Sunday, June 08, 2008

We left at 10 am (GA Time) We stopped in Eureka for gas... $4.99 a gallon.

We arrived at Redwood Trails campground near Trinidad at 1:30 pm. The drive was very nice... the scenery was beautiful. Mostly gentle mountain roads with assorted flowers growing on the roadside. There are rhododendron in bloom... that is all I recognize... but lots of plants with yellow blooms that are very fragrant.


We had the rest of the deli chicken today and some steamed veggies. We passed by a couple of Mcdonalds and a Burger King and I kept thinking "biscuit"... if there had been a place to park I would have made Frank stop :-) Maybe next grocery store visit we'll buy either some canned or frozen ones.... or maybe try Bisquick :-)


After dinner we drove across the road... this was over a mile and uphill... to the beach (Stone Lagoon Beach). Instead of sand, rocks cover the beach... from pebble size to softball size and a few boulders sitting in the water and along the water's edge. We walked along the beach and filled our pockets with the beautiful stones. Frank would have lost his breeches if he hadn't had his suspenders on :-D


We then drove north on highway 101 and stopped at the visitor's center. Frank talked to a ranger there about short and easy hikes we might be able to do to see some redwood trees. She told us the Lady Bird Johnson Grove hike was one mile and not very steep. As we were about to leave we decided to take pictures of the swallows that were nesting at the visitor's center. About every corner you can find they had a nest in... either sitting on the nest, feeding babies or building a nest.


We took a brochure at the entrance of the grove hike. It told interesting facts about the grove. The large trees are overwhelmingly beautiful. I took four pictures going up one tree... I'm going to play with those pictures one day and see if I can stitch them together (in my editing program) and make it a whole tree :-)


There were rhododendron growing amongst the tall trees, but none with blooms low enough that I could get a picture of. There were pretty white flowers growing and a plant I know the name of with bell shaped flowers... but can't think of the name.. sometimes the brain just doesn't work. There were also ferns.. I think they said Sword Ferns.. growing in the grove too. We could hear birds, but not see them until the end of our walk.. one of the jays.. Stellar maybe.


We stopped by the visitor's center on the way back to camp. We wanted to make sure we could drive the Newton B. Drury Parkway... some roads don't allow trailers. When we pulled into the visitor's center I noticed a bug crawling on the inside of the windshield. I couldn't reach it with my seat belt on. Frank got it when we stopped... a tick. We keep checking to make sure we don't have any on us.


When we drove back into the campground we decided to stop and take pictures of the elk in the campground. Just glancing at my photos I didn't get much of anything that was good.


Then showers and plugging in cameras, camcorders, etc to recharge. Then a sandwich.... Frank reading and me writing.


We had to put down a five dollar deposit for the bathhouse key. They don't open until 9 am in the morning... so we have to wait to get our five dollars back. We'll get the trailer mostly ready and go over to the beach and collect more beautiful stones :-)



We drove 168 miles today.