The Enchanted Forest

Fri, Aug 26, Oregon and California Coast

After a travel day on Thursday through amazing landscapes, we arrived in Brookings, OR, at a campsite 50 feet from the Pacific Ocean.

Along the way, we had picked up maps and info at the visitors center at the edge of the National Redwood Forest in CA, and this morning we set off for a tour through what Grandpa nicknamed The Enchanted Forest.

The rugged coastal area was largely unexplored until Jedediah Smith, at trapper looking for another route, discovered the Redwood forests in 1826. Today, the best viewing of these giants is in Jedediah Smith State Park in northern California.

The Coast Redwood, one of three types of redwood trees, is the tallest, up to 400 feet tall, with a trunk reaching up to 25 ft across. They have weather and insect resistant bark, a cone about the size of an olive, which take up to 2 years to fall, and seeds smaller than a tomato.

In the days of the dinosaurs, Redwoods were prevalent in all the Northern Hemisphere, but have receded to specific habitats to survive, and Coast Redwoods can only be found along the fog shrouded North California coastal areas. Global warming has reduced the fog, and scientists are studying the long term effects this is having on the redwoods.

The fog gives this area a rainforest environment. Here ferns are waist high and even clover grows to enormous size.

And like all good tourists, we stopped at Trees of Mystery to say hello to Paul Bunyon, and drove thru a Redwood.

Of course, to see Coastal Redwoods, we travelled along the Pacific Coast in Northern California. In Klamath, we saw a bridge that had been wiped out by floods, along with the town itself, in 1964, and had great views of the river meeting the ocean from High Bluff Overlook.

We stopped in Crescent City to see the beach and harbor, and have fresh salmon for lunch. The view from the restaurant included these harbor seals, who have taken up year round residence there, while the rest of their type travels far north in the summer. The Mermaid watches over the Harbor.

As the fog has parted, we plan to view the sunset from our ringside seat here along the beach in Oregon.