As we drove further south on our west coast adventure, the Redwoods in northern California were our next stop. We came to learn and I suppose not too surprisingly, Redwood trees are spread over a very large area, in the state, and fortunately, protected in many different state and national parks.

Leaving Crater Lake, we headed southwesterly toward Crescent City and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Like the other roads we’d traveled in Oregon, this leg took us through rolling hills, windy roads, and still more tall pines – again, reaffirming Oregon’s choice of license plate design.

After a few hours, we did enter California – kinda nice they don’t feel compelled to announce who is governor on the welcome sign:

Crescent City wasn’t our destination, again a stopping point to stretch our legs on the 200+ mile trip from Crater Lake to our final destination of Trinidad, California.

We’d chosen a trail on Howland Hill Rd in the Jed Smith park – at it happens, the access point for many trails into the Redwoods

As we discovered though, Howland Hill Road wasn’t much more than a single-lane hard-packed dirt road, dotted by pull-offs, winding around the many redwoods which stood in the path of an otherwise straight roadway.

Due to a bit of a bum knee (overuse), we decided on the Grove of the Titans Trail – a relatively short 2.5 miler which wound its way through a significant redwood grove.

It’s difficult to describe the trees – yes, they’re huge, yes, they’re majestic – but even those words pail when one is up close to the trees themselves. Many greater than 6-8ft in diameter, they’re just huge.

and the pictures really don’t do them justice

Soon enough though, we needed to be on our way, further southward to Trinidad and our stay on the Pacific Coast. Technically, we were in the village of Big Lagoon, though Trinidad being the closest village with a supermarket and all.

Our place was literally on the coast, with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean, especially sunsets:

Trinidad also has many access points to the beaches – providing great opportunities for beach walks – one of our favorite passtimes.

Besides the stunning views, our AirBnB also had amazing, native plant gardens, which offered first glimpses of the frequent hummingbirds in the area:

Like all good things, this stay came to an end, but not before enjoying another stunning sunset

And with that, we headed to Sonoma Valley.

Mt Hood, Oregon

The first stop on our pacific coast adventure was Mt Hood – for no particular reason other than it was big, offered some amazing hiking opportunities and was readily accessible from the major travel hubs (Portland and Seattle). We had two full days, three nights here, adequate to give us a taste of what the area had to offer, though certainly not enough to explore all there is in the national forest. Unfortunately, the weather was quite cooperative – the

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Crater Lake

The second stop on our west coast adventure was Crater Lake National Park.     As part of our itinerary, we knew the drive times between our stays were all over 200 miles, but it wasn’t until we were making the drive that we began to appreciate the vastness / remoteness of the area.   That 200+ miles drive from Mt. Hood toward our accommodations in Prospect, Oregon didn’t include much “civilization” in between, with only spotty cell service along the way

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Sonoma Valley & Berkeley

The last section of our west coast adventure transitioned us away from nature and the great outdoors back into the hustle and bustle of city life, first stopping in Sonoma Valley, and ending in Berkeley. We said our goodbyes to Trinidad and its quiet vibe, hopped on the 101, and headed southward. On our way, we saw signs for Avenue of the Giants – what turned out to be a beautifully, scenic 30 mile drive through Humboldt Redwoods State park.

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