North Coast Journey - Stage 1

On day one, we voyaged up Hwy 5, which you've all seen before, and which I particularly love; past Castle Crags, Mount Shasta, Ashland and Medford, to Grant's Pass Oregon, where the gas is cheaper and there is no self-serve.  On this, Day Two, we traveled to Crescent City CA on the North Coast, and then down through the Redwoods National and State Parks.  It rained all day, mostly hard, so we didn't take as many hikes, but enjoyed the sights, the museums, and the points of interest.  Only saw one elk, which we passed by too quickly to photo it, but at least we did see him.  Here goes:

Mt. Shasta has a new coat of snow!

Getting closer to my favorite mountain

I took Jeffery for a hike around the foot of the mount, which was nice, since tomorrow was forecast to be rainy

Black Butte from the passenger seat, not the driver's seat.

last shot of Mt. Shasta, this from Weed, CA,  We will travel on to Grant's Pass Oregon, spend the night, and head tomorrow to the North California Coast.

I am going to give you a tour of the fun shop "It's a Burl" near Cave Junction.  The rain was heavy and we didn't get out of the car too often, but this place was too cool to miss, and I have to show you!

Tree House made all of found wood

The original artist built this crazy wonderful home, and now it's more of an artist co-op with several craft-folk contributing their skill to the multi-building facility.  The original artist still lives in the far right side with family.

Jeffery climbs into one of the tree houses

One post of the tree house is all monkeys

Better angle-shot of the cool house and shop

One of the shop signs that lured us in.

You can purchase wood here and make your own carvings

This is actually what caught Jeffery's eye and made him pull in to investigate

The other side of the main shop-house

This little side-shop had rounded doors with cool iron hinges and round windows and tree-trunk construction inside

the sign on the little shop

Inside view.  That's a fine table in the foreground

Don't you want to live here?

The carved door into the main shop

The wood was smooth as silk

This bike was not for sale, but I loved it.

Plenty of material to work with, eh?

I took this to show Lucy that Dan's collection of wood is pretty small, really. (wink)

Manzanitaville had a whole bunch of collected wood along the side of this building

We enter California, and I add County #45

The Del Norte Historical Society Museum.  Sara (and Grant) had highly recommended this place, and it was as excellent as they said.  So full of every kind of things, so educating of the history of this area.  Worth coming so far to see!!!!

There's a tiny lighthouse on the knobby outcropping, but it has a booming voice that echoes all over Crescent City

First view of the ocean on this trip.

It being very rainy, we took a side trip for a $5 tour of the drive-through tree.  We did it 3 times while we could, since no-one was there to be made to wait.

Here we go, side mirrors tucked in.

There I am, waving from the passenger seat.

There's Jeffery after I took a video of him driving through.

The electric moss doesn't show well, but I liked this tree so much.  We had stopped during a slight lull in the rain to see the Big Tree

Isn't it huge?

Amusing signs

There I am near the Big Tree

Walking in the woods was such a treat

Our room at the Turtle Rocks B&B

View of the ocean, sound of sealions and surf.

The Inn seen from its ocean-side back yard

Turtle Rock as night falls.

There ya go.  So much more to show you in the days to come, but here was the first two days.