We drove north along California Highway 1 until we reached US Hwy 101. Both roads were winding mo-fo's. Highway 1 is plagued with landslides all along the way. In some places, the entire oncoming lane has dropped into the ocean, which doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the remaining lane of traffic.
It was Sunday, and so we didn't see any road construction, but we did encounter plenty of one-lane sections where temporary traffic lights had been set up to control the flow of traffic. Did I mention that the road was winding?
Mike calls it a "whining"road. Eventually, we moved into the land of huge California redwood trees. It's hard to get a good idea how big they are without standing beside them, but in the image below, you can use that SUV for scale.
Eventually, they were growing on both sides of the road. It is truly inspiring to be in the presence of these huge old trees...some are over 1,000 years old.
We passed more than few barns along the way. This is one of the more unusual ones. Sorry for these crappy iPhone pictures.
The one below isn't a barn, per se, but I liked it anyway. The paint was peeling badly.
Before leaving the California coast, we saw some more beautiful beaches. This is one of Mike's favorite viewpoints for stopping. To the south it looks like this.
To the north you see this.
We camped in a private campground near Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Had it not been the weekend, we might have camped inside the park, but we needed a guaranteed spot. Most of the state parks are first come-first served. There were redwoods all around. Here's another shot with the fire ring for scale. Look at the girth of the trunk on that big boy.
Then look up and be amazed.
There was no time to waste because we needed to get to the lighthouse during low tide. The Battery Point lighthouse is on an island at high tide, and it's connected to the mainland by an isthmus that is under water when the tide is up.
It was an easy walk across, but a fair distance. I wouldn't want to have to wade through the crashing waves to get back to the mainland after a visit to the lighthouse.
Once there, it was a beautiful spot. The Battery Point Lighthouse has an interesting history. You can read about it right here. If you're old enough to remember the Alaska earthquake in the mid-60's, then you might remember that Crescent City was hit by the resulting tsunami. (We were living in Hawaii at the time and got up in the middle of the night to evacuate to high ground.) The lighthouse is still in use, and it was then. At the link I've given you, the keepers give a harrowing account of watching the tsunami roll in while stationed at the lighthouse.
Fortunately, we weren't aware of any tsunamis rolling in on this day and so it was very pretty with its ice plant lined trail.
Here's the view from the lighthouse.
The lighthouse is in use and a private residence. There were tours, but it required waiting, and we didn't feel the need. Here's the view of the back of the structure. Notice the big water tank that supplies water to the home.
The sign was quite weathered, but I still think you can read it.
There is a jetty extending out into the bay from here. If you look closely, you can see some structures at the far end of the jetty.
Here's some information about those.
While standing in front of the lighthouse, I noticed the curtains hanging in the basement.
Before leaving Crescent City the next morning, we drove back to the lighthouse. We were curious to see it at higher tide. High tide wasn't until around 10:30 a.m., and we were there at 8:30 a.m. It didn't look so different. We would have loved to wait around for another couple of hours to see it, but we had miles to go before reaching home and didn't wait.
And that was the last of our trip. I've already told you about the drive home. And now we're here and things are pretty much back to what passes for normal. We've unpacked everything. Yesterday we picked up a week's worth of groceries and then I unpacked all my sewing crap. That took around two hours, but the sewing room is back in order now, and I'm ready to get back to sewing. I'm getting my eyes checked this morning. If I can see with my dilated pupils, I'm hoping to get back into the sewing room this afternoon.
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