OH GIVE ME A HOME…….BUFFALO, YESSS!
Day 62 – The third month of this trip began with a day of birdwatching, a majestic bull elk, and a field of buffalo. We’re off to a good start!
We got up at 7:30 a.m., 58 degrees & cloudy. As far as we know, it didn’t rain last night so it shouldn’t be too muddy out for some hiking or some backroads driving. We’d hoped to visit all 49 Redwood State Parks & at least take a picture of the sign at each Park. Thus far, we’ve seen five, but have not been able to find the Harry A. Merlo State Recreation Area. Two different maps show it in two different places. We drove north to fully look for a park sign, or something identifying the SRA. We covered the area along the Ocean & two Lagoons, no indication of the SRA. Then we had two inland roads to take, one of which was closed, & the other took us up into some nice redwood country and onto, guess what, another dirt road. As we drove along, I looked up into the trees & there on a bluff above us was a magnificent, large bull elk, lazily chewing on a long blade of prairie grass. We reached the end of the road, turned around, and hurried back, hoping he’d still be there. He was.
This Roosevelt Elk means business! Trinidad, CA
So we’re giving up on finding the Harry A. Merlo SRA, but there’s lots more to see. We drove south on Highway 101 to Arcata, following the directions from a brochure to the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary. We ended up spending most of the day there. “The 307-acre Sanctuary includes freshwater marshes, salt marshes, tidal sloughs, mudflats, grassy uplands, a boat ramp, an Interpretive Center, and over 5 miles of walking & biking paths. Located at the north end of Humboldt Bay, the Sanctuary is situated along the Pacific Flyway, a major migratory route for hundreds of thousands of birds that breed in the far north, and winter in CA, Mexico, and central & South America. The Arcata Marsh provides homes and migratory resting places for over 330 species of birds, with 73 year-round species. It has been designated as a National Audubon Important Bird Area.” (from the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sanctuary Map & Guide). Glad we’d brought lunch with us; we had no idea this would be such a great place.
Dowitcher, Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, Arcata, CA
To see lots more pictures of Arcata Marsh,
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We saw plenty of birds that we’d not seen in a long time, since moving from southern CA, and were thrilled to be able to photograph the elusive Black-Crowned Night Heron, a shy bird that hides in the brush along canals & creeks. We hiked on a wooded trail & encountered a busy search & rescue dog sniffing around with its trainer – didn’t think much of it – must be out for a training exercise. We visited the excellent Intrepretive Center, had our lunch, and drove around to a parking area by a couple of marshes. There were many birds & ducks on the water, so we stopped & hiked in. A helicopter kept flying over the whole time we were there, but this didn’t bother the birds. This is where we spent most of the day. So much to see, so many pictures to take! The sun came out and it was warm, just perfect. When we’d been at the Interpretive Center, a man was telling the ranger that he’d seen a bald eagle and an osprey at a particular place, so we decided to go out there. There were some cars at the parking area & we got out to take a look for birds. We saw that at the end of the wooded point of land which was surrounded by water, there was a sheriff’s car & a first response vehicle with their lights flashing; yellow, crime-scene tape had been put up to keep people out. Guess we won’t be going out there……we wondered if the search & rescue dog we’d seen earlier had been there for another reason other than training. We saw a search boat out in the water. Maybe the whole thing was a training exercise? No way to know at this time. It was clouding up, getting late, so we decided to move on. We had originally planned to go to the Humboldt Botanical Gardens below Eureka but we’d spent so much time at the Wildlife Sanctuary; we’d have to go to the Gardens another day. On the way south to Eureka, we drove on a spit of land to Samoa, a small town & area which had several BLM places by the Ocean. The beach was crowded with cars, so we didn’t stop; it was the weekend & a beautiful day. Stopped at the campground to check it out – right on the Bay but nothing but an open parking lot – no thank you.
On the way down the spit of land, we’d seen lots of fields with big, healthy cows grazing. I made a joke when there was a large all-white cow: “Look, Rob, there’s an albino buffalo!” ho ho. We looked again and it was not an albino buffalo, but there was a whole field of brown buffalo right there. Well, I’ll be damned.
Big Bull Buffalo, Samoa, CA
Buffalo, Samoa, CA
Buffalo, Samoa, CA
We drove through Eureka, lots of homeless & seemingly destitute people, many of them young. We drove to the Fort Humboldt State Historical Park, one of the 49 Redwood State Parks, and took a picture of the sign. It was after 5 p.m. and they’d just closed for the day.
Fort Humboldt State Park, Eureka, CA
Time to think about dinner. We drove to a place in Arcata, Salt Fish House, where it’d been advertised they had good, fresh fish & hand-crafted cocktails. It was very good. We each tried an innovative drink from the list & they were excellent. They mixed unexpected ingredients, spices & flavors in each. (We’re not sure if we remember them correctly but Rob’s was Mezcal Tequila & Green Chartreuse, Maraschino, Jalapeno, & the rim of the glass was dusted with a brown & red seasoning that neither of us had ever heard of & cannot remember the name. Mine was Vodka, Proseco, Lime, Saffron, & a floater of something that we can’t remember either & the rim of the glass was dusted with sugar. I am writing this one week later & neither of us can remember all the ingredients in our separate drinks – I guess they were strong, LOL.) We had an order of crispy fries with their special sauce for dipping, spicy & yummy, as an appetizer. Then we split the fresh, broiled ling cod tacos & the coconut shrimp over thai pasta. A great end to a great birding day.
We got back to the RV after dark again, another eight-hour day of being gone. We’d need to spend some quality time with the girls soon. It was a high of 63 degrees today & partly sunny. That means the girls had some sun on the dashboard; easy to please, that makes them happy.