13th July - Klamath, CA to Maple Valley, WA

Itinerary
Start - Camper Corral @ Klamath, CA (~ 10am)
End - Home @ Maple Valley, WA (~ midnight)
Distance ~ 520 miles

Map:


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Trees of Mystery
When I was about four or five (so about 1973 or so?) my father took me on a trip by himself down the west coast to Disneyland. I remember several places very clearly along the way. One of them had this giant Paul Bunyan statue (just over 49' tall) with Babe the Big Blue Ox. It took 38 years but I finally made it back to the Trees of Mystery tourist stop in the California Redwoods right at Klamath, CA on Hwy 101.






There was a host who greeted the kids via a speaker in the Paul Bunyan statue and could wave the hand and wink the statue's eye. The host is a talker, and likes to make jokes and be informative.

As the Paul Bunyan statue is 49 ft tall, the boys are small enough to get stepped on!

Here is a link to a webcam at the statue:  http://www.treesofmystery.net/webcam.htm


The Trees themselves
At this private park they have a great trail that takes you for a simple hike through some of the best examples of the wonders of this ancient forest.

The world's largest 'family tree' has several trunks growing from its upper branches





Near the start is a wishing well the boys enjoyed

















The trees reach heights of 300 ft

The trees can reach heights of 300 ft

The Cathedral Trees grew close together forming a natural 'chapel' that is now used for weddings

The Brotherhood Tree is enormous about 300 ft tall and 19 feet in diameter. It is over 2000 years old.

The boys at the enormous Brotherhood Tree

Sky Trail
One of the best ways to appreciate the local scenery is to hike up to the final stop in their park - the Sky Trail that leads up the mountain.
J was excited while K was nervous, but in the end K was brave and overcame his fear of heights as long as Daddy was going with him. J had no fear of course! The trip up takes about 10 minutes and slows down a few times so you can take pictures. The vertical rise is about 571 feet. Each 'car' can hold about 6 people.

Getting ready to board a Sky Trail

Starting up the Sky Trail

Halfway Up

The top of the ride up

The view from the top was a bit foggy but beautiful

Old Logger Folkstories
Once you get back down, the trail leads you through a number of woodcarvings depicting various stories and characters of the old west logging folktales.

Legend of the giant Trained Pack Rats

Four characters from logger folktales

J had never heard these stories

Mamma Bear and Flapjack

Gift Store
At the end of the trail you end up back at the gift store. There was some snacks like some good ice cream and a couple of good books and souvenirs.


Crescent City
We then drove north to Crescent City for gas Subway sandwiches for lunch. Across the street was a liquor store so I picked up a couple of bottles of Everclear for the Wife's friends at work (some new drink recipe).

The beach

Playing on the beach at Crescent City, CA

It was getting late in the afternoon (after 2pm) and I was getting worried about the drive home. My goal was to try to make it home to Maple Valley tonight. But the thought of having driven all that way and not letting the boys play on the California beach seemed like a waste!
So I turned back south to get to the beach access from the downtown spot I was at.
It was such a good decision to spend some extra time chasing the waves and getting sandy.





Three boys playing in the ocean water at the beach for a little bit of time.
After a little less than an hour we trudged across the hot sand and back to the RV. We did our best to not get too much sand in the RV (note to RV designers - the external shower should be on the same side as the main door instead of the driver's side).

Then back on the 101 to drive north through Crescent City and finally to take the HWY 199 NE towards Grant's Pass.

The Winding 199
I was not able to go too fast on that highway. We finally got to a rest stop right at the Collier Tunnel on Highway 199 (about 3 miles south of the Oregon / Cali border). There was construction going on delaying traffic down to one lane for both directions through the tunnel. So feeling tired from lunch and the road, I stopped for a short nap at the rest stop (~ 30 minutes) before we pressed on to the Oregon border.

We stopped at the border sign for a quick photo.

At the California / Oregon border on HWY 199

Oregon is bust for now
I would have liked to have taken the boys to several places along the way back. If I had three or more days more then we'd have gone to the Oregon Caves (Cave Junction is right on the 199), Crater Lake, and J wanted to go to Cannon Beach and the Tillamook factory for ice cream. Of course the Oregon coast offers the Sea Lions, and Sand Dunes, and many other sites.

But since we can take a 4 day weekend trip to get to Oregon from Maple Valley, I figured these were things we could do on another trip. Besides, Momma might want to come along and see the Northern California sites she missed. So another RV trip south via Oregon might cover these sites.

I-5 North

Truck fire on I-5 Southbound near Grants Pass

By sometime after 4pm we were in Grant's Pass and ready to head North on I-5. I had forgotten that southern Oregon had plenty of mountains left to throw at me. So I wasn't quite done with ups and downs and semi trucks just yet. There was even a spectacular truck fire on I-5 south closing down traffic completely somewhere north of Grants Pass.