Back home - Sun, 18 Oct 2020. 10pm.

We arrived home a little bit ago, finishing up our three-day weekend roadtrip to the North Coast of California. For the day we logged 365 miles of driving, almost all of it coming after leaving Patrick Point State Park around noon. For the weekend we totaled 843 miles of driving. Yup, that's a road trip!
Lunch ( Read more... )

Patrick's Point State Park - Sun, 18 Oct 2020. 12:30pm.

After trawling Agate Beach at Patrick's Point State Park for, well... agates, we regrouped and went for a hike along the ocean cliffs. By "regrouped" I mean we deposited several pounds of rocks we'd gathered in the car rather than continue to carry them in our hiking bags ( Read more... )

Patrick's Point State Park - Sun, 18 Oct 2020, 11:30am

This morning we began the last day of our North Coast roadtrip by driving north (again) from our hotel in Arcata, CA to Patrick's Point State Park. We literally drove past it yesterday en route to Redwood National Park- which turned into a trip to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park due to ( Read more... )

Back at the hotel in Arcata, CA - Sat, 17 Oct 2020, 8pm

After writing yesterday about A Day on the Mendocino Coast it seems only appropriate that I title today's entry A Day on the Humboldt Coast.
Breakfast Almost in Bed
We started the day with breakfast in our hotel room. Hawk microwaved a frozen meal she bought at the grocery store next door last ( Read more... )

Arcata, CA - Friday, 16 Oct 2020, 9pm

As part of our North Coast three-day weekend we spent the day on the Mendocino coast today. Well, most of the day... about as much as can be given that we started in Sonoma County and finished in Humboldt County, 266 miles later ( Read more... )

Windsor, CA - Thursday, 15 Oct 2020, 9:45pmThis evening we hit the road on a three-day weekend trip. We'll visit a variety of places along the extensive and somewhat remote North Coast area of California. For tonight, though, we're barely out of the greater Bay Area. We drove 103 miles to Windsor, CA, a small town along US-101 north of Santa Rosa ( Read more... )

Medicine Lake, CA - Mon, 2 Sep 2019, 12pm

Our journey across backroads this morning in the volcanic highlands of northern California was rooted in a simple idea. "Let's go see Medicine Lake and visit some of these interesting areas along the way." The burnt lava flow and Glass Mountain were a few of those areas. Eventually we arrived at Medicine ( Read more... )

Modoc National Forest, CA - Mon, 2 Sep 2019, 11am"Rocks that float and a mountain of glass" is how Glass Mountain in Modoc National Forest was described many years ago. With a name like Glass Mountain, let alone a description like that, we knew we had to see it. It was a few miles off the paved roads, no problem in our 4x4. The trail even showed ( Read more... )

Tionesta, CA - Sun, 1 Sep 2019, 10pm

We wrapped up a busy day in Lava Beds National Monument after hiking Captain Jack's Stronghold. By that point we were pretty sore- Hawk's fitbit says we walked more than 10 miles- and ready for dinner. We drove to the town of Tulelake again, same as last night. Hawk was ready for another platter of fajitas, and ( Read more... )

Lava Beds National Monument - Sun, 1 Sep 2019, 5:30pmThis afternoon we visited an interesting corner of Lava Beds National Monument known as Captain Jack's Stronghold. Here a band of several dozen Modoc people resisted efforts by the US Army to forcibly remove them in 1872-1873. Thanks to the volcanic badlands nature of the landscape 60 Modoc ( Read more... )