World United States California Klamath

ON THE ROAD WITH RICK AND KAREN

Northern California Coast Sep 4, 2011

The Klamath River RV Park is a beautiful spot. It is right on the Klamath River, just a a few yards from the Highway 101 bridge. The banks are green with foliage and the hills are covered with forests. The parks has some lovely landscaping, lots of perennial flower beds scattered around the acreage. We are about three miles from the ocean and the tide causes the river to rise and fall. The salmon are swimming upriver to spawn, at least those that are not caught by the Yurok Indians with their gill nets that stretch across the river. The Klamath River runs through their reservation. Also after the salmon are seals that swim upriver trying to catch their dinner, We see them surfacing during their fishing endeavors. So even though there is a lot activity with the fishing and rigs arriving and leaving this is a peaceful place and we are enjoying our stay here.

As we have done before we have traveled north and south of the campground on our sightseeing trips. We have been north to Crescent City several times. Crescent City has a history of being inundated with tsunami waves. Most recently this spring when that terrible earthquake struck Japan the tsunami wave did a lot of damage to the Crescent City harbor. When the 1964 earthquake struck Alaska even more damage was done and killed a number of people. We have also been south as far as Eureka. Again the trips were to seek out lighthouses and to see the scenery.

One of the biggest attractions of this part of the Northern California coast are the Coastal Redwoods and the Redwood National Park. The park was started by concerned citizens who in 1918 established the Save the Redwoods League. So much of the old growth forests had been logged there was a great danger that they would all be wiped out. It was during President Lyndon Johnson's term that this area was named a National Park. Fortunately there are still some old growth trees that are estimated to be over 1000 years old and lots of them that are 600 plus years old. They are awesome to see. We have enjoyed several walks through the forests and I will post pictures of some of the giants.

Yesterday we took in the Trees of Mystery attraction. Set in a redwood forest, it's big draw was a gondola ride over the tree tops. Not exactly Karen's idea of fun but it was a unique way of seeing the forest. Rick of course thought it was great. And it was an easier way of getting to the top of the mountain! Beautiful views of the forest and the ocean from the top. The place was a little over the top with a huge statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox out front but I imagine that makes it more appealing to children.

Another exciting excursion gave us the chance to see a herd of Roosevelt Elk. There were approximately 50 females with some calves, a few juvenile males and one huge bull with an impressive rack. This herd was very accustomed to people watching them. They almost seemed to pose for the cameras. There were about a half dozen people snapping away. But no one was taking any chances of getting too close, thank goodness. That bull could run quite fast and I bet those antlers would hurt!

We had planned on being at this park for just a week then moving to the Lake Shasta area or Lassen National Park but we completely forgot about Labor Day and we didn't have reservations! Made some calls and found that we were out of luck. So we opted to stay here for another week. We will be leaving on Tuesday, September 6 and will make our way over to the Lake Shasta/Whiskeytown area and a National Forest park for a few days. We will be close to Redding and will have a chance to visit Rick's brother, Evan.

This will be our first attempt at boondocking. We will be without hook-ups! OMG!!! No sewer, no electricity and only the water in our tank! How will we manage? How will we survive? Tune in next time for the answers to those questions.