July 26, 2021
Vanlog, vista point pull-off just north of Humboldt Redwoods State Park
This morning when we opened the side door to the van for breakfast, we looked out over the beach and there were 25-30 baby elephant seals down below (see photo in last blog post). We enjoyed watching them pull themselves on shore as we ate our breakfasts. We drove about 12 mi north along the Pacific coast highway to Ft Ross State park. Here, there is an 1840s settlement fort that was a Russian-Alaskan collaboration southern outpost used for hunting seals and sea lions. A little farther north we stopped at Pt Arena Lighthouse and there was also a sea arch there and some more seals.
The next stop on our itinerary was Mendocino Headlands State Park. While it didn’t look like much from the road, a short walk from the parking lot led to great views of a rocky coastline with tons of wildflowers and several photogenic sea arches.
Next up was Russian Gulch State Park where there was a large sinkhole called Devil’s Punchbowl and a quaint bridge. Then it was on to Glass Beach for collecting polished stones at Ft Bragg.
Finally, we closed out our day at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This park contains the largest protected coast redwood groves in the world. You literally drive through a forest of immense redwood trees on either side of the road. We also took a few short hikes into the woods and at the very end we watched four river otters playing in the Eel River. Then we boondocked along Highway 101 at a vista point.
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