Well, it’s been quite a while since I posted anything of a personal nature, so I’ve decided to sit down and blog a little about my trip to the Redwoods in Humboldt County.
Tammy and I flew into Sacramento where we picked up our rental car. They gave us a Toyota Prius. It was kind of strange because when I turned on the car, all the lights came on but there was no engine noise at all. I wasn’t sure what to do, but just for kicks I put it into reverse and tapped the gas, and lo and behold, it moved backwards. I exclaimed that it was the quietest car I had ever seen, and then we were on our way.
We got up to Clear Lake and ate lunch in a little deli, then over the mountain range to the glorious and wonderful redwoods. We came onto Highway 101 at Willits, a small little mountain town. Which is also the home of the world famous Skunk Train which traverses the Mendocino Redwoods. I hear it’s a fun ride, but Tammy and I decided to pass on it this trip.
Up we went to Leggett. The Highway between Leggett and Garberville is arguably one of the most scenic parts of the Redwood Highway. At times, it seems that I’m back to being a boy on our annual vacation.
Up past the Big Tree House Gift shop, Tammy and I stop to look at some redwood furniture. My eye was definitely caught by a beautiful redwood fireplace mantel which would look wonderful back in our Wisconsin home. The gift shop was also a small redwood furniture factory run by a hippie looking fellow named “Nova”, who was obviously some sort of genius when it came to producing incredible redwood products which bordered on artwork. There were some incredible mantel shelves, countertops and desk tops which just absolutely made us cringe at the thought of not being able to purchase them.
We continued north with a brief detour through Avenue of the Giants, a 37 mile road through some of the most impressive redwood trees in the world.
Garberville was unusual, a small town full of hippies, many of whom cultivate weed out in the redwoods.
Finally, we drove on to Eureka where we spent the night.
In my next post, I’ll detail our time in Eureka.
