The Klamath River, Pacific Coastline and Trees of Mystery

We’re enjoying some leisure time along the Northern California coast. The weather has been beautiful, although a bit chilly for kayaking, and the Klamath River is running too fast for us anyway. But we have a beautiful view of the river from our site at the Klamath River RV Park.

As most full-time RVers know, it’s not unusual to run into friends as we travel, even though logic and simple odds would dictate otherwise. When we returned from dinner Tuesday evening, we recognized a Phaeton motorhome parked a few sites down from us. Don walked over to see if it was who we thought, and it was! “Smitty” and Louise Smith! They are vendors for Coil N Wrap and were at both the Escapees’ WARE rally and the Good Sam’s rally in Lodi recently. It seems that we’ve been leap-frogging each other up the coast and ended up in the same RV park.

Apart from running errands in nearby Crescent City, the only touristy thing we’ve done is visit the Trees of Mystery. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past few days.

The view from the Eureka Elks Lodge upper parking lot, where we stayed last week. RVs are on the left (see our rig?), with the lodge on the right.

Our current RV site. Shadow prefers the grass to pavement.

A lot of businesses are closed and/or abandoned along the coast.

Still, there are lots of places selling redwood and burl souvenirs, some more rustic than others.

The fog occasionally moved in on us during the drive.

Golden California Bears flank both ends of the Hwy 101 bridge over the Klamath River.

This simple cross stands near the mouth of the Klamath River.

A sandspit creates a small bay at the mouth of the river flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The Yurok people believe this area is watched over by two sister spirits in the form of large rocks.

Oregos is one of the sisters barely visible in the above pic, enlarged below. She looks like an old woman with a burden basket on her back.

The Pacific Northwest coastline provides one breathtaking view after another!

Paul Bunyon and Babe, his blue ox, guard the entrance to the Trees of Mystery. (Note the fellow checking out Babe’s anatomy!)

Paul weighs almost as much as our motorhome!

And Babe is the same weight as Paul.

We rode the SkyTrail tram up and down the mountain.

The wilderness trail at the top was closed, but we enjoyed the views from the observation deck.

I managed to get a picture of two osprey in the distance, a little fuzzy but they can be seen with the zoom.

The Brotherhood Tree stands 297 ft. tall with a diameter of 19 ft.

There are lots of carvings along the path along with recorded stories, some tall tales, and interesting facts about redwood trees.