After a wonderful visit with my brother and sister-in-law, we headed over to the 101 via the 20. Oops, a little winding and narrow and harrowing.  We managed to get up the coast to the Willits KOA campground where two men helped us back into the narrow site. Lennard made beer drinking friends and played “Corn Hole”. (Something like horseshoes only with beer)

On Sunday we drove through the Avenue of the Giants in the redwoods.  Absolutely stunning. The redwoods are sentinels of time, withstanding fire and tree plagues. They can live for thousands of years, grow to over 300 feet and can be as wide as 20 feet.  The famous drive thru tree is 17 feet wide.

On Monday the plan was to stay in the Jedidiah Smith State Park.  What was I thinking?  We almost got stuck in the entrance. The road was so narrow I had to get out to make sure we didn’t hit anything leaving.  We found a lovely campground just down the road…The Hiouchi RV resort.  We spent the rest of the day hiking through the spectacular Stout Grove of magnificent redwoods.

On the way to the redwoods, we drove along the coast and stopped at the Mystery Trees Visitor Center and took their one mile hike through the redwoods.

The next day we drove back  Klamath to go to the drive through tree.  It is one of three in the world, all of which are in the redwoods.

The rest of the day was spent back in Crescent City at the absolutely beautiful Battery Point Lighthouse, perched high on a hill.  It was first lit in 1856. You can only go over to it when the tide is at its lowest.  It was one of the first lighthouses on the Oregon coast. Dogs are not allowed, so don’t tell anyone we took them up anyway.

On Wednesday we had Norwegian fish and chips along the highway.  They were fabulous.

We arrived late at the Whaler’s Rest RV Park.  This is a Thousand Trails Encore Park and is set in the woods along the coast.  We love it here and got the Passport America discount too! They have a trail that leads to the beach which we took a walk along this morning.

Just in case you were counting. We have now made it over two weeks, over 1,000 miles and seen three states.

On Thursday we went into historic Newport over the historic bridge and saw the harbor.

Newport also has the oldest, wooden light house on this coast, set in the Yaquina Park.

We also saw the Yaquina Head Lighthouse made of brick, which has been standing sine 1873. It was originally known as the Cape Foulweather Lighthouse as the fog was so bad on the coast.  We had a lot of foul fog today too! The lens was made in Paris and shipped to Oregon.  At least it made it! It is now operated by the Coast Guard and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.