8/21 - Bandon to Crescent City, California

Today's drive down Hwy 101 from Bandon south to the California line was very scenic with light traffic. Quite a contrast between today's section and the section from Astoria to Newport. The northern section was also very scenic, as is most of Hwy 101 for the entire length of Oregon, but the traffic was much heavier up there. The reason is because it's within fairly easy reach of Portland and the heavily populated Willamette Valley down through Salem and Eugene. The southern section is harder to get to and doesn't have the same population density.


As we got underway Jim remarked on how nice it was not having to drive through the fog. It stayed that way until the road got close to the water again and the fog billowed back up over the road.

The fog was just offshore at this point so the view was another spectacular one. (Too bad the reflection on the window messed up the picture.)

The road suddenly went inland to get around Humbug Mountain. The name came from the failure of an exploring party to find what they were looking for when they went in the wrong direction. It could have just as appropriately referred to the opinion of the builders of Hwy 101 when they had to take their road inland around the mountain instead of continuing right along the coast. The climb was over 700 feet in a very few miles. At least there was no fog.

Crossing the Rogue River just north of Gold Beach. So many fishing boats were on the water there weren't many open spots left. The Chinook salmon start coming back to spawn in August so it's no wonder there were so many fishermen out there.

Another Haystack Rock in the fog near Cape Sebastian where the fog was particularly heavy. This may not be its real name but it certainly does look like a haystack.

Everyone entering California on Hwy101 has to go through this traffic stop for fruit and veggie inspection.  We had been forewarned that they were looking for citrus fruit and any fresh fruit or produce that had not been purchased in stores. Since we didn't have anything that was banned they passed us right through with no delay. 

Hwy 101 not far north of Crescent City where the trees are huge and uniform in appearance. Unfortunately, more window reflection in the picture.

Our campground is a city-owned park with full hook-ups. It's completely flat with gravel roads and sites with scruffy brown patches of grass between them. It's funny that in an area that gets in the range of nine feet of rain every year, the summers are so dry there's constant danger of fire and the grass is dry and dead-looking. What's great about this park is that it's right on Crescent Bay so we can see the water.....when the fog lets up, that is. It was clear when we arrived but I made the mistake of not getting a picture then. When we got back from the redwoods the fog had rolled in and covered us up. The tide is dead low right now and the water is so far out it's lost in the fog. We can hear it and the fog horn but visibility is 200 feet at most.

After we got set up and ate lunch we drove over to the Redwoods National Park information center at Hiouchi on Hwy 199. It's called an information center instead of a visitor center, perhaps because there's not much to it.  We got what we needed to plan our tour of the various sections of the parks (both national and state) over the next two days. We could have done the shortest part today but it was getting late and we were both tired so we put off starting until tomorrow morning. 

To and from the information center we crossed the Smith River, the longest free-flowing major river in California.  We'll see more of it later.

Can't pass up including one picture of the redwoods since that's what we're here for. We'll see many more of them over the next two days and no doubt get lots more pictures.