A MAGICAL FOREST.
Day 45 – We were up before 8 a.m., 51 degrees and sunny. The girls did indeed have plenty of energy last night, bouncing off the walls this morning, literally, as they jumped from their shelf above their carpeted wall. I also take back what I said yesterday – all the campers surrounding our site are leaving this morning. New neighbors will arrive today. We’ll probably be gone before the shuffle begins; got more exploring to do – we think today will be more inland along the Chetco River.
Just north of the campground on the opposite side of Highway 101, there’s a large logging facility where they work around the clock. Some days & nights we barely hear the activity, depending on whether the windows are open, which way the wind is blowing, how loud the ocean is, etc. Lately we’ve been aware of a fairly constant humming intermingling with the beep, beep, beep of trucks backing up. At times they get the chipper/shredder going which must be the largest piece of machinery in the world considering the noise it makes. Sometimes you don’t really notice the noise in the background; other times it’s pretty grating. Then there are the large crows which periodically land on our roof from the trees above, then peck away, scaring the cats. (It really does sound like a buffalo is walking on the roof.) So with the campground shuffle & the people driving by looking for a campsite, and all the other daily intrusions, we’re thinking it might be time to move along back to the solitude of the woods & the campgrounds that are hidden away out in the boonies. But this means we’ll likely have no electricity, sewer, & water again, plus possibly no internet & phone connections again. Hey, you can’t have it all!
Lots of Crows at Harris Beach State Park!
To begin today’s exploration, we drove south from the campground on Highway 101 through Brookings which is separated from Harbor by the Chetco River. (These two cities are so close together, they are sometimes called Brookings/Harbor.) We took the road that runs away from the Ocean along the north side of the Chetco River. Very nice, well-maintained road with beautiful scenery, we’d driven it before when we checked out an independent campground, and the great Alfred A. Loeb State Park, 8 miles beyond. This is the area which was closed and evacuated because of the fire that just recently was contained. We drove around the Park again trying to decide whether we should come here next or move on to northern California instead.
We drove beyond the Park for a few miles and came upon the Redwood Nature Trail, off to the side of the road. We parked and walked on the trail for just a short distance when we came upon the most amazing place. Surrounded by huge ferns on the sides of wet cliffs dripping with moisture, we were suddenly in a fairy tale forest. Waterfalls ahead, huge redwood trees all around us, an old wooden bridge crossing the canyon, rocky steps climbing thru the trees on the other side. Truly incredible. We took pictures but no way could they take the place of being there & seeing this secret wonderland. Okay, this makes the decision, we’ll head south into California and spend more time deep in the redwood forests, eventually.
Rob and Vicki, Redwood Nature Trail along the Chetco River, Brookings, OR
Vicki, Redwood Nature Trail along the Chetco River, Brookings, OR
Rob, Redwood Nature Trail along the Chetco River, Brookings, OR
We crossed the bridge as a couple came down the rocky path from above. They were both fire fighters, the man recently retired, and they were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. They said this was their favorite place & that there used to be a bench where they would bring a bottle of wine & sit here, enjoying the scenery. The bench is no longer here & they said it gets really crowded in the summer. Oh well, not such a secret, but magical just the same.
We drove back to Brookings, crossed the River, and headed down to the marina area in Harbor for lunch. We had wonderful shrimp tacos & clam chowder at Sportshaven Marina Bar & Grill sitting outside on the deck overlooking the water & the marina. Very good clam chowder, too. Then we went to the Post Office to see if our mail had arrived – about once a month we have our mail forwarded via general delivery to a post office near where we are staying. No, the mail hadn’t arrived yet. We took the road on the south side of the Chetco River and drove inland along the River, checking out the scenery from that side. This road was not maintained as well as on the north side; we went as far as we could and turned around. Nice drive & beautiful scenery again. Saw a campground, At River’s Edge, an independent campground overlooking the River, that could be a possibility if the State Parks were full when we returned to this area.
We got back to the RV around 3:30 p.m. & sat outside for awhile. The high today was 66 degrees. Our new neighbors had country music on fairly loud but we survived that, LOL. Dinner at home, reading books, really good day.