Redwoods National Park and Lassen National Park Trip, May/June 2018

[Scott]

Every year, My wife, two daughters, and myself decide on where we are going to take our "big" vacation. We usually end up camping, and usually in a national park somewhere. A lifelong goal that the wife and I share is to visit every National Park in the country before we die, so doing our yearly vacation at National Parks helps us to accomplish that goal. Camping also gets the kids outdoors appreciating nature.

I got off of work at about 11:00 PM on Friday 5/25, and got home at about 11:30pm. From there, I loaded up the few items that I hadn't preloaded, and I woke up the family, and we headed out the door at about 1 AM early Saturday morning. We had about 8 hours and 400 miles to cover, so I preferred to do that at night, with the kids sleeping... After hours of driving and one pit stop for an hour catnap for me, we stopped at a burger king for breakfast. Kids had to get their BK crowns, and then we motored on to our first camp site of the trip, at the Mill Creek Campground in the Redwoods National Park. We set up camp and just enjoyed nature for a bit.

0001 by poriggity, on Flickr

0002 by poriggity, on Flickr

0003 by poriggity, on Flickr

0004 by poriggity, on Flickr

0005 by poriggity, on Flickr

After relaxing for a while, my wifes parents arrived. They had flown up to Oakland from their home in Southern California, rented a car, and drove up to meet us for the weekend, so they could see their grandkids and hang out for the weekend. First order of business was to head down to Klamath, CA to check out Paul Bunyan, Babe the blue Ox, and the Trees of Mystery. What a captivating place that was. I will let the pics speak for themselves. We did take a gondola ride up into the trees, and then the wife and I opted to hike back a little over a mile on a designated trail for some exercise.

0008 by poriggity, on Flickr

0009 by poriggity, on Flickr

0010 by poriggity, on Flickr

0012 by poriggity, on Flickr

0013 by poriggity, on Flickr

0014 by poriggity, on Flickr

0015 by poriggity, on Flickr

0017 by poriggity, on Flickr

0018 by poriggity, on Flickr

0019 by poriggity, on Flickr

After trees of Mystery, we had some lunch, then took another 1/2 mile hike down to the beach to play in the water and dirt, and I got a snooze in.

0037 by poriggity, on Flickr

0020 by poriggity, on Flickr

0023 by poriggity, on Flickr

0025 by poriggity, on Flickr

34403628_10105920106635674_8054447295124471808_n by poriggity, on Flickr


That's enough photos for now. I will continue in another reply...

Scott

 

[Scott]

That evening, we had no real plans, so we hit the local Mexican food joint, "Perlita's" in Crescent City for dinner, then went back to the camp site for some campfire, stories, and marshmallows...

0039 by poriggity, on Flickr

0040 by poriggity, on Flickr

0041 by poriggity, on Flickr

Next morning, as is a pretty standard tradition, I got up around 6:30 am, started a fire, and made some coffee. I usually get around an hour to an hour and a half to myself in the mornings on these vacations, as the little ones like to sleep. It gives me some time with my thoughts, as rare as they may be.

0042 by poriggity, on Flickr

Then the little ones woke up and had leftovers for breakfast..

0043 by poriggity, on Flickr

After coffee and breakfast, it was off to find a "secret" Agate beach to find some Agates...

0048 by poriggity, on Flickr

0047 by poriggity, on Flickr

0046 by poriggity, on Flickr

0045 by poriggity, on Flickr

0049 by poriggity, on Flickr

On the way back from the beach, we discovered a small cheese factory in Crescent City, so of course we stopped by, bought some cheese, and souvenirs, and $90 later, we left with lots of goodies.

0050 by poriggity, on Flickr

0051 by poriggity, on Flickr

To be continued in next post...

 

[Scott]

This post is mostly going to be random camp pics...

0052 by poriggity, on Flickr

0053 by poriggity, on Flickr

0054 by poriggity, on Flickr

0055 by poriggity, on Flickr

0056 by poriggity, on Flickr

0057 by poriggity, on Flickr

0058 by poriggity, on Flickr

0059 by poriggity, on Flickr

My 5 year old is homeschooled by my wife, and they had a project happening.. They were growing catepillars up into butterflies, so the catepillar/butterfly project came with us, and we let them into the wild at our campsite once they got out of their cocoons... Here's the kids handling them a little bit before setting them free....

0060 by poriggity, on Flickr

0061 by poriggity, on Flickr

0062 by poriggity, on Flickr

0063 by poriggity, on Flickr

To be continued...

 

[Scott]

After that, we went for our first of many hikes, the Trestle loop trail. It was only about a 1.2 mile hike, but was a nice hike...

0064 by poriggity, on Flickr

0065 by poriggity, on Flickr

0066 by poriggity, on Flickr

0067 by poriggity, on Flickr

0068 by poriggity, on Flickr

0069 by poriggity, on Flickr

0070 by poriggity, on Flickr

0072 by poriggity, on Flickr

To be continued....

 

[Scott]

Next Morning, it was time for some coffee.... My favorite part of the day...

0074 by poriggity, on Flickr

0075 by poriggity, on Flickr

After coffee, I packed up the RTT, and we headed up north about 20 miles from camp, to Brookings, OR. My wife is a book lover, and there was a book store she just HAD to go visit. So, while she was visiting the book store, I took the kids to a small family owned and operated bakery, and we indulged in some cinammon roll "bites", and I had a nice Americano. Delicious breakfast for sure.

0076 by poriggity, on Flickr

0077 by poriggity, on Flickr

After the bookstore and bakery, we just drove around the town for a while, sightseeing. After a while, we got hungry, and stopped at a small place called "The Hungry Clam", right on the water... I had fish and chips and it was awesome.

0078 by poriggity, on Flickr

0080 by poriggity, on Flickr

After this, we headed back to camp to relax. More pictures to come, but for now, I need to make dinner. I will continue when I have time tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for looking so far.

 

[Scott]

Forgot to add, my wife, aka my navigator, found me a dirt road that lead from Brookings, Or to Crescent city, Ca, near our camp site. She knew how much I was itching to get off pavement, so she made it happen. The views and the sheer mass of the redwoods was an awesome experience.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[Scott]

After the dirt road, my 5 year old wanted me to teach her the ways of fire building.. I taught her how to use kindling and oxygen to your advantage to get a fire going..

We woke up the next morning and started our 4.5 hour drive over to Lassen Volcanic National Park, where we were meeting my parents who had been out on the west coast away from thier home in missouri for over a month. They travel a bit differently than we do, in a 40 foot diesel pusher motorhome with 4 slide outs... here are some photos from our camp site at manzanita lake campground..

To be continued....

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[GPsGeeps]

Nice trip report! And good job getting the kids out there at a young age. I got to see Paul Bunyan and Babe well over 30 years ago. I'll have to see if I can dig up a photo.

 

[Scott]

Nice trip report! And good job getting the kids out there at a young age. I got to see Paul Bunyan and Babe well over 30 years ago. I'll have to see if I can dig up a photo.

I've got some more random pics. I just need to go through them.. here are a few..



Sent from my SM-G955U using OB Talk mobile app

 

[Raul B]

great job buddy..... kids are growing up fast...

 

[Ashton]

Two of my favorite spots in the world, Brookings, OR and Lassen NF. I did not know there was a dirt road from Brookings to Crescent City, I would love the route info for that particular jaunt.

 

[GrayGhost]

Wer you able to drive Howland Hill Rd to Stout Grove? One of my favorites in the Crescent City area.

 

[shortbus4x4]

I grew up and lived in Humboldt County for years. Looks like it was a nice sunny weekend there on the coast. My grandparents married in 1947 and honeymooned up the coast. I still have the post cards they bought at the Trees of Mystery, you can recognize the trees but they are bigger now. Beautiful trip and thanks for posting.

 

[Stoked]

Looks like your family had a great time...thanks for sharing! I've not made it that far west yet, but I want to soon!

 

[Alaska.hermit]

That looks like an amazing trip! Seeing the Paul Bunion and Babe the blue ox statue sure brought back memories of growing up around there.

 

[Kyle & Kari Frink]

Every year, My wife, two daughters, and myself decide on where we are going to take our "big" vacation. We usually end up camping, and usually in a national park somewhere. A lifelong goal that the wife and I share is to visit every National Park in the country before we die, so doing our yearly vacation at National Parks helps us to accomplish that goal. Camping also gets the kids outdoors appreciating nature.

I got off of work at about 11:00 PM on Friday 5/25, and got home at about 11:30pm. From there, I loaded up the few items that I hadn't preloaded, and I woke up the family, and we headed out the door at about 1 AM early Saturday morning. We had about 8 hours and 400 miles to cover, so I preferred to do that at night, with the kids sleeping... After hours of driving and one pit stop for an hour catnap for me, we stopped at a burger king for breakfast. Kids had to get their BK crowns, and then we motored on to our first camp site of the trip, at the Mill Creek Campground in the Redwoods National Park. We set up camp and just enjoyed nature for a bit.

0001 by poriggity, on Flickr

0002 by poriggity, on Flickr

0003 by poriggity, on Flickr

0004 by poriggity, on Flickr

0005 by poriggity, on Flickr

After relaxing for a while, my wifes parents arrived. They had flown up to Oakland from their home in Southern California, rented a car, and drove up to meet us for the weekend, so they could see their grandkids and hang out for the weekend. First order of business was to head down to Klamath, CA to check out Paul Bunyan, Babe the blue Ox, and the Trees of Mystery. What a captivating place that was. I will let the pics speak for themselves. We did take a gondola ride up into the trees, and then the wife and I opted to hike back a little over a mile on a designated trail for some exercise.

0008 by poriggity, on Flickr

0009 by poriggity, on Flickr

0010 by poriggity, on Flickr

0012 by poriggity, on Flickr

0013 by poriggity, on Flickr

0014 by poriggity, on Flickr

0015 by poriggity, on Flickr

0017 by poriggity, on Flickr

0018 by poriggity, on Flickr

0019 by poriggity, on Flickr

After trees of Mystery, we had some lunch, then took another 1/2 mile hike down to the beach to play in the water and dirt, and I got a snooze in.

0037 by poriggity, on Flickr

0020 by poriggity, on Flickr

0023 by poriggity, on Flickr

0025 by poriggity, on Flickr

34403628_10105920106635674_8054447295124471808_n by poriggity, on Flickr


That's enough photos for now. I will continue in another reply...

Scott

Super cool!

 

[Scott]

Wer you able to drive Howland Hill Rd to Stout Grove? One of my favorites in the Crescent City area.

Actually, I think that was the dirt road I was reffering too.. I remember stout grove being part of the dirt road route. So perhaps I was a little confused on where I was at that point.