Itinerary
Start - Willits KOA @ Willits, CA around noon
End - Camper Corral @ Klamath, CA, about 7:30pm
Distance ~ 200 miles
Map:
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Somewhat unusual start as I woke up well before J
After he woke up he and I had breakfast and then I ventured forth to see the campground in the daylight and go make sure our late nite checkin went well.
What an amazing campground.
Last nights carrots were gone. Right nearby our spot was a ton of stuf for kids:
The pool, hot tub and special 1.5 ft wading pool.
A petting zoo where you can buy food pellets to feed the animals for a quarter
A playspace
A splash park
Western kid town
Then there was a large frisbee golf course
Rental go karts
The RV sites had a lit utility pole (first time and very handy last night after dark)
Friendly staff (despite the youth of the two girls working the office they were attentive, helpful)
Lots of other kids to play with several grandparents with their kids
The kids played, fed the animals and swam in the pool until after noon.
On the road
We started back onto the 101 North and were back into climbing up and down mountains. This part of the 101 had actual rockslides so lots of places where there was just one lane.
We went to several of the slightly unusual attractions at this part of the Redwoods.
Confusion Hill and Gravity House
The One Log House
Grandfather Tree
Apparently a good river swimming spot as a group of about 25 kids paraded past the Grandfather tree and down towards the river.
Richardson Grove State Park
We drove into the State park to look around. The entrance station will give you an hour pass for free to make it to the visitor center. The narrow roads go around large Redwoods and along the 101 past several campsites.
The visitor center has several paths with amazing Redwoods.
Avenue of the Giants
You can take a scenic detour off the 101 and onto the Avenue of the Giants. There are a couple of places to start or exit back onto the 101 but if you drive the whole stretch of road it is only about an extra 30 minutes. The first stop going north was a burned out Redwood known as the Chimney Tree.
Past Philipsville I went back onto the 101 to make better time towards Eureka, and we made it there by about 5pm.
Eureka for snack and strategy
A brief stop in Eureka at the mall parking lot would let us get a snack and research which campground to aim for. I considered some of the roadside little parks and campgrounds along the way to Klamath but since I wanted to get to the Trees of Mystery early in the morning, Klamath seemed like the best option.
Reviews looked good for the Camper Corral right in Klamath just a mile or so south of the Trees of Mystery, so I called the manager to make sure there were available spots and we pushed on for just under a two hour drive from Eureka.
Along the way we spotted a huge herd of Elk and saw some great scenic views of the ocean and many more Redwoods and forests.
Camper Corral on the side of the 101
Immediately off the 101 at Klamath, just after the Golden Bears bridge over the Klamath River, was a large grassy campground. The friendly manager was a multi-year RVer in his early 30s living and traveling with his kids around the country. They offered pizza baked fresh there at the campground and we took them up on the golf cart pizza delivery service to get some cheese and pepporoni for dinner.
Although there was a heated pool, it started getting slightly dark. We wanted to make the hike down to the river before dark and so we skipped the pool. The long hike through the woods was along a cleared path and the three of us had fun pretending to be time explorers.
At the river, we had been told there were two whales trapped upstream until the tides were more favorable for them to return to the ocean. We were able to spot them surfacing for air a few times. As it was getting dark we decided to head back to the RV and hopefully the pizza.
We set up to eat outside but the clouds rolled in and it started to rain. So we finished the pizza inside and got ready for sleep.
At about 1030pm, K and I were watching Star Wars IV - A new Hope on the iPad2. I heard a strange tapping sound on the driver's side. So I moved up to the cab to find out what was going on. While looking around I saw movement off to the right - towards the bushes and trees leading to the river. There was a fish cleaning station just 50 feet away.
The movement that caught my eye was large, black, and hungry.
Someone had left fish guts in some buckets at the fish cleaning station. This would indeed attract a large scavenging black bear.
K and I watched as the bear pawed through the buckets and at whatever he found. This lasted for almost an hour. I tried to wake up J (who was fast asleep before the bear showed up).
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