Today was a really pretty day for pictures and driving. The views started off quickly with a nice one over the valley just north of Redding from State Route 300. While here, I turned around and snapped a few pictures of this hillside which illustrates perfectly what I always envisioned California just outside of cities looks like – scrubby hills with some trees poking up out of the scrub. I don’t know what these shrubs are, but they are absolutely everywhere; it seems as though they might be an invasive species. They’re kind of pretty and kind of strange-looking at the same time.
Just down the hill from this vantage point, we came to Whiskeytown Lake which is a hydroelectric reservoir. It’s a very pretty lake in any case and with the mountain (Shasta Bally) in the background, it’s quite scenic.
The rest of the drive on 299 offered quite a variety of terrain and plant life. We had to be escorted through a few construction zones that were rather long and potentially treacherous. We encountered lots of little towns, probably that got their start in mining or logging, many of which were no more than settlements (populations in the low- to mid-three-digits).
Some of the scenes we saw I really wouldn’t have guessed were in California if I had seen them in a book or magazine, such as the river photos above and the panorama of the high grasslands below.
Once we got off of 299, we took US-101 north to Orick to see the Redwoods National Park. The Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor’s Center is a really nice place that’s right on the beach. We went out to see what we could see of the Pacific Ocean and almost got attacked by a deadly sneaker wave, but before it could I caught it with my cat-like reflexes. (Kidding on all counts, though we did just about get wet and had to do some quick backing up.) The sand was really rocky and gray, which I didn’t expect. Interesting to say the least. Here are a couple of beach pictures from later as well.
P.S. The fog here is amazing, primarily because along the coast it seems to be persistent. It sounds silly to say that, but it’s true! Look at the last image above. That’s not just haze, not smoke; it’s fog! It’s there most of the day!
After looking at the beach, we drove up to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwoods National park to see some coast redwoods. If you’ve never seen them in person, you can’t truly understand just how big they are. They are seriously huge – awe-inspiring. Pictures don’t do them justice, but here are a few anyway. Even though I’m writing this on our third day of the trip, my wife is (I’m sure) tired of hearing me say “wow”. More “wow” to come later. Enjoy!
