The beach is
called Simpson Beach, and Tom and I are pretty sure it the place where my
father took a picture of my mother on two different trips, separated by many
years. We decided to follow suit, so I
now have some pictures of me sitting on a rock at Simpson Beach. The wind was doing some unfortunate things to
my hair, but it is what it is. Perhaps
that's why my mother was wearing a hat.
We piled back in
the car for the long drive to Crescent City, CA. It was the longest stretch of coast driving
yet. Watching the color of the water
change, from a sort of cold green up in the north to cerulean blue in
California was pretty amazing. We stopped
at one beach for a stretch and discovered four horses, with riders. Must be nice to ride a horse at the seashore.
After passing
through Crescent City, (Hi, Best Western--see you soon!), we made our way
further south towards the Trees of Mystery.
There was some serious road construction on the way, with an enforced
one-lane road through the Redwoods. We
had to stop and wait for a pilot car to lead our snake of cars through the
construction zone.
At last, there he
was--Paul Bunyan! I believe I heard he's
thirty-five feet tall, and his companion Babe, the Blue Ox was with him,
proportionately huge. Now, Paul Bunyan
doesn't just stand there. He can wave
his giant hand and he talks. This is not
inane chatter. He can clearly see
everybody and has two-way conversations with the guests. I suspect the operator is inside the Paul
Bunyan statue, because I can't figure where else they could have been hiding
him.
We ate lunch
across the street at a strange little diner decorated with fake foliage all
over one side (including the ceiling), and underwater scenes on the other
side. That's where we sat. The ceiling is painted blue and has the
bottom halves of ducks, orange feet frozen in mid-paddle.
The lower portion
of the Trees of Mystery was an easy climb past some spectacular trees, Redwood,
Sitka Spruce, Pine, and more. Nature at
its finest--and largest--was on prominent display.
We took the Sky
Trail, a gondola lift to the top of the mountain. I have a fairly strong phobia of
gondolas. I don't think I let go of the
wall or stopped staring straight ahead the whole way up.
You could either
take the gondola back down or hike down the trail labeled "ADVANCED HIKERS
ONLY--EXPERIENCE REQUIRED." Being a
mountaineer's daughter, I thought I qualified.
There were walking sticks available for use and I grabbed one. They weren't kidding about this trail. It was very steep and the ground was
slick. Probably a third to a quarter of
it involved ropes you could use as a handrail, and they were fairly
necessary. I held on with one hand and
controlled the speed of descent with the walking stick. I had a lot of fun, but it's probably safe to
say it wasn't Tom's favorite activity of the day.
The Trail of Tall
Tales was the last part of the Trees of Mystery. Stories of Paul Bunyan chainsaw-carved into
massive pieces of wood.
At last, we were
done and it was time to drive back through the road construction to Crescent
City. We checked in, Tom went to sleep
(still cooling off from the hike), and I took myself to dinner.
Next on the menu,
The Oregon Caves National Monument. Same
bat time, same bat channel! (Except
there weren't any bats.)
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