Redwood National and State Parks - California

October 30 – November 3, 2020

The drive from Florence, Oregon to Crescent City California was approximately 200 miles but what a drive! Up and down the narrow roads of the coastal hills, left / right, holding your breath as a semi or large truck came the opposite way. A true test of one’s driving ability with an RV and car in tow. At one point we thought there was smoke from a fire ahead – it was so thick but there was nowhere to turn off. It turns out it was fog. One minute the sun is shining, the next minute your engulfed in fog so thick you can only see one or 2 cars ahead. A very challenging 200 miles. Aside from the fog, it was a really beautiful drive (if you were the passenger).

As soon as we crossed over to California, gas prices increased by $1/gallon. Good thing we thought ahead to get gas in Oregon. Prices went from $2.41 to $3.49.

Our campground was just down the road from the Redwood State Park Visitors Center and the main road couldn’t have been more beautiful. Large Redwood trees lined the winding roads with some so close to the road that the tree had reflector markers attached, you could tell the trees had numerous close encounters with vehicles. After the difficult drive, we called it a day and planned our next day’s adventure.

We started at the visitor’s center and surprisingly not only was it open, it was staffed. We had some ideas on what we wanted to do so the Ranger gave us all the information we needed. As expected, some of the areas we wanted to see were closed but there was plenty of other places to go so there was no limitation on what to see and do. We did a few local adventures the first day as we wanted to explore Crescent City – especially the fishing boats in the port.

There is nothing like a good marina and we found a great one. Sea lions barking in the harbor, fishing boats coming and going, nets laying on the ground stretched out to dry (and for repair), and lots of activity. It turned out that the prawn (large shrimp) season was closing in just a couple of days of our visit and the fishing boats were cleaning up the boats and repairing their nets for the next season.

I don’t remember mentioning in the Oregon post about the 2006 Tsunami that hit the coast caused by an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 in Alaska. It was pretty devastating and hit in the early hours of the morning with no warning. One town in Oregon we visited had a memorial area explaining the event and several buildings had water mark indicators which were almost to the top of the first floor. The reason to bring it up in this post is the harbor office at the marina had a similar marking on the building of how high the water was. Reflecting on the suddenness of a Tsunami, the seriousness registered with us of all the signs we saw on the west coast warning that you were either in a possible Tsunami area or the evacuation route to follow in case of one. It seemed that any area less than 75’ in elevation had the warning signs.

Note the water mark on the sign.

The blue line above the door was the tsunami water height.

The was some activity on one of the docks which was preparation for an incoming fishing boat that would be offloading its prawn catch. They invited us to come back when the boat docked to observe. What luck! While we were waiting, we spotted a restaurant on the harbor and enjoyed an adult beverage while watching and listing to the sea lions. We will come back later for a meal. They had a nice area of picnic tables near the beach.

When the fishing boat arrived, we headed back to the dock. It was the last day of the season for prawn fishing so before they could unload their catch, all the fishing gear had to be removed. Dungeness crab season starts December 1 and the boat would later be loaded with different equipment. On the dock they were preparing 5 large plastic tubs (possibly 4’ x 4’ and 3’ tall) with metal supports which contained aerated salt water for live prawn storage during shipment. Each bin would hold 150-200 pounds of prawn and then be immediately loaded into a waiting refrigerated semi-truck complete with fans and compressor to aerate the loaded bins via individual hoses. Once the truck was completely loaded, it was driving to San Francisco to a distribution center for restaurant use. It doesn’t get fresher than that.

It was exciting to see the whole process in action. They didn’t mind our questions but we were respectful of their time and only asked when they weren’t busy.

Brine tanks to store the prawn for shipping

Crescent City has 30 art murals along many of the buildings which represent the heritage of the area. Here are a few:

This mural was so long it took 2 pictures.

We were looking forward to our Redwood Forest adventures. We made sure to get an early start as we had an hour drive to our first destination, Prairie Creek State Park. You know you have arrived when you see the sign for “The Big Tree”.  It was definitely that with a diameter of 23.7 feet and height of 286 feet and an estimated age of 1500 years. Really – that tree started growing sometime around the year 500!

This was certainly not the only big tree as they were everywhere. It was most likely the one closest to the road so a parking lot could be easily constructed. Near the “Big Tree” there was a sign post with directions to “That’s a Very Big Tree”, “That’s A Big Tree, Too”, and “This Way to More Big Trees”. This is an old growth Redwood tree area so the “Big Trees” were everywhere. 

The trails are nicely maintained – beautiful day to be out. We took so many pictures of the trees while on the trails which all looked so different when you took them, but look pretty much the same when you review the pictures for editing. Some fun facts about redwood trees: Their live span is 2000 years with heights of up to 380 feet and diameter of up to 29.2 feet making them the tallest trees in the world. The largest surviving stands of ancient coast redwoods are along the northern California coast. Many of the redwoods were logged during the gold rush during the mid-1800’s.

There were a few scenic driving trails in the area we wanted do before heading back to the campground.  We spotted an area of processing / canning plants. We could only get close to one plant, but we could see they were processing carrots for canning and bagging. Unfortunately, no tours. 

The remaining time in the Redwood National and State Park area was spent in the parks enjoying some trails or scenic drives. We never tired of being among all the big beautiful trees.  When not enjoying the parks we were at the coast, eating seafood, listening to the sea lions, and watching fishing boats.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Redwood area and Crescent City. The forest was so peaceful and relaxing. Sometimes we just had to stop walking and take it all in. Life just seemed to stop for a moment - nothing was as important than to be there among the thousand year old trees.

Temperature: range from low to upper 60’s day– mid 50’s night

Air Quality: Excellent

Elevation: 100 – 863 feet

Campground(s):  Redwood Meadows Campground (Crescent City, CA)

Free Camping: none