Redwood Forest

Ah, the great outdoors! There’s nothing like it. And what a kool way to celebrate a milestone birthday weekend by taking a trip out to the Redwood National Forest. I’ve always wanted to see the sequoia trees that grow to over 328 feet (100 meters) and live for more than 2,000 years; I figured this was perfect timing as I myself am feeling somewhat ancient these days.

So yeah, early Saturday morning I packed my car and get it ready for the intended day trip (more on that later) and lucky for me my new buddy Angela has agreed to partake in the adventure. We cruise along the 101 north for the next few hours chatting it up on what is a beautifully clear day. Once we reach the town of Weott we feed our growling stomachs not too far from some big foot sighting souvenir shops located near a general vistor center. From there our quest begins in the effort to lay our eyes on the famed Redwood tree that has a hole big enough to accommodate a two-lane stretch of road for passing cars. We take a tour of a couple of hiking trails viewing a lot of great foilage and meeting some nice people during the treks — most notably was a former East L.A. native and her white whale spouse (the pleasant older lady dubbed her 2nd husband that dubious description who was in the creek at the time playing with their kids) who recommended visiting Ferndale before heading back down to the big city. It sounded good to us and was on the way to seeing the famous Sequoia, so we took her suggestion and headed out to the small town of which initially only a herd of cows seemed to populate the place. The moo-moo’s kinda freaked Angela out at one point while she tried to take some pictures of them. But a few more miles west and there it stood, this quaint picturesque community with it’s old victorian style buildings. Even the house of gnomes was very well crafted.

As it turns out it’s getting late and, rather than drive down the poorly-lit 101 freeway at night, Angela & I decide to just crash at a hotel and hit the road during daylight hours tomorrow. And we figure this would afford us another opportunity to visit the “drive-thru” sequoia we have yet to see. So we head up to Eureka, about 20 miles north from Ferndale, and as our luck would have it damn-near all the hotels/motels are rented out due to some local vintage auto-show convention taking place in the city. In a word: Lame. In another word: horror, because the last (and only) lodging choice we had left was at the shady Broadway Motel. We had the stellar choice between an immediate room which had a “slight” smell or, if we could wait an hour, another room which didn’t smell. I think the choice is obvious here folks. Luckly, I still had some freshly dry-cleaned bed sheets back in my trunk b/c neither of us were touching those motel sheets, as we pretty much slept in our clothes.

Despite a few loud bangs and some rowdy noises during the night we manage to survive our Brodway Motel nightmare and quickly check out faster than you can say HELLSFURY. After having a late breakfast we focus our energy on finding that elusive sequioa tree and what do you know, after all the hype by these park rangers and locals alike, if it ain’t more than an 8-foot tall hole barely wide enough space to fit a sedan through. It certainly didn’t meet our expectations this “chandelier tree” as it was dubbed due to the look of it’s branching. What a bummer.

Regardless, we both had fun exploring the redwood forest and recommend the trip to anyone who has the time. Beautiful country up there. But definitely book your lodging in advance.

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