Redwoods in California

On Friday morning we drove to Trees of Mystery, which is situated in the centre of the Redwood National and State Parks. The trail is almost a mile long, through awe-inspiring redwoods.

We walked along aerial netted suspension bridges through some majestic old growth redwoods with some viewing platforms 100 feet high in the trees.

Another exciting part of the trail was an 8 minute gondola ride, 1,570 feet up the mountain, giving great views of redwoods and a fine ocean vista at the summit.

On our journey south to Eureka, along the Pacific Highway, we encountered a lot of misty, foggy weather which is very common on this coast in the mornings but burns off as the day warms up.

We took a short detour and drove through a 700 year old redwood which had a tunnel cut through it almost 50 years ago.

We stopped to walk part of the trail at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which consists of many very old redwoods.

Then it was on to the quirky town of Arcata, which was buzzing with people enjoying the weekly farmer’s market and listening to live music in the main town plaza.

We spent a couple of nights in Eureka, CA in order to visit some of the Redwood State Parks and drive along the Avenue of the Giants, a 17 mile scenic highway running through Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California. Many of the trees here are thousands of years old and you could spend hours just walking through the groves and admiring the splendour of these trees.

We had picnic lunches on a couple of days surrounded by these giant trees. They made one feel very small!

Eureka’s Old Town has many elaborate Victorian houses.

The next morning we left Eureka in the rain and headed back north to Oregon.

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Holbrook, AZ to Peach Springs, AZ

We left Holbrook in bright sunshine and continued our drive along Rte 66 which once again had us driving on the Interstate at times. Our first stop was in Winslow made famous when The Eagles recorded "Take It Easy" whose second verse starts with "Standin' on a corner in Winslow Arizona". We then drove on to Flagstaff but didn't stop in the city. Flagstaff has a beautiful forested location high up on the Colorado Plateau and it was a change to be driving on roads lined with tall ponderosa pine trees. We had a picnic lunch off the beaten track in Buckskinner Park, Williams, AZ. We followed a dirt trail to the picnic area which really tested our car's tyres. They survived, thankfully. We soon found ourselves in Seligman (pronounced Sligman), a sleepy town which maintains a lot of its historic character together with a few unexpected twists - eg Santa in a Chevvy outside the wacky Snow Cap Drive-in. Our destination for the night was th

Seattle, WA

We left Everett on Sunday morning and headed south to Seattle, our final stop on this trip. We drove to our hotel and dropped off our cases before we headed to SeaTac to return our car. After the brief stop at the hotel we drove to Kubota Garden, a 20-acre Japanese garden in one of Seattle’s southern neighbourhoods. It was started in 1927 by Fijitaro Kubota, a Japanese immigrant. It is an urban oasis with Japanese and native trees and plants, ponds and waterfalls. It was beautiful with its fall colours. The following morning we headed down to the waterfront to the historic Pike Place Market where Starbucks first opened its doors to the public in 1971. Then we wandered through the market which opened in 1907 and strolled by the numerous stalls of seafood, fresh produce, crafts and flowers. On Tuesday we took the monorail, which was the first commercial monorail in the USA and built in 1962 as an attraction for the 1962 World’s Fair. It still uses the original cars. The monorail

Volcanic Country

On Wednesday morning after breakfast, we headed back to the airport to pick up our car. We got a very nice car, a Ford Edge, fairly large for what is described as a small SUV. Then it was off on the road trip part of the holiday. Our first stop was in a cabin in Ashford, a very small town near the entrance to the Mount Rainier National Park. Thursday morning saw us head to Mount Rainier NP. Mount Rainier at 14,410 ft is the tallest mountain in Washington State. It is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. We drove up to Paradise which at an elevation of 5,420 ft. is famous for its stunning views. We then walked to Myrtle Falls and the views all round us were just stunning. After lunch we drove to Reflection Lakes along a road with hairpin bends and precipitous drops to the side. While in Ashford, we ate at the quaint Copper Creek Restaurant which opened in 1946 and is the oldest, continuously operating restaurant in Washington State.

On the Road with T and S

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