9/2/2017 - Redwood National Forest

Saturday - The smoke is still with us, unfortunately, so we decided to forego the smoky beach and see if we could get out of the smoke.  Joe started his morning with a smoky blackberry (not too tasty), then we drove through Brookings, crossed into California, and went to the Visitor Center in Crescent City.  You can see the ash laying on our car.

It seemed like the smoke got better as we crossed into California  We drove through Smith River, but didn't stop.  The guy at the Visitor Center was very helpful, and we came out armed with maps and more brochures.  We drove to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, which is part of the Redwood National Forest, and followed a dirt road through the park.  Awesome, absolutely awesome.  This was a gorgeous drive through these huge old-growth trees.  The dirt road just meanders around the trees, so there were lots of crooks and turns.

We got smart and opened up the moonroof so we could see the tops of the trees.  Joe figured his vertigo would be back by the time we got out of this park.

There's no way these pictures capture the girth or height of these magnificent trees.  The smoke made them less clear but added its own element of awesomeness.

 Panoramic shot.

Joe climbed into one here.  I should have taken a video.

Our next stop was at a creek, or river.  We climbed down the trail and waded right in.  For once, we took all our equipment with us:  walking sticks, water shoes, towel, and a bag for rocks.  The water was crystal clear, and deeper in some spots than it appeared.  It was cold, but bearable, and Joe did a little exploring.

 Toes in the water.

Back to our drive, we reached the Stout Memorial Grove, a little hiking trail through the trees.  It was only about 2/10 of a mile, with another side-trail along the river that we took, but we spent over an hour here.  These trees are just breathtaking.  And the logs from felled trees are as tall as we are.

This was a great trail, and took us past huge groves of these redwoods. 

 We even shared the path with a chipmunk.  In the next photo, you can actually see the red hue to the wood.

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 This next tree came down just 4 years ago.  It was a monster.

We passed two parked cars with so much dust and ash on them that they looked like they had been abandoned.  There was quite a bit of traffic on this drive, surprised us, we thought we would be the only ones here.  We met one car with 3 kids sticking their heads out through the moonroof.  They had a good view but were probably choking! 

We came out of the park and headed down the Redwood Highway to take the Smith River drive, about a 30-mile drive along the river.  But the river is really low, so we didn't get to see too much.  We did come past one of the fire camps and a heli station along here, and we saw 2 other fire camps on our way back to the RV.

We worked our way back to the 101, and headed back to Brookings.  We drove down to the harbor here, then found a pizza joint for dinner.  After a stop at Fred Meyer, we headed back to our campground.  Here, we drove down to the beach, which was still very smoky.  The sun peeking through the smoke haze gave a different look, kind of eerie.

We got back to the RV with just 45 minutes to spare before our evening ranger program, which was about Seals and Sea Lions.  So we learned a little more about sealife.  And then called it a night.

9/1/2017 - Moving on to Brookings

Friday - Before we pulled out this morning, I decided to get the laundry caught up, and sent Joe out to get a haircut, so we didn't get on the road until 11:10.  When I went over to the office, next to the laundry, to check out, they had free coffee, and doughnuts for sale, so I indulged and bought breakfast for Joe and me.  The laundry facility was nice, probably had 12 washers and dryers, but was a little pricey, $1.75 for washer, and $2.00 for dryer.  I'm getting low on quarters.  But jeans and sweatshirts fill my laundry bin up a lot quicker than shorts and t-shirts!

We drove past many acres of cranberry bogs on the 101, and even passed at Orchard Spray processing house.  Along the way, we came upon the town of Langlois, with signs about it's "world famous hotdogs."  We had never heard of that, but I googled it, and this is what I found:  "Small town on the Oregon Coast... Historically famous for it's cheese and currently famous for Langlois Market's Hot Dogs with secret recipe mustard."  We didn't stop, but maybe we should have.

Our highway had drifted away from the ocean, but we rejoined it at Port Orford.  As our road curved away from the beach, the viewpoint was well marked, and we were happy to have views of the coastline again.

But it was really smoky.  We were 55 miles from Brookings, and the smoke was heavy from then on.

This area was the Humbug Mountain State Park, also very smoky.

Joe was ready for lunch by the time we got to Gold Beach, so he pulled in at the first restaurant.  This town is right on the Rogue River, and we passed an old shipwreck on the river.  Looked like it had been there a while.

Our restaurant was part of a gift shop, museum, and a river trip office -- Jerry's Rogue River Jet Boat Rides.  Joe is thinking this is in my future.  The gift shop was really nice, and we left with a brochure about the boat rides.

We got to our campground, Harris Beach State Park, about 3:30.  This campground is right on the ocean, but it was really smoky.  The wind is blowing southwest, which brings the smoke right at us.  Our eyes are burning and our noses are running -- almost like we have a cold.  This is the Chetco Bar Fire, approximately 16 miles east of the campground now, but this campground is still on Stage 1 alert. Yesterday, a 10,000 feet smoke column developed on the southeast corner of the fire.  The fire has now burned 131,197 acres and is 10 percent contained (as of yesterday).  We have a few firefighters staying here in this campground, but the staging area for the fire is up on the Winchuck River Road.

While setting up our step rigging, Joe just about took a header out the door of the RV.  Fortunately, he was able to keep from falling, but he stumbled quite a ways.  We both need to get better at setting up our temporary step until he can get the other one lodged in place once we get parked for a while.

Joe said our campsite was a tough place to get into, and he had to jack the rear tires off the ground, but we do have blackberries right beside our campsite, so at least he had a reward for his work.  And he's had a little snack.  I'm sure he will have them picked bare before we leave next Wednesday.

Once we got set up, we stayed inside until about 7:30.  There was a camp program about whales at 8:00, so we took a little walk before it.  We saw these "sink waste disposal" containers around the tent camping areas, which we thought was a great idea, especially since we are so close to the coast.  Keeps people from dumping their dish water directly on the ground.

The little ampitheatre is just right up a little ways passed our campsite.  We were the first ones there, but eventually there were about 15-20 people in attendance.  We had a slide program about the different kinds of whales, and we learned some things.  The ranger also brought us up to date on the fire, so that was good.  He said the smoke today and yesterday was as bad as it was on the day of the eclipse, but usually after 2-3 days, the wind changes and it clears up here, so we are all hoping for that tomorrow.

We only drove 108 miles as we leapfrogged down the Oregon coast.  We are only 6 miles from the California state line so this is our last Oregon campground. We don't have a very busy agenda here, especially because of the smoke.  We will probably do the jet boat ride, and I want to look for agates and seaglass on our beach, then we need to drive into Brookings and check it out.  We just hope the smoke clears up!