We began this leg of the trip with a visit to Cape Meares state park in Oregon to get a view of the Pacific ocean and to see a light house and the Octopus Tree.
From this view, we were all convinced that this is where they filmed a couple of the scenes from the movie Goonies. See those rocks in the background. Well, we were close. The movie, including all of the exterior scenes, was shot in Astoria, OR, which is about 25 miles north of here. According to a Web page we found, only one of the rocks in the movie was real; the other two were added digitally.
At Cape Meares there was also this eight-trunked tree a short hike from the parking lot.
We spent all day in Oregon and California (the next day) on Highway 101. A few miles south of Cape Meares we stopped at the beach to stretch our legs. The views of the Oregon and California coasts were really impressive.
Just about every time we could see the Pacific Ocean, we could see huge rock formations near the coast. Here the kids put their feet into the frigid water.
On these trips we like to mix national parks with old-time tourist traps. Once such tourist attraction is the Sea Lion Cave, which has been operating since the 1930’s. Here Tom and Sam took a tour down an elevator to a naturally-formed cave where seals and sea lions gather.
Sam’s verdict: the sea lion cave was “awesome.” In this picture you can see a bunch of sea lions gathered on one of the rocks in one of the caves. Screens were used to keep the sea lions from traveling up the pathways built by the owners — and to prevent idiots from going for a swim with the sea lions.
The next day’s journey began in northern California at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. This state park, which is full of giant redwoods, was where the speeder bike scene in the Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi, was filmed.
We took the hike around Stout Grove at around 0700 when there was only one other person there. It was quite, peaceful, and amazing.
This picture gives you some sense of scale.
I thought we might see a few redwoods, like in Yosemite, but there were thousands of redwoods in this area and the combined redwoods national and state parks that travel at least a hundred miles down the California coast. In this view, just about every tree you see is a giant redwood. Here we learned a couple of interesting facts. When a redwood grows a branch, that branch remains at that height as the tree grows; all the growth is from the top. At some point, those lower branches no longer catch light, so the giant redwood self prunes those lower branches. That’s why the redwoods have few branches at the lower heights. There are at least two species of giant redwoods, one that grows very tall and the other that grows less tall but much thicker diameter. These woods are full of banana slugs that are about six- to eight-inches around. These slugs eat everything except redwood seeds and seedlings. These redwood forests actually need forest fires from time to time. Those fires do little or no damage to the redwoods, but they clear out the underbrush and small threes that compete with the redwoods.
Did I mention that these trees are big?
Continuing down the California coast we stopped at a couple of tourists traps to look at things carved from fallen redwoods (e.g., bird houses, wind spinners, picture frames, book marks, coasters, etc.) and other stuff. One place we stopped included this huge redwood, called the Grandfather Tree and the One-Log Home. The one-log home is a mobile home trailer built from a single, hollowed-out redwood log. You could see the Grandfather Tree for free and were invited to visit the nearby gift store. The one-log home cost a dollar, and you got to it through the gift store. It was lunchtime so we had a couple of one-log home burritos and hot dogs before continuing down the road. I bought a coaster made from a piece of a redwood, and we squished a couple of pennies for the kids’ collection.
It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the roof with the words rests on a single redwood log that was hollowed out to make a trailer home. The trailer is still under the home, making it possible to move it again if desired.
The interior is very 40’s or 50’s, adding to the charm of this one-of-a-kind vehicle.
After these stops we continued southward on 101, stopping seldom along the way. About 60 miles from the San Francisco area the terrain along 101 changed from amazing, continuous, primeval forests of redwoods to terrain that looked more like North Dakota. We got caught in terrible, rush-hour traffic in the San Francisco area and didn’t get to Gilroy until around 1900. Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world, so loving garlic, I stopped at the Garlic City Cafe for roasted garlic, garlic soup, and an entree with lots of garlic. The food was quite good; although, the service and ambience were only passable. We finally arrived in Santa Barbara a half hour after midnight. It had been a grueling day.
In Santa Barbara, I reverted to work mode for a three-day conference while Candy and the kids relaxed at the beach and hotel pool — but I did get to have a burger from In and Out Burger for dinner the first night of the conference! This is my favorite burger joint and a must-do every time I’m on the left coast.
Next stop: Disneyland.