Oregon!

Oregon was GORGEOUS and super clean!  We noticed a huge difference in all the little towns pretty much immediately after crossing into Oregon. 

Oregon nearly killed me!  Our plan was to drive about 1/2 of the Oregon coast in one day, stopping along the way at all the cool places.  Well, first thing in the morning there was thick fog on the coastline and we knew we needed to wait until about noon before it burned off.  We didn't want to explore the coast with thick fog.  So as we were driving, we found a little hike that we could go on to kill some time.  Rather, it nearly killed me!

We decided to hike Humbug Mountain, tallest point on the southern coastline of Oregon.  It was 6 miles round-trip, but we only wanted it to take about 2 hours.  The hike up was gorgeous, steep, lots and lots of switch-backs, very much a rain-forest feel.  Got to the top in 1 1/2 hrs.  Not too bad, rested for 5 minutes tops, saw that the fog was gone and so we ran the entire 3 miles back down this steep mountain to the car, made it in 30 minutes.  I think I might have slowed to a walk for 1 or 2 footsteps is all the whole way.  It was sooooooo fun!  But my legs were JELLO!  So didn't stretch when we got to the car, I could barely stand up!  Drove about 3 miles to our first stop on the coast and went to get out of the car and couldn't!  I have NEVER EVER been that sore before.  I know I'm out of shape, but still. The steepness of that mountain was intense for me! It was painful just to move my legs to get out of the car, and then to have to step on the curb - killed me!  Unfortunately that kind of ruined the rest of the day for me.  We enjoyed the coast from the car mostly.  I hardly ever wanted to stop and get out and explore - it was too painful and we were just soooo exhausted!  So Oregon was gorgeous from the car.

The start of our Humbug Mountain Hike!

Made it to the top!

Took this picture at our first stop after the hike, and that peak is what we hiked, from pretty much sea level!

Oregon is covered with wild berries, so for the times that we did stop, Tyson couldn't keep himself out of the berry bushes.

They were delicious!!!

This is one of the few working lighthouses on the coast and the most photographed one!

We made it to our final resting spot, Depoe Bay, where its famous for whale watching.  Even had the Whale Watcher's room at our B&B overlooking the whole bay and ocean, complete with some pretty nice binoculars in the room.  I was disappointed though, never saw a whale.  I tried too! 

Next day, we drove the rest of the way to Portland, enjoyed the scenery along the way.  We even went over the Columbia River into Washington to have lunch before heading to the airport.  I remember the waitress at the restaurant asking how we were as we waddled in.  Oh, there are no words to describe how exhausted and sore we were, but how much fun we had just had that past week!  It was an amazing trip!

The Last of the Redwoods

I can't believe its already been a month since we went on this trip.  Life has been crazy for us, nothing too unusual.  I've been trying to paint my room ('trying' is the key word there, still not done), Tyson's been in hunting/camping mode which means he's gone, we've made a few trips to Utah, kids started school and soccer, I'm supposed to be working ('supposed' to be - key word again) and I'm trying to plan Mackenzie's birthday party. The month of August has went by in a flash!

So anyways, I have to post the rest of  the trip:

After going to the Tall Trees Grove, we made it up to Crescent City, saw some sea lions, and headed into Jedediah Smith State Park.  This was my favorite park!  Just breathtaking.  And this is where I knew was the secret "Grove of Titans" where the real tallest trees in the world are.  So my adventurous drive in me decided to not do one of my planned hikes and instead hunt for this Grove of Titans with the few clues I had.  We went through Stout Grove first.  It's an amazing little 1/2 mile 5-star hike.  Then we hiked around for about 2 hours searching for the Grove of Titans.  We still don't know if we found it, but they all looked like they could be 'it'.  It was just super fun to hike around, having to meander through a forest that had no trails, giant ferns, fallen trees that somehow we climbed over and then run into giant trees that make you think you found it.

Exploring Stout Grove

This tree we thought just maybe could have been it.  Not sure though.

Not a great picture of me, but check out these 3-leaf clovers.  The forest floor is covered in these and all I wanted to do was tip-toe my way in the middle and lay down in them...and so I did...several times!

Favorite pics of mine

The Tall Trees

Day 3 of our trip  - we were so ready to do some hikes in the Redwoods.  That's what we came for.  I did my research, only wanted the 5-star hikes, but when we got there, there were so many distractions, good ones, that we just never had enough time to do all we wanted.

So we headed out from our transient infested town that we stayed at (we did have a great B&B again though).  Side-note, all very northern CA towns around the Redwoods are transient infested.  It was a shock to us.  Kids with dreads begging for money, no shoes, filthy as can be, with one or two dogs.  It was unbelievable.  We got approached for money at their hangout at a gas station in the Redwoods.  Call me mean, I didn't give them any.  Tyson told me that I should have told them I'd give them $20 bucks for a picture of them - yes, they were that bad of a sight.  I saw their toes - disgusting!  They don't have shoes.  It was disturbing!

Anyways, so we headed up into Redwood National Park to go to the Tall Trees Grove.  It was a 4-star hike, with limited # of hikers, special permits to get down the locked-gate road, but it has the "tallest" trees in the world in it.  Of course we had to do that one!  It was 4 miles, and just amazing!  What was awesome about all these hikes is that there were hardly any tourists.  We were on the path alone, goofing off and just admiring these crazy tall trees. 

This is not the very bottom, thickest part of the tree.  It's about 1/2 way up the tree.  These trees are just massive!

This is how many of the very tallest Redwoods grow, with two trees hooked together at the bottom and they are just fighting to be the tallest.

This was one MASSIVE tree down in the Tall Trees Grove!  That is me sitting on part of the stump.

Not a Redwood - but a cool jungle tree.

Check out the moss on these trees!

This, my friends, is the Libbey Tree, the 'tallest' Redwood. 

You would never know it by looking at the trunk.  Many trees looked much more massive, but its the height, and since we could never see the tops of the trees, we'll never know.  And I emphasize 'Tallest' since I know it really isn't the tallest.  If you ask a park ranger, and I did, they tell you it is the tallest and act dumb when I asked about the 'other real tall trees'.  But taller trees have been found since this one in the last 5 years or so, but their locations have been kept secret because there are crazies out there that try to take chainsaws to these beauties and destroy them.  They also have shallow roots, so you know that the roots would be trompled to death if people knew they were really the tallest tree.  This Libbey Tree had a fence around it to protect it.

We left the Tall Trees Grove, ate some wild raspberries off the side of the road, saw some Roosevelt Elk just hanging out in the Redwoods, saw where Jurassic Park was filmed (really it could have been anywhere there) and headed up to our next destination to find the actual 'tallest' trees.

Avenue of the Giants

We made it to the Redwoods!  This place was spectacular.  You'd think after you'd seen one giant tree after another, you'd be done with it, but Nope!  Let me tell you, it was just amazing.  We are kind of tree lovers, not to be confused with tree-huggers, so we weren't too worried about being bored with it anyways.  Our necks hurt from looking up so much in sheer amazement at these beauties!  We could've spent weeks there exploring around.  We had so much fun and it was by far our favorite part of the trip.

Now warning, these pictures in No WAY do this place justice.  You really just need to go there yourself!  Tyson kept saying, "Did you get a picture of that?  How about this?", and when I looked at them in the camera it just looked like any ordinary tree that I'd see on a drive through the mountains around here.  So yes, I need some camera lessons and different lenses, but its tricky to take pictures in the dark forest and really its best just to go there in person!

There are many different Redwood parks, and the first one we went to was Humboldt State Park with the world-famous "Avenue of the Giants" drive.  This is the classic Redwood drive.  Its 30 miles long, and I think it only took us about 3 hours to get through, actually probably 4!  Yep, just had to keep stopping and taking detours and checking these ancient trees out.  We learned a lot - they are fire-resistant (no wonder why they are humungous) and the only living part of them is just inside the bark.  They grow tallest in the lowest part of the valley, and they grow in-land from the ocean because they don't like to absorb the salt-water air. 

Just sitting inside the dead tree.

Standing in the hole that the tree left - you can't really tell, but it was a massive hole!

Sitting in a bed of clovers

Our Trip to the Coast - SF and more

A few weeks ago, Tyson and I took a 5 day trip, just the two of us (wooohooo!) for our anniversary to see the Northern California and Oregon coast.  It was absolutely AMAZING!!!  Best trip ever, maybe because its so recent and on my mind, but it really was great.  So easy with no kids, no schedules, no lines, no crowds, just us being able to explore and be amazed by the beauty over there and enjoy each others company.

I took over 300 hundred pictures, but I could've taken 1000 , but we'd have never gotten to any of our destinations. 

Day 1 - Flew into San Francisco and headed straight to China Town for lunch.  Ok - this was the only crowded place of our whole trip, but I wanted Tyson to experience a little of SF.  Had a great lunch and fun exploring the cheap little trinkets that the Chinese hand-make. 

Us in Chinatown.

Ok - so I really need some practice on taking pictures of myself. 

Next we made it down by the piers and HAD to go get some chocolate ice-cream at Ghiradelli Square.

Enjoying the ice-cream at the bay.

Tyson's going to love this pic - sorry hun, only one I have! :)

Our stay in SF was short, just 5 hours, and then we headed out on our journey across the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was awesome driving across it!

Goodbye San Francisco, until next time (we already need to go back).

So then it was off to Mendocino.  Our trip there through the wine countryside was just amazing.  Driving on much-less traveled windy country roads, over hillsides, along the little creeks, windows down and that nice warm breeze blowing through our hair while listening to our favorite songs on the iPod.  It was so cool - we just needed a convertible, too bad we had turned that down. 

One thing about the CA coast, it is cold in summertime - like 55 for the high.  We did pack for it, but still it's July for heaven sakes!  We stayed just outside of Mendocino at a B&B.  Actually all places we stayed at were a B&B along the way.  It was our first B&B ever, and we found we really like them.  They are pretty much the only options on this type of trip anyways.  So in Mendocino we had our own little private cabin on the cliff to the beach - private deck with our own little hottub and a real fireplace, which we had to start to keep warm at night.  It was sooo cool!  We could've just stayed there all week - loved it! 

The view off our deck - there's lots of fog along the coast. 

So just beyond those rocks in the water, there is another set of huge rocks that have an archway carved in them from the waves.  It's a very famous pictures, and of course I didn't get a picture of it.  I was kind of thinking the whole CA and OR coast was going to be filled with these spectacular looking rocks out in the ocean that make that perfect picture, so when the camera wasn't convenient I didn't bother because I was sure to have other opportunities.  I could kick myself as I had this mentality quite a bit of the trip!  Another reason to go back again!

Leaving Mendocino and headed away from the coast to the Redwoods 

Not exactly the time to be messing with the settings on my camera - oops!