This morning we slept in until 7:15, but got ready pretty quickly. We walked over to the lake shore for some sunrise pictures, then packed up the RV to head to the other side of Lassen to the Loomis Museum and Visitor Center. We stopped at a few stops along the way, including the .5 mile loop hike at Devastated Area – an area that was obliterated in the 1915 eruption. The Loomis Museum included 6 photographs taken by Loomis during the eruption, which were quite interesting. We met some motorcycle riders from Michigan in the parking lot and talked to them for a while. They mentioned that the highlight of their trip had been Crater Lake in Oregon – which was cool, because we were headed there soon.
After we finished at the museum we left the park and made our way through Redding, California on our way to Eureka and Highway 101 up the coast. As a side note, our son has been battling nose bleeds due to the higher elevations and dry air. Hopefully when we get to the coast, the moist air will help him out a bit. On the way from Redding to Eureka, we hit some construction and had to creep in one-way traffic. We think the outdoor temp sensor on the RV might have gone a little nuts because it kept reporting temps of 120, 123, 118-degrees etc. We rolled down the windows to see if we thought it was telling the truth, and it was hot, but we don’t think it was that hot. Once we were through the construction and back up to regular speeds, the temp reported in at 95-degrees. By the time we arrived at the Redwoods National Park Visitor Center, it was in the high 70s-low 80s.
The Visitor Center had an orientation movie, some interactive displays, the passport stamp station, and a gift shop. We asked about a few of the hikes and roads. Unfortunately, Redwoods is one of the places where our motorhome puts us at a serious disadvantage (which is why we are only staying one night here). Many of the roads are unpaved, and/or closed to motorhomes. From the south visitor center, we drove up to the north visitor center to see if there were any differences. The only thing the second VC had to offer was a stone fire place that had been built in the 1930s. At both visitor centers, the parking lots were not crowded, so we parked our small motorhome in one of the “car” spots. We giggled about this a bit, considering we see cars taking up the large RV/bus spots all of the time and it infuriates us, so when we get the chance to repay the favor, we find delight in it. The fact that our RV is small enough to fit in one car spot in most cases (especially in angled parking) only makes it more satisfying.
One of the roads we were able to traverse included the road up to Lady Bird Johnson Grove – a 1.5-mile hike with interpretive signs around a Redwood grove. The parking lot at the trail head there is marked that there are no RV parking spots available. When we arrived at the parking lot, it was full, but several cars were leaving, including one in the end spot. Hubby had me run up the hill to the spot and “hold” it while he navigated the RV back through the lot again to be able to back into it. It was clearly a car spot, but we’re not much longer than an SUV when we can back up so that our back end overhangs some grass. As I was standing in the spot to claim it, one couple in a van asked if I was saving the spot and I said, “sorry yes, but there’s a few other spots over there about to open up” so they went and took one of those. When we finished maneuvering into the spot, hubby went and told them thanks for understanding. However, while hubby was backing into the spot, one guy began filming him on his phone. We thought this was hilarious because he clearly thought we were going to damage the cars around us, but hubby is great at driving that thing and he knows it’s capabilities. It’s small and pretty nimble. We’ve driven it through downtown San Francisco so . . . Anyway, we parked in the spot easily (our third “car” spot of the day) and took our hike. It was awesome looking at the tallest living things on the planet. Some trees reach over 300 ft tall and are centuries old. They can live up to 2000 years, although most are only in the 500-1000 year range.
After our hike, we went to check in at our campground. We drove to our site, passing by Roosevelt Elk grazing in the meadow at the front of our campground. After setting up our campsite, we took another hike from the back of the campground through another Redwood grove. When we emerged from the trail back at the meadow, several elk had moved from the meadow up to the adjacent cabins. Two elk were grazing right next to people’s cars that were parked there. Inside the cabins, there were some kids screaming and crying and it appeared to bother the elk a little. Other kids were roller blading by, and a campground host told them to stop and go back. They were right about to roller blade 5 ft from a full size male elk. We couldn’t get over how stupid people were and how close they were getting. We gave them plenty of space and allowed them to finish eating and move on before we walked passed them back to our campsite. We always obey the rules when it comes to keeping our distance from wildlife. We understand they are WILD, not zoo exhibit animals!
After our walk we came back to the RV, prepared dinner and made our plans for tomorrow. We have a few more trails here at Redwoods we’d like to do, and a couple of coastal overlooks before heading up to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. After dinner, we made a fire for s’mores and played the card game Phase 10. Then we took showers and headed to bed. I’m bummed because I forgot that we don’t have full hookups which means I can’t dry my hair and need to go to bed with a wet head. Ugh. Camping girl problems. . . More tomorrow!
Statistics – we did about 5 miles of hiking today through coastal redwood forests!
