Rain, rain, rain and more rain! Yes ,it has been raining! Crescent City is the last “big” town on the Northern California coast line before crossing into Oregon. To be honest there is not a whole lot to Crescent City and in the drab wet weather it seems all the less appealing. The coast line here is rugged, with cliffs and beaches strewn with drift wood, cast up on strong Pacific storms. The beaches are great for beach combing and it would take a hearty person to brave the frigid and turbulent waters – especially at this time of year. Never mind this was a chance to catch up with the home schooling.Today was an improvement over the previous day – there were some breaks in the rain so, being a bit cabin feverish after being trapped for most of yesterday inside the motor home, we decide to make a dash for freedom and took off down the coast towards the redwood forests to a place called “Trees of Mystery”. This is a classic case of making the most of one’s assets. This place is hard to miss, it is on Route 101 just outside of the town of Klamath, CA and has 100 foot high
statue of Paul Bunyan, the legendary giant woodsman and his equally giant pet, Babe the giant blue ox. Beside the gargantuan statues is an equally impressively sized gift shop, where we pay our entry fee and enter the sodden redwood forest trail. Along the trail there are various arboreal oddities such as the Elephant, Candelabra and Lightning trees and spectacular examples of giant coast redwoods like the Brotherhood Tree and the majestic Cathedral Tree, where many weddings are held deep in the woods. At the top of the trail is another treat, a gondola sky ride that takes us up into the canopy high above the trees to the top of the mountain, offering spectacular views down in the valley. The ride is quite steep, so not for those who suffer from vertigo. The weather deteriorates again so we hurriedly beat a retreat down the mountain, quickly passing through a set of clever wood carvings created by chain saws depicting the tale of Paul Bunyan. It is too wet and cold to spend much time on this so we busy ourselves back into the gift shop where they supply all too sweet hot chocolate – but to us it tastes like nectar. Nicely warmed up we step into the museum, which is dedicated to the Native American nations. There is a section on each region of the USA, with a wonderful set of artefacts on all the major tribal nations. This collection was wonderful and was entirely due to the dedication of one woman’s effort over sixty years. In fact the museum’s collection rivalled all those we had seen in major metropolitan museums across the country!To cap the day off we take a scenic drive along the catchily named Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, which takes us past some very impressive examples of coastal redwoods in the Prairie Creek State Park. We pull off to see the imaginatively named “Big Tree”, a 1500 year old redwood which is 340 feet high and 21feet in diameter. Apparently someone in the past wanted to reduce this magnificent tree to a dance room floor, but it was saved by the concerned public. Here we bump into Maree and Ray a nice couple from Australia who are themselves on an extended tour of the US, we spend a good amount of time chatting about travelling, educating children and a swath of other topics. One of the real pleasures of this trip has been meeting many wonderful people and exchanging experiences.Strange to think our blog made it onto their journal and is now in Australian homes too!
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