jumped back in and traced back to the airport - luckily the car hadn't gone anywhere, and the time lapse video was saved!
Of we went again, feeling like the day had been very stop start. Next stop was Eureka, 15 mulled down the road. Finally we've made it here after days of planning on being here. I've wanted to come to Eureka ever since I saw it on the map. Having been a fan of the TV series I wanted to see of it really was a normal town. It was called a city here, were still not sure how that classification worths, but separated with an 'Old Town' area. We stopped here for a cake and a drink and to jump on the internet, finally able to post the latest installments of the blog and research a little further where we should get to this evening it was nice to suit and chill, looking out the window at the sun and the horse hitching posts dotted around.
We pushed on, by now it was 5 pm and we'd need to get to our selected beach camping spot before the sun set - there's better than sunset over the ocean sitting on a beach with a roaring fire. An hour later, still 50 miles from our destination we knew it was a bust. The beautiful cookies in the sky told us the sun was starting to set and it was pretty dark already under the trees where all the campsites were. We had to find a motel again, not too ready a task around here apparently as we probed up and down small 1 block Towns with no luck. Nothing send to be lit up conventionally out here, lid of fairy lights and the like, but no informative signs. We eventually spotted a vacancy sign as we backtracked along the highway.
Clare went inside to see about a room, and managed to sweet talk us into an upgraded room at a regular priced rate with a discount on top! Luckily the owner was Scottish and understood what it was like!
Our room was excellent, one of the best we've stayed in so far and included a kitchen so we didn't have to go out for dinner.
After the busy day we were glad to get to bed, and I was especially looking forward to the lie in tomorrow, caused by the clocks changing! whoop :)
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