Saturday was a gloriously lazy morning. Not a soul in the house stirred until at least 7:30, with several people (all with a last name of Stone) sleeping clear until 9:00. For a house full of a dozen people starting at three years old, that’s nothing short of a miracle.
While the kids explored the wooded acres of our rental house, the parents enjoyed their coffees on the back porch. And, as we do every time this group gets together, planned our next trip. Cambodia 2024?
By a combination of coincidences and similar vacation preferences, some good friends of ours from Flagstaff were staying about 15 minutes away on the other side of Crescent City. Even though we see them at least weekly at home, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to hang out on the coast. Our friends (Bradley and Brandie) had already been there for a few days, so we let them choose the destination. They have kids the same age as us and an even healthier sense of adventure, so we knew they’d pick a winner.
And did they ever. True to form, they picked a site well off the beaten path. After a few false starts and dropped pins, we caught up with them on a cliffside trail overlooking Endert’s Beach on the outskirts of town. Bradley said it would be an easy half-mile hike down to a secluded beach with some interesting wildlife.
For some background, Bradley and Brandie are near-professional climbers who have travelled the world over several times, so I should have known that “an easy half-mile hike” was really more like a moderate mile and a half. But our flip flops, unsuspecting other friends, and small children all did great. As the trees opened up to a stunning, untrafficed beach, we immediately knew why our friends wanted to check the place out. In addition to having a world class beach essentially to ourselves, we were surrounded by tidepools filled with urchins, crabs, and some of the largest starfish I had seen outside of an aquarium. There were ear to ear grins on 16 faces for the next couple of hours.
On the better-than-expected hike back up, Bradley told us about a few of the other places around town that they enjoyed. We didn’t have much of an agenda the next day, so we took notes and planned on seeing their favorites.
Bradley and Brandie had to head out early the next morning. They were continuing their journey north to see family in Oregon. So after a round of hugs and well-wishes, we all parted around dinner time.
Alicia cooked us a fantastic dinner, as we had become very accustomed to that week. Then we put on a movie for the kids while the adults continued our future-vacation planning. Another delightful day.
The next stay started nearly as slowly as the last. But not quite, since we had two whole activities planned that day. That’s 100% more than Aimee and I usually plan on trips (with or without kids), but we figured that we’d go out with a bang on the last day with our friends.
We spent the morning at the nearby Trees of Mystery, the roadside attraction to end all roadside attractions.
An enterprising environmentalist bought up 120 acres of ancient redwood forest nearly 100 years ago, back when there wasn’t much more in the area than logging camps and railroads. The park flourished in the golden age of American road trips, and continues going strong today because it really is such a unique operation. The 50 foot tall Paul Bunyan at the entrance sets expectations right out of the gate.
This is no National Park, ladies and gentleman.
The park is a delightful combination of roadside kitsch and natural splendor. Giant wood carvings portraying the myths around Paul Bunyan are interspersed with some of the most amazing (and tallest) trees in the world.
Weaving through a few of those trees is the Canopy Trail, a series of interconnected rope bridges about a hundred feet off the ground. Keeping up (and swaying) with a fearless three and five year old was no joke. For the first time in my life, I felt the woozy vertigo of my brain trying to figure out why we were walking so high off the ground. I didn’t have a good answer for it.
That smile was only on the outside.
Just barely after I recovered from the Canopy Trail, we came up to a gondola spanning a line even higher than the trees. Higher than the Canopy Trail, but fully enclosed, the fear factor was a wash. The lumberjack-type manning the controls had a facial expression that said, “Care if the line snaps? I won’t even notice.” But we know the views would be worth it.
They were.
It’s a bit hard to tell in the photo, but what Mimi was so surprised about is that our landing spot on top was actually above the clouds. We went through them on the way up to the viewpoint.
The park trail meandered through another mile or so of the forest before returning us to where we began. With two days between walking along the Skyway and writing about it, I think I’m ready to say that it was a fun experience and actually mean it.
We cruised back up along the coast, stopping for an obligatory seaside lunch of various fried fishes and starches. It was delicious.
The next stop was the Avenue of the Titans. It came highly recommended by Bradley and Brandie, and for good reason.
Words (and even photos) can’t do this park justice. It was one of the most majestic forests I’ve ever been in. You should go. But thankfully your visit (and ours) will have much less of an impact following some important renovations that were completed last year. Despite being nearly impervious to fire, the Giant Sequoias have one very important susceptibility. Their roots are extremely shallow (surprising for such a tall tree), and can be damaged very easily by extensive foot traffic. So a large coalition came together to protect them with a (much more modestly) elevated walkway. It’s a great solution to allow many people to see this wonder of the world while still making sure that the millennia old trees aren’t killed by a few decades of tourist traffic.
That evening was just as delightful as the ones we had been having all week. But this one was unfortunately the last one of the trip with our friends. So we solidified the details of our next reunion over some drinks and ice cream before drifting off to sleep. As much as we wanted to drag out the day, only those of us under 10 were able to keep their eyes open past 9:30. So as we had been doing all week, we piled the kids into the back bedroom, put on a movie and let them ride out the most epic of sleepovers. It was a magical week for all of us.
