Stop 39: Redcrest, CA (Avenue of the Giants)

A long, harrowing drive down the Klamath River Canyon took us to US-101 and eventually to the Ancient Redwoods RV Park on the Avenue of the Giants in Humbolt Redwoods State Park.

This log truck is out at the entrance to our campground. The log is hollow but it still looks heavy.

On our only full day here, we started out by visiting Ferndale. We had to go a good part of the distance to get gas in Rio Del. Since we'd heard interesting things about Ferndale, we decided to keep going.

Ferndale is a beautiful old town that was founded in 1854. Many of the buildings are Victorians in the San Francisco painted lady tradition. We spent a couple of hours looking around and then had some lunch.

One block of the main street. Many other blocks were just as colorful.

The Historic Shaw House Inn, Built in 1854, it's as old as the town (which makes the town a little newer than Briar & Gus' house - we have a different idea of old on the West Coast).

I had to get a shot of this tangled up mess of a tree.

Our next destination was the Avenue of the Giants. This beautiful road follows the Eel River for about 30 miles through the redwoods of Humbolt Redwood State Park.

The Founders Tree (dedicated to the park's founders): 346.1' high, 12.7' in diameter, 190.4' to the lowest limb.

We saw a lot of fallen trees. It was amazing to see just how shallow the roots are on these giants.

Couldn't believe how much of this one's trunk had been burned away without killing the tree.

Tomorrow, we're off to Mendocino.

Addendum: After our evening walk

Me, at the far end of a log in our campground.

Kristen - always the scofflaw.

See the fish high above Kristen's head? I've always been interested by these high water marks from the '64 flood.

-JC-