One Way Or Another

Brock was in the driver's seat today for our last chance to play tourist.  

North on US101 we wove in and out of fog and sunshine

 to Crescent City (lower left on map) for a trip to the grocery, but first Brock wanted to explore the lower end of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. 

We turned onto Elk Valley Road, then accessed Howland Hill Road. 

rats!  closed due to "active wildland fire"

Brock was not to be deterred.  We backtracked to Elk Valley Road to US 199.  On two previous (motorcycle) rides we had taken 199 to Oregon and back on one, and had followed South Fork Road on the other.  This time we turned south onto the other end of Howland Hills Road, which runs along the Smith River (on the other side of the river through those trees) parallel to US199.

Shortly after encountering this modern covered bridge, we were on gravel road

among old-growth coastal redwoods.

We stopped to admire the big trees in the Stout Memorial Grove.

The 1/2 mile loop trail led down a steep grade to a nice flat path through the giant trees. 

After Brock and I  took some good pictures here,  I turned around to the tree behind me

and shot straight up the trunk.

We took lots of pictures

said "WOW" about a hundred times,

and finally found ourselves walking back uphill to the parking lot.

We continued along the road until...rats again!

(The area we didn't get to see is circled in red on the map above.)

Nothing left to do but wind our way back to Crescent City for groceries before heading south on US101 into and out of and back into the fog at our rv park.

Chores and packing tomorrow.

Louise and Duane