The Avenue of the Giants

Thursday and Friday we stayed at the Redcrest RV Park on the Avenue of the Giants, in the heart of the Humboldt Redwood State Forest. This is a far cry from all of the desert we lived in for the past few months! The redwoods are ubelievable! Friday we had to get gas before driving down the Avenue, and the closest gas station was in Rio Dell, about 12 miles north of Redcrest. What started out as a simple gas refill, ended up as a delightful tour of Rio Dell, Scotia, and lunch in Fortuna. Scotia has one of the largest wood mills in the country, although it's fallen into hard times recently. All of the houses in the town are owned by the mill and they all look alike in neat orderly rows...like cookie cutter houses! We visited the fishery right next to the mill and then drove up to Fortuna on the recommendation of a local Scotia woman, where we had lunch at the Eel River Brewery. The food was delicious and Ed found a new beer...we took a case home with us!

After lunch we headed back down to Redcrest to drive the Avenue of the Giants. The Avenue is 30 miles of twists and turns through the amazing redwoods. We stopped and took pictures at a few of the groves, as well as a brief visit at the Visitors' Center. We also went in search of the Giant tree, only to find out after driving 6 miles down a very bumpy skinny road, that the 'seasonal' bridge to get to the tree wasn't in season...bummer! That was ok tho...to us, every tree in the forest was giant!

Today we only drove 128 miles up the coast on Rte 101 to Crescent City...another town in the middle of the redwoods. The town itself is also right on the Pacific Coast and we got a glimpse of it this afternoon...but we forgot the camara so no pics! I think we'll be spending tomorrow on the beach with Emma...she'll love it!