goldtooth
Member
Here is a trip report of our adventure to the Redwoods last weekend. Not much off roading but plenty of beautiful trees!
After last years trip to the Redwoods on Valentines Day, we decided to try and make it an annual pilgrimage to this majestic area. We planned on going on Valentines weekend but Portland got a winter blast of ice and snow so we delayed the trip by one weekend. With a 500 mile drive in front of us, we decided to leave a bit earlier and headed south at 6:00pm on Thursday after we got off work.
Yes we need better headlights!
The drive was uneventful and we stopped for the night at a rest area just north of Roseburg, Or. It was a bit off the highway and fairly quiet but it was 10:00 at night and we were tired so it didn’t matter much and off to sleep.
The next morning we were able to take in our surroundings a bit. A foggy morning revealed our home for the night, which was actually pretty scenic for a rest stop.
We left early the next morning in anticipation of getting to our campsite around 2:00 to give us plenty of time to explore the area. Little did we know what we were in store for.
As we drove down highway 199 towards the California border, we stopped at the fruit inspection stand and found out that highway 101 south of Crescent City was closed in both directions from a landslide. The only way around it was to go back to I5 to Redding and take highway 299 over. Well that is a HUGE detour that looked like it would add half a days driving to our route.
With few options, we turned around and headed to I5. We looked at a few other options to avoid the long detour but the other roads were closed due to snow or other landslides. Down to Redding we go.
With snow and fog on the passes, it was slow going as we made our way south. We had a quick lunch in Redding and I took over driving duties at that point. From 299 we headed to highway 36 as Google maps said the 299 was requiring chains at the pass and we didn’t want to deal with that at this point. In hindsight it would have been a faster route.
As we turned onto highway 36, we saw signs that it was also closed but had pilot cars every hour. Another delay. We approached the road worker and he said we missed the 3:00 shuttle and the next one is not until 5:30 now. At this point all we could do was laugh at the day we were having. We settled in for the 90 minute wait for our guide.
At 5:30 we were lead through an area that was devastated by summer fires and the crews were working hard to remove trees and shore up landslides. It was now dark and raining at this point and our stock headlights are pathetic which made coming down the twisty mountain pass very stressful.
We finally reached our campsite on Avenue of the Giants at 8:00 at night, a full 6 hours after we had planned. A quick dinner and a some ciders and we were off to sleep. Though tired, we were excited to explore one of our favorite places tomorrow.
After last years trip to the Redwoods on Valentines Day, we decided to try and make it an annual pilgrimage to this majestic area. We planned on going on Valentines weekend but Portland got a winter blast of ice and snow so we delayed the trip by one weekend. With a 500 mile drive in front of us, we decided to leave a bit earlier and headed south at 6:00pm on Thursday after we got off work.
The drive was uneventful and we stopped for the night at a rest area just north of Roseburg, Or. It was a bit off the highway and fairly quiet but it was 10:00 at night and we were tired so it didn’t matter much and off to sleep.
The next morning we were able to take in our surroundings a bit. A foggy morning revealed our home for the night, which was actually pretty scenic for a rest stop.
We left early the next morning in anticipation of getting to our campsite around 2:00 to give us plenty of time to explore the area. Little did we know what we were in store for.
As we drove down highway 199 towards the California border, we stopped at the fruit inspection stand and found out that highway 101 south of Crescent City was closed in both directions from a landslide. The only way around it was to go back to I5 to Redding and take highway 299 over. Well that is a HUGE detour that looked like it would add half a days driving to our route.
With few options, we turned around and headed to I5. We looked at a few other options to avoid the long detour but the other roads were closed due to snow or other landslides. Down to Redding we go.
With snow and fog on the passes, it was slow going as we made our way south. We had a quick lunch in Redding and I took over driving duties at that point. From 299 we headed to highway 36 as Google maps said the 299 was requiring chains at the pass and we didn’t want to deal with that at this point. In hindsight it would have been a faster route.
As we turned onto highway 36, we saw signs that it was also closed but had pilot cars every hour. Another delay. We approached the road worker and he said we missed the 3:00 shuttle and the next one is not until 5:30 now. At this point all we could do was laugh at the day we were having. We settled in for the 90 minute wait for our guide.
At 5:30 we were lead through an area that was devastated by summer fires and the crews were working hard to remove trees and shore up landslides. It was now dark and raining at this point and our stock headlights are pathetic which made coming down the twisty mountain pass very stressful.
We finally reached our campsite on Avenue of the Giants at 8:00 at night, a full 6 hours after we had planned. A quick dinner and a some ciders and we were off to sleep. Though tired, we were excited to explore one of our favorite places tomorrow.
