Motor Home Trip to Jasper National Park of Canada – Week 1, 12-20 May 2007
We’ve just crossed the Oregon state line after traveling along the California Coast for a week. The weather has been great, and the campgrounds quite empty. It seems to be a perfect time for traveling, before summer vacationers hit the road.
We reached the Napa Valley in about nine hours, through the vineyards of the California Central Coast, the vegetable fields of Salinas and the East San Francisco Bay suburbs to the vineyards of Napa Valley. As we were driving, Dahlia was taking pictures on the fly and we were listening to the audio book, “Truman” by David McCullough, downloaded to our iPod and read by a wonderful narrator. We actually look forward to the driving so we can listen on… the miles just flew by!
We stayed 4 nights at a beautiful state park, and took a hike along a stream shaded by a forest of redwood and oak trees with ferns growing beneath them, visited a petrified forest of redwood trees, drove along the Russian River, and north along the coast and had lunch at the Korbel Champagne Winery. On another day we visited the quaint town of Sonoma and the DiRosa Preserve, a “sculpture” garden and modern art museum with an incredible collection of San Francisco Bay area art of the last 50 years. Of course we could not leave the Napa valley without at least some wine tasting. We liked the wines at the St. Supery Winery and enjoyed a photo exhibit of images from India taken by art students on a recent visit there. The campground (Bothe Napa state park) was quiet and beautiful, but not really designed for the height of RVs and provided no hookups at all.
After leaving Calistoga and returning the rental car we drove northwest through beautiful coastal mountains with pastures, more vineyards and redwood forests before arriving at the coast near Mendocino. The rugged coastal views were breathtaking everywhere you looked with beautiful wild flowers abundant everywhere. The little town of Mendocino with old Victorian homes, water towers, upscale shops and houses overlooking the sea was delightful. We stayed at a wonderful campground (Pomo RV Park) just north of town, and spend the next day visiting the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens nearby. It was huge and really magnificent! There were Rhododendrons in full bloom in every imaginable color, Irises, Redwoods and pines, and a huge variety of other ferns plants and flowers. Best of all, it provided beautiful trails to the ocean cliffs with gorgeous views of the coast and some nice exercise. We had a great seafood lunch at a cute little seaside café at Fort Bragg (Sharon’s), collected sea glass at Glass Beach (an area that used to be the town dump but now has a beach of tumbled pieces of glass bottles), and spent a bit more time in Mendocino. It seems we are getting used to “docking” and “undocking” Moby (our RV) at the campsites and it is becoming less intimidating. Lance is getting quite comfortable driving it and parking it in the little towns we are visiting. We only gasp at the prices at gas stations!
From Mendocino we drove north and stopped a Leggett to see the “drive through tree” which was pretty amazing (the RV didn’t fit). We continued north along a 32 mile section of narrow road flanked by a forest of old groves of huge redwoods, called “The Avenue of the Giants” and part of the Humboldt State Park. It was pretty awesome! We then stopped the quaint little Victorian town of Ferndale and then Eureka before stopping for the night at a campground near Trinidad (Sounds of the Sea) near Patrick’s Point State Park.
The next morning we stopped to visit this beautiful coastal park, a with cliffs overlooking sea lions barking in the ocean and took a long walk way down to some interesting tidal pools. Going further north along the beach we reached the Lady Bird Johnson Stand of Redwoods and took a hike through a trail among the most awesome redwood trees we saw on the whole trip (and we saw a lot of redwood trees). After a brief stop in Crescent City, CA we turned inland along winding mountain roads and through more redwood and pine forests toward southern Oregon. After a four hour drive we reached I-5 where we saw our first huge snow capped volcano. We are spending the night at a small RV park outside of Ashland Oregon (Glenyan RV Park).
We reached the Napa Valley in about nine hours, through the vineyards of the California Central Coast, the vegetable fields of Salinas and the East San Francisco Bay suburbs to the vineyards of Napa Valley. As we were driving, Dahlia was taking pictures on the fly and we were listening to the audio book, “Truman” by David McCullough, downloaded to our iPod and read by a wonderful narrator. We actually look forward to the driving so we can listen on… the miles just flew by!
We stayed 4 nights at a beautiful state park, and took a hike along a stream shaded by a forest of redwood and oak trees with ferns growing beneath them, visited a petrified forest of redwood trees, drove along the Russian River, and north along the coast and had lunch at the Korbel Champagne Winery. On another day we visited the quaint town of Sonoma and the DiRosa Preserve, a “sculpture” garden and modern art museum with an incredible collection of San Francisco Bay area art of the last 50 years. Of course we could not leave the Napa valley without at least some wine tasting. We liked the wines at the St. Supery Winery and enjoyed a photo exhibit of images from India taken by art students on a recent visit there. The campground (Bothe Napa state park) was quiet and beautiful, but not really designed for the height of RVs and provided no hookups at all.
After leaving Calistoga and returning the rental car we drove northwest through beautiful coastal mountains with pastures, more vineyards and redwood forests before arriving at the coast near Mendocino. The rugged coastal views were breathtaking everywhere you looked with beautiful wild flowers abundant everywhere. The little town of Mendocino with old Victorian homes, water towers, upscale shops and houses overlooking the sea was delightful. We stayed at a wonderful campground (Pomo RV Park) just north of town, and spend the next day visiting the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens nearby. It was huge and really magnificent! There were Rhododendrons in full bloom in every imaginable color, Irises, Redwoods and pines, and a huge variety of other ferns plants and flowers. Best of all, it provided beautiful trails to the ocean cliffs with gorgeous views of the coast and some nice exercise. We had a great seafood lunch at a cute little seaside café at Fort Bragg (Sharon’s), collected sea glass at Glass Beach (an area that used to be the town dump but now has a beach of tumbled pieces of glass bottles), and spent a bit more time in Mendocino. It seems we are getting used to “docking” and “undocking” Moby (our RV) at the campsites and it is becoming less intimidating. Lance is getting quite comfortable driving it and parking it in the little towns we are visiting. We only gasp at the prices at gas stations!
From Mendocino we drove north and stopped a Leggett to see the “drive through tree” which was pretty amazing (the RV didn’t fit). We continued north along a 32 mile section of narrow road flanked by a forest of old groves of huge redwoods, called “The Avenue of the Giants” and part of the Humboldt State Park. It was pretty awesome! We then stopped the quaint little Victorian town of Ferndale and then Eureka before stopping for the night at a campground near Trinidad (Sounds of the Sea) near Patrick’s Point State Park.
The next morning we stopped to visit this beautiful coastal park, a with cliffs overlooking sea lions barking in the ocean and took a long walk way down to some interesting tidal pools. Going further north along the beach we reached the Lady Bird Johnson Stand of Redwoods and took a hike through a trail among the most awesome redwood trees we saw on the whole trip (and we saw a lot of redwood trees). After a brief stop in Crescent City, CA we turned inland along winding mountain roads and through more redwood and pine forests toward southern Oregon. After a four hour drive we reached I-5 where we saw our first huge snow capped volcano. We are spending the night at a small RV park outside of Ashland Oregon (Glenyan RV Park).
posted by Dahlia and Lance Riley @ 8:39 AM
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