We had to say goodbye to our first guest. We dropped my friend, Liz, off at San Francisco Airport and returned to Olema Campground to pack up. We got back on Route 101 north and drove as far as Richardson Grove Campground, which is located in a little town called Garberville.
This was another old campground as evidenced by the signage and bathrooms.
Once again, I am happy that we have our own shower. Directly across the street from this campground was Grandfather Tree. (If you zoom into the first picture above, you can see the signage for it). It turns out that the original owners of the land named the tree and created the signage to bring in more tourists. Their plan worked! Below is a pano shot of this mighty Redwood tree.
We were only staying there for one night. Around 8:00 p.m. on June 23, we were sitting in our trailer playing Scrabble when all of a sudden it felt like someone was shaking our trailer. The movement lasted about five seconds. Scott and I just looked at each other. Then, our neighbor to our left, came out of his trailer yelling, “That was an earthquake! We just felt an earthquake!” We later learned that it was definitely an earthquake that registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale, but we were not near the epicenter. It was well north of us. The picture below shows our neighbor’s trailer as well as our own in the spot where we were when we felt the earthquake. We are very thankful that is was just a baby quake.
The next morning we continued north, driving basically parallel to Route 101 on the famous scenic byway called “Avenue of the Giants.” This 32-mile scenic drive covering Humboldt Redwood State Park features many stop-off points where you can park and take a short hike.
We stopped at Franklin K. Lane Grove first. It was a short easy trail surrounded by green fern, three-leaf clovers, and many mighty Redwood Trees. The Redwoods are taller than the Sequoias, but some of them are almost as massive in terms of girth. Below are a few photos of both alive and fallen trees.
Next stop, Redwood National Park!
