Natural Bridge and Sea Stars

Monday we decided to be outside, enjoy the coast since we had been cooped up in a car for 2 days. Was treated to a beautiful, if not foggy morning from our place. 

Foggy (normal) morning

Headed to Natural Bridge which is a large sea stack (rock) where the ocean has carved natural openings in it.  We got there at 8:45am which is almost low tide, wanted to see the full arch/bridge.  Because the sun had not reached it to where it was lit up, we waited until we got a full view.  People hiked down and over the bridge and we knew that if you were not sure footed, don't attempt it.  People have slipped and fallen to their death.  Nope, we'll watch from above.  Beautiful.

Little hike down to viewing platform

Natural Bridge without sun on it

And with sun

While waiting for the sun to shine on it, we talked with some folks and one lady, visiting from Phoenix!! said she heard about a beach about a mile up called Gold Beach.  Heard it was worth the trip.  So, off we went.  However, did not find Gold Beach but found Meyer Beach.  Lots of folks walking the water line - looking for sea stars, shells, rocks.  What an amazing find.  At first we could not find the sea stars, until we watched folks bending down and looking.  Once we found the first one, bang, bang, bang.  So many of them.  We absolutely loved this beach.  The tide was beginning to come back so we had to stop.  

Meyers Beach - lots of driftwood and sea stacks

Rut-roh. Tide coming in.  Got our shoes wet.

Anemones

Found first sea star

Some natural arches - lady to left - see how big they are

And more - now we learned where to look

If saw anemone, probably find sea star

Tide coming in - head back to car

The next stop on our way back was called Arch Rock.  Walked the brief path to the edge and there was a nice view of an arched sea stack.  Nice - we have seen more impressive, but nice the same. 2 Docents were telling us that in the winter Puffins nest on the rock, but right now only osprey were there with their young.

View to see Arch Rock

Arch Rock

Did big grocery shopping to stock up for the week (I make all our meals since we are both Vegan) and by the time we got back - it was 4:30.  Very exhausted from being outside for hours.  Then was treated to a great sunset.

Panoramic view from living room

Sunset Monday night

Sea Lions (whitish) on rock

To Brookings OR or Bust

 Excited to finally get into AirBnB but- check in was 4pm.  What to do.  Drove north into Crescent City, CA and decided to go to Jedediah Smith State Park which is run in conjunction with Redwoods National Park.  Went to the visitor's center, was informed of a couple easy hikes and off we went.  But first we thought we were heading to the visitor's center and entered a park which is part of the National Park and it was a day use/campground right on the Smith River.  Pretty.  Lots of driftwood. Took some snaps then went 800 feet up road to the actual visitor's center.  

Smith River

Very large Redwoods

Based on their suggestion, traveled to Stout Memorial Grove which has some impressive redwoods.  These are very giant trees.  We thought how beautiful the grove would be when it was snowing.  Parking very limited but did squeeze in and walked the quick 1 mile trail and continued on the dirt road for another 8 miles and came back to Crescent City.  Saw elk which are very plentiful just grazing on the front lawn of the elementary school.

Kids on top of fallen redwood

Dave standing beside a fallen tree

Family was recreating a pose from when kids were young

Car was filthy so we found car wash, then went into the harbor of Crescent City and looked at the marina and views - brought back memories of us sailing on Lake Erie.  Saw in the distance a light house and found our way there.  Walked along the boardwalk, took pictures, saw the tide was in so we could not walk to the lighthouse for a tour.  Only reach the lighthouse during low tide.  Still very picturesque.

Time now approaching check in time, we got groceries enough for a couple of days and then got into the Airbnb at exactly 4pm.  Wow!  Magnificent views!  We just stared out the windows for at least an hour then I made a quick dinner, we watched the sunset and the fog roll in, and collapsed for the night.  We made it!

View from living room window

Oro Valley, AZ to Fallon, NV to Crescent City, CA

 We finally got out of Oro Valley for a 10 day trip to the Oregon Coast.  We had been planning this trip since January and it seemed it would never come.  We looked at so many videos on what to see that we hoped we would have as great time as what we saw on YouTube videos. We decided to drive it - a whopping 1400 plus miles one way, breaking the trip up into 2 if not 3 segments.  We were so anxious to get to Brookings that we drove 830 miles the first day.  Long, long day.  Traveled around Phoenix, then scooted up on Route 95 until we got to Fallon, Nevada which is due east of Reno.  Found a hotel for the night and crashed.  One of the things that shocked us, when we traveled this route in the RV, was how far down Walker Lake evaporated - an alkaline lake that's dead.  This lake is in Walker, NV, above Death Valley, and when we were there years ago - all we thought about was the horrible wind that shook the RV and we thought we were going to loose the sliders from the treacherous wind.  As Dave was driving through and past the lake, the wind kept slamming up against us, we were glad to leave that area.

Dry Colorado River by Quartzite, AZ

Walker Lake - pretty, but dead

Saturday we drove west from Fallon into Reno and then northwest through Susanville, past Lassen National Park, then into Redding, California. But first we tanked up the car - we heard that gas was six dollars a gallon - found that last gas station right before crossing into California. Only paid 4.95 gal - but still.....

Traveled past Whiskeytown which is west of Redding, CA, a town that now sits under water after they dammed the Shasta River, the entire town got submerged from.  They say on a clear day if you scuba dive down, you can see the remains of many buildings.  Freaky.

Whiskeytown Lake

Lunch spot in Shasta Trinity Natl Forest

Into the Shasta Trinity National forest, pretty, windy road up and over the Sierra range, made it to McKinleyville, California which sits right at the ocean, we picked up Route 101 which is the coastal highway that runs the length of the Pacific from California to Washington.

Right after we made the turn right (going north) we stopped at Clam Beach to stretch our legs and see some of the beach and ocean.  Beautiful, but we froze.  We left Arizona in 91 degrees at 6am on Friday, and it was 62 and foggy when we walked down to the beach.

Those clouds are really fog - rolling in

Ocean on our left as we head north to Brookings

Got back to car and began the trek up north.  Got into Crescent City, California by noon, we could not get into the AirBnB until Sunday, so I had to scurry to find a hotel.  Eventually ended up a a casino and hotel run by the Towolah Indian Nation (beautiful place!) just at the border of California and Oregon.  Saw a great sunset that night through our window and called it a night.

Sunset from Casino Lodge

Visit to Boyce Thompson Arboretum

 We try to get out once a week to see something, just to be outdoors.  We visited Boyce, located about an hour northeast of us, about 6 weeks ago, nothing in bloom.  This past Friday we went again to see what has changed.  Pretty day, a little bit too hot for this time of year (90) but nice to be in a garden. Nicely maintained, not many people.   By June 1 they will be open from 6am to noon.  Gets way too hot for people to be hiking/walking in the high desert.

These are pictures from last Friday's time.  We were disappointed that more cacti were blooming - we missed the full bloom by 2 weeks.  Who knew?  Such strange weather, global warming is really taking a toll on all.

Enjoy the pics - we will go back later this fall.  

Fascinating Boojum Tree (from S Mexico)

Very small budding flowers on Saguaro

Trying to get our Golden Barrel Cacti to grow like this

Love these Golden Barrels!

Eucalyptus Tree - a big 'un!

We bought a small Argentine giant cactus while there