Going West 2013

The weather forecast was for rain for today, so a tour along the Avenue of the Giants through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park sounded like a good idea. On the way we saw a sign for Ferndale, a Victorian village. The streets are lined with small well maintained Victorian style homes, most decorated in period colors and style. The business section has typical touristy style stores and shops as well as utilitarian stores, all in Victorian buildings. Several churches are also in town. A very nice spur of the moment turn off 101.

We entered the redwood forest from the north. Several guides point out major points of interest and special trees. We stopped at all of them. The trees are awe inspiring. The sheer size is overwhelming, walking among them and realizing some of them are about 2500 years old is mind boggling. Several sites had walking trails, and the Founder’s Grove had and interpretive booklet to explain points of interest along the trail. The road winds in and out of the park, so there are some small towns along the way, none very attractive. Mostly they were a tourist souvenir shop with special attractions, like the Forever Tree House and the Shrine Drive-Through Tree, which the truck wouldn’t fit through. We watched someone with a similar truck have to back out of the tree. We took the advice of the ticket seller and didn’t try. Yes, there is a charge to drive through a tree.

The drive took all day so it was dinner time when we finished. No lunch L. Fortunately, Fortuna (a town) had a brew pub! We were only gonna have a beer to check the local quality, but ended up with dinner also. The beer (organic!) was good, the food OK.