6/14 Drive to and along Northern California's Redwood Coast

I have not posted in a while because things have been fairly boring.  I spent a few days in Eugene getting my generator fixed.  It was running fine, but not providing any power to my motorhome, which is the whole purpose of a generator!!  I also visited my urologist to get the kidney stone I had a couple of weeks ago checked, and it had not budged.  Going to wait a month and see if it passes by itself.  If not, I will need another surgical procedure, which I really don't want, so I hope it passes. 

I headed out from Eugene a couple of days ago to head to Bodega Bay, CA.  First stop was in Valley of Rogue State Park, which is a place right along the I-5 freeway, so handy as you head south.  Unfortunately, it was horribly hot and AC units in RVs almost never manage to completely cool rigs, so it did not get below84 degrees inside until about 9 pm. 

Yesterday morning I headed west to Crescent Beach along the coast, and today drove south through Redwood National Park.  (Much, much, cooler, by the way!  Temps along the coast in northern California all the way to Washington stay very consistent year round.  Highs are 55-60 degrees and lows are around 50 degrees, thanks to the moderating effect of the Pacific Ocean.)  I did not take a lot of time to stop on my drive because I did not have much time and also because I have been here before, but I did stop at a couple of visitor centers and at several pullouts. 

I'm showing these in the order they were taken, so I will try to explain them. The first three photos were taken in Oregon, near the California border, at the northern limits of the national/state park.  It is a little confusing, but the two are somehow combined and share visitor centers.  Pretty drive, below:

A quick photo of some redwoods.  There were not very many big places to pull over, but the speed limit was not very fast, so windshield photos were easy. 

Once in a while the redwood highway cuts over to the ocean and gives a great view.

While I was stopped at one ocean pullover, I noticed some wild flowers growing on the cut bank of the mountain.  These are succulents of some sort.  At first, I thought the yellow flowers were growing next to the whitish succulents, but now I am convinced they were the same plant.

There were a lot of them growing here.  I had to use a telephoto lens because they were on the other side of the busy highway.  When I got the photos transferred to my computer, I found something strange with several plants.  Notice the ring that the arrow points to.  Highway trash??

Might have been highway trash wrapped around the first plant, except I found this second plant that is obviously planted in some kind of round metal container.  So these are planted, not wildflowers at all!!!!  They must have dug a hole in the rock or used a depression of some sort.

Another puzzle is that this flower looks very similar, but it does not seem to be growing out of the same kind of succulent.  Very strange. 

Back to the drive south.  Lots of fog along the coast.

I found a good place to pull over and took a photo of this very ancient log.


And here is my motorhome and a couple of big redwoods behind it. 

You can really see the size and perspective in this photo.

A few miles further, I was driving along an open meadow in the national park and saw a bunch of elk antlers sticking up in a field.  At first, I thought they were fake, but then I saw a couple of people standing along the roadway looking at something.

Maybe some elk have lost their antlers?

I parked and got out just in time to see a head watching the gathering crowd. 

I guess it was time to continue eating. 

And here are all the elk watchers that gathered by the time I left! 

Another glimpse of ocean with less fog.

And back into the big trees. I followed instructions and slowed down so I would not tip over.

I ended up this evening about 12 miles further south at the Avenue of the Giants RV Park.  Will have more big trees to drive through tomorrow. Love the cool and fresh air after all the heat yesterday and the day before.