Eureka, Anniversary, Redwoods, and Elk

Happy anniversary to us today…37 years!  We started our day by finding an ATM in Eureka and since it was still a little early for our planned lunch, we drove around Eureka.  These first three photos were taken along the east side of Humboldt Bay.

We drove over a long bridge to the west side of the bay to have a look around.

The west side of the bay was formerly a Navy base but is now facilities for the Coast Guard.

The change in weather could be seen in the wave activity along the Pacific Ocean.

We thought the restaurant we planned to go to for lunch would be in the main area of Eureka, but it turned out to be south of our exit for the Elks lodge so it was a long drive north and then back south for lunch.  Although it seemed to be in a very out of the way location, the parking lot was full at Gills by the Bay,  and we had a very  good lunch.  Ken had the fish and chips and a cup of seafood chowder while I had the Sandy Beach Sandwich which was bay shrimp, crisp bacon, green onions & cheddar cheese on grilled sourdough bread.

After lunch, we drove north on Hwy 101 to the visitor center for the Redwoods National Park.

Ken picked up some pamphlets and talked to the ranger at the desk for a while, and then we watched a short movie about the redwoods.

From there we continued driving north (and then back south) to see the redwoods and elk (with a deer thrown into the mix) in the area.

And that’s “the end” for today!

Lost Beach Loop Drive

Since the weather was due to take a turn for the worse on Thursday, we decided to take the Lost Beach Loop drive today.  We started the drive on the north part of the loop at the Fernbridge/Ferndale exit south of Eureka.  We crossed a bridge over the Eel River.

 

We drove through the town of Ferndale which has a lot of Victorian style buildings in town.  We stopped at the post office to send some things off in the mail and continued through town.  If time and weather allow, we may take some time to go back there and explore a little bit more.

The entire loop drive is around 100 miles long, but it is very scenic.  The road is very narrow and there are several places where it is down to one lane due to slides.  There is a section of road that follows the Pacific Ocean and there are several large farms along the route.

I’m not sure what they are, but we saw these unusual flowers in front of one of the farms along our route.

This cow seems to have just given birth to the calf lying at her feet.

We crossed this bridge on the final portion of our loop before entering the Humboldt Redwoods area.

It’s really amazing driving on the road through these large redwoods that are hundreds of years old.

I’m pretty sure this gas station is out of business…if not, it should be.

Our pickup wanted it’s photo taken in front of one of the large redwoods, so we stopped briefly to do that.

This wood carving of an ear of corn caught my eye.

There might be another RV in our future, but it’s definitely not this one.

We continued our drive on into Eureka to pick up some things at the Costco then returned to the RV for the evening.

From Vineyards to Redwoods

We were on the road around 9:00am this morning and once again headed north on Hwy 101.

The first part of our drive took us through numerous vineyards on either side of the highway.

Last night Ken started researching for a diesel stop along our route and we finally decided to stop at the Safeway grocery store in Willits.  With a large enough purchase of groceries, we would get a $.10 a gallon discount rather than the usual $.03 off per gallon.  In addition to the groceries, we picked up sandwiches at their deli for our lunch at a rest area another 20 miles up the road.

After our lunch stop at the rest area, we continued north through the Humboldt State Redwoods area.

Most of the Hwy 101 is narrow and twisting up and down hills but is very scenic.

We arrived at the Eureka Elks lodge before 3pm and that will be our home for the next 4 nights.