Day 30, Monday March 30th: Trapped at Gold Bluff Beach, experiencing the Redwoods and making our way along CA-101 North

Monday we decided to ease our way out of Gold Bluffs Campground in the morning and move to a more developed part of the Redwood National/State Park.

Gold Bluffs Beach

I walked down to the beach in the morning, it is a beautiful beach with dark soft sand. 

Landslide

We were rolling out of our campsite about 08:00, but we had only gone about 1/4 of mile and I said to June did we take a wrong turn because we were at a dead end.  It was not a dead end, it was a landslide that blocked the road, we were going no where. 

We spoke to a another camper who had already deployed his Starlink and was able to reach the Ranger station by phone and said they would send someone up to check out the situation. There were not a lot of us in the Campground, two vans, 2 cars and 1 pickup. The other Van was a Renault from Switzerland. They had their van shipped over by boat and have been in Mexico; they are headed to Canada and then will have their van shipped home out of Halifax at the end of July.  They were interesting to chat with. 

Landslide at Gold Bluff Beach

From time to time we would go back to the slide by bike or walking to check on things. Eventually a park employee came with T-Paper and other essentials for the bathroom. He walked in from the other side of the slide and said help was on the way, and they would do their best to get us out of the campground today. The workers were all very nice.

Banana Slug

As we were all walking back to the campground with the Ranger carry his T-Paper and supplies, he pointed out a Banana Slug, they are pretty big. I don't know why he was not yellow? The young girls were so concerned he would get run over. I took a stick and moved him out of the road, it was my good deed for the day. 

It was raining so we did not want to hike, we felt for the young girls who just sat in their cars (they were all laughing and taking it in stride), at least we were comfortable. As much as I dreaded it, I decided to take the down time to do our taxes. They were almost done anyway, but I was procrastinating. Luckily we were parked where I had good internet via our Starlink, so for the next 3 hours I cursed while June read a book. Just before 12N I hit the send button to pay the Feds, the State of VT and the State of NY. I just love paying my fair share, but I was glad they were done. 

After I wrapped up my taxes and we had lunch (yesterday's left overs from Lost Coast Brewery), I rode my bike back to the slide. They had a large bucket loader that had basically made a path over the slide, but it was like going over a mountain of dirt. I talked to the operator and asked him to flatten the hump because my long wheel base would scrape over the hump. He said he could do some, but they were concerned about moving too much material and having another slide, it was a legit concern. Their plan was to get the campers out and close the campground, and then bring in equipment that could survive if a slide came down while they were working. Funny, one of the rangers said he wanted to discharge his gun into the bank and see if he could get it to come down.  I said that is a great idea! But wait until we are out. 

Driving over the Landslide

Around 13:15 a Ranger came to the campground and told everyone to leave, we were excited to comply. The dirt mound was nicely sculpted so we had no problems getting over it. We got out with out anymore excitement. 

We had yet to do any hiking because of the weather, so we stopped at the first hiking location that had some easy hikes.  

Trillium Falls Hike

We did two hikes, the first was a short hike called Trillium Falls. Since it was such a short hike, we were not expecting much but it was our first hike into the Redwood forest.  We were awestruck, the Redwoods are beyond big, they are truly towering giants.  

Trillium Falls Hike

We just did not appreciate how big they were, even when we drove through them, until we got up close, it is hard to believe something can grow that big. 

Trillium Falls

This is Trillium Falls, not quite like what we saw in Yosemite 😊.

There was Trillium growing along the trail which I assume is how the trail got its name. 

We really enjoyed the hike to Trillium Falls, and we wanted to do more but the maps that our government provides are so poor we were afraid we would end up on one of those 2 mile hikes that ends up being 10 miles...we have done a few of those. I will not go on a rant, but they could do a way better job on the maps than they do, they are difficult to read and often put things out of order..it is amazing considering they give them to millions of people. 

Big Tree

After our short hike we wanted to see Big Tree since the lady ranger at the visitor center said it was a must and it was in our general area. We somehow thought we would have to hike to Big Tree but it was about 100 yards from the parking lot.  

Big Tree is big, but it is just one of many big trees in the forest and the park made it easily viewable for all. It is not the biggest tree in the forest but easily accessible and impressive.

From Big Tree we hiked Foot Hills Trail, which is about 1.4 miles. Once we left Big Tree we saw almost no one on the trail, the forest got silent and I thought I was in a scene from Star Wars and the Ewoks were going to come out from behind a tree 😉.

Hercules

The park did a nice job using fallen trees as part of the trail. 

At the end of the trail, I thought we could make a loop back, but it was not obvious, because again the map is just terrible. We doubled back until we got to Circle trail, which we took just to make the hike a bit longer, when we got back to Big Tree we had hiked 3 miles. 

Temporary Bridge

This tree fell on a bridge and the park had put in a temporary bridge. 

Redwood

The park was in the process of removing the tree, you can see why they call them Redwoods. 

It was pushing 16:00 and we did not have a campsite for the night, so we set out for the northern part of the park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The Redwoods Park is a combination of National Park and State Parks, I am not sure who is in charge, but it works. 

Jedediah Smith State Park

We rolled into Jedediah SP about 17:30 and had no problem finding a campsite. The sites are first come first serve with self registration, which seems to be pretty common in the National Parks and some California State Parks. Jedediah SP is quiet and beautiful. You are camping in the Redwoods, which means, no sun, poor cell coverage and no Starlink service since everything is blocked by the redwood canopy. 

After parking the Serenity and doing my usual walk around, I found another problem. Our exhaust tail pipe has broken where the last clamp supports it.  It is not surprising since it is a 2015 chassis and we have beat the hell out if over rough roads for the last week. Tomorrow, I will crawl under it and hopefully get the rest of the exhaust system supported enough that it doesn't cause a bigger problem until we can get it fixed. 

Tuesday we plan to make our way to Oregon, up CA-101 but are unsure how far we will get. 

Day 29, Sunday March 29th: The Avenue of Giants, arriving at the Redwood National Park and we have some problems.

We took our time leaving Shelter Cove on Sunday Morning, it was 53F when we got up and there was no hurry.

Shelter Cove Runway

We noticed that we were parked right in front of an Airport runway, but we never saw any planes. 

The trip back over the mountain to CA-101 did not seem nearly as stressful as the night before, probably because we knew to take it slower.  

Switchbacks to Shelter Cove

Even in 1st gear, I had to use a lot of braking to prevent the engine from going into the red, which is just about 4000 rpms. 

We took CA-101 north for a short way and got off on 'The Avenue of Giants' which parallels CA-101 for about 32 miles. It winds through Northern California’s Humboldt Redwoods State Park and is worth the detour. 

We stopped at the Visitor Center which is about halfway into the drive. 

Charles Kellogg's Trail Log

The most interesting thing for me was the "Trail Log".  It's a long story that I will spare the reader (if there are any), but Charles Kellogg made an RV out of a Redwood Log in 1917 and 9 months out of the year, for about 5 years, he lived in it while prophesizing that we need to save the Redwood forests. They have it in the museum.

Driving through the Redwood Forest is very cool.

We enjoyed cruising the Redwoods and set off for the Redwood National/State Park.  We were due for supplies, so we stopped in Eureka, CA at a Walmart and then at the Lost Coast Brewery and Cafe for lunch, it was very good. 

We arrived at the southern most visitor center, the Kuchel Visitor Center, around 15:00. We talked with a young ranger girl and told her we wanted to camp. She asked what we were driving, I said a 25' motor home and she gave us a few choices. We picked Gold Bluffs Beach Campground. It is about 5 miles of logging road to the gate and then 2 miles of goat path to the campsite. The road had pot holes and ruts a foot deep, our RV has less than 6 inches of clearance.  I did what I could but we probably should have turned around. 

Broken Sway Bar Clamp

The first big pop we heard was the rear sway bar clamp snapping and dropping into the road, I picked it up out of the road and it clearly had been cracked for a while but this road finished it. I installed a heavy duty sway bar in 2020, and it utilized the stock clamps.

Serenity Sway Bar Upgrade 2020

I can only guess that the stock clamps were not meant to take the added torque of the the heavy duty sway bar. I am not sure where I will get it repaired. It is not a catastrophic fail, but it is just going to make the RV handle like crap until we get it replaced. 

After that, we did not get far when I hit a pot hole so hard the van bottomed out on one of the leveler jacks. This removed the Jack Pad by stripping the nut that holds it onto the hydraulic cylinder. Again, I stopped and picked up the parts. When we got to Camp, I ran the Serenity up on a ramp and reattached the pad, but with the nut stripped this is not a permanent fix.  I wish I brought my welder. 

These issues are a bummer, but we have been over 5000 miles and these are out first problems, and one could argue they are self inflicted, these roads should not be traveled with our RV. If I had done my research, I would have known that. We will just pick up the pieces and keep moving. 

Gold Bluffs Beach Campground

Once here, the campground is not bad and we found a site that was plenty big enough for our RV.

Monday we had planned hike from here that requires driving another 5 miles down the goat path, but we have since reconsidered and plan to work our way back to civilization. They say when you are in a hole, stop digging, right now that makes the most sense. 

Day 28 Saturday March 28th: Driving US1 North of San Francisco

 Saturday was only a little over a 300 mile drive but it took all day.

US1 San Francisco to Leggett, CA

We planned to skirt San Francisco to the North but did want to experience some of the city, I took I580 which follows San Francisco Bay for a while and then the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (officially the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge), crosses the bay. 

The drive from our campground west to San Fran was still pretty, more farmland, more windmills, and lots of hills, but in general you could feel that we were descending as we went west. 

Tanker off load in SF Bay

As we skirted the Bay we could see a large oil tanker docked at a pier, I believe this is how they unload a tanker and send the oil to a nearby refinery.  The California coast is an interesting mix of stunning beauty and industrial instillations, you see much of both. 

The Richmond-San Rafael Bridge is a 4.5 mile double decker, quite impressive for being built in 1956. 

We picked  up US1 in Olema, CA and worked our way north. The temperatures were in the 60's and there was a fog/cloud along the shore, but it was sunny inland. 

North of SF

The coast north of SF reminds me much more of Maine than the southern coast, much of it is Rocky and US1 is mostly elevated over the shoreline giving nice views. 

This is a video from our stop in Bodega, CA; we had the same problem making progress north there were just too many beautiful places and we kept stopping. 

Sonoma Coast State Park

There were fewer beaches and the sand was much darker than what we saw on the southern coast. 

US1 wanders inland in places where you drive through the Redwoods, they are huge, the road weaves around them and sometimes block out most of the daylight, pretty cool. 

US1 is a very twisty road, I am talking like Needles Highway in SD, App Gap in VT and the like, only it goes for 100s of miles. It is impossible to drive one handed because you have to hand over hand many of the turns.  But this was nothing compared to the road we took off of CA-101 to get to our camp for the night, Shelter Cove Campground.  The road to Shelter Cover is extremely taxing on your vehicle (and June's nerves), it is very steep with switchbacks that are crazy.  I was in low gear up and down the grades and by the time we got to Shelter Cove, the brakes were smelling pretty hot.  When we checked in the guy said, if wasn't for that road we would be mobbed all the time. Well, he doesn't need to worry about that.

Shelter Cove Campground

Despite the ride, Shelter Cover is beautiful, we arrived in time for a nice sunset which helped calm the nerves after that trip.  

Shelter Cove Sunset

The sunset at Shelter Cove is very nice. 

Sunday, is Palm Sunday, there is not church here so we will just say a prayer. 

We hope to make our way to the Redwood National Park tomorrow. June is not looking forward to going back over that mountain tomorrow. 

Day 27, Friday March 27th: Yosemite and travel west

Friday was much warmer than Thursday, not sure why, but it was already 70ish when we left the Campground. Our plan was to nose around Yosemite village and maybe do a short hike then either find a campsite or make our way back to the West Coast. 

Since it was my birthday, June made me my favorite breakfast, Eggs Pesto on an English muffin, yummy. 

As we drove to Yosemite Village we stopped at the Swinging Bridge Picnic area because I wanted to see this 'swinging bridge'. Well...it doesn't swing, the original bridge did, but it was taken out by floods and replaced with the current fixed bridge in 1964. 

The bridge does provide some picturesque views of Yosemite Falls, our destination for the day. 

El Capitan

The views in the Yosemite Valley are bigger than life......that is a big hunk of rock! El Capitan, which just towers over the valley. June looks like an ant and she is way closer to the camera.

Redbud Tree

Fruit trees and flowering trees grow in the green valley. 

We drove by Yosemite Village and parked where we could get the Serenity out of the road and hiked back to Yosemite Falls. Yosemite Falls is the tallest water fall in North America, falling over 2400 feet in three sections, the Upper, Middle Cascades and Lower. 

Yosemite Lower Falls

The hike to the lower falls was only a little over a mile, we were not really interested in another big hike after yesterday, we needed at least one recovery day. As you approach the lower falls the temperature drops and you get a bit of the mist, but nothing like the Vernal Fall. 

Yosemite Falls

From the Lower Falls we set out for the Yosemite Village for some lunch. As you head towards the village you get far enough away to see the entire Yosemite Falls, it is spectacular. 

As we headed to the village we stopped by the museum, it is small but still worth visiting. 

1000 year old Sequoia Tree

This is a 1000 year old Sequoia tree, it has a 9ft diameter. There are trees in the park that are nearly 3000 years old, yes they have been here since before Christ.

1912 Indian

I also enjoyed the display of a 1912 Indian Motorcycle. It was driven into the park in 1914 but was pulled over by a ranger because motorcycles were not allowed. The owner, Robert Baker, disassembled the bike in 1916 to prevent his mother form selling it while he served in WW I.  He reassembled it in 1965 and donated it to the Museum, now that is a cool story! 

After the museum we went to the Village for lunch, we split a Chipotle Chicken Sammich....it was good.  Then we got lost going back to the Serenity, I am looking at my stupid phone trying to figure out where we are when June said "I see an RV with a red Scooter..that is where I am going".

What can I say our 2 mile hike became 3.3 miles, but it was an easy hike 😏.

After our hike we decided to work our way back west and find a campground that had Laundry Facilities, so I just picked one about 150 miles out and booked it. 

The drive from Yosemite west on CA-120 is nothing short of breathtaking. It starts at over 6000 feet and works it way up and down the mountains with lots of switchbacks. We did not take any pictures, but if you get the chance driving CA-120 is worth it. 

We arrived at the 'French Camp RV Park' just before 17:00 but the gate was locked and there was no one around.  I called the number on my reservation form and saw the guy that just pulled in to answer his phone. Long story short, he got us in, but we need to sort it out in the morning. 

French Camp RV Resort, Manteca, CA

The RV park is just that, wall to wall RVs, but good enough for one night. And it has as a nice clean laundry room. 

We cooked steak on the grill for my birthday dinner, it was a nice ending to our Yosemite visit.

Saturday we will continue west and resume our trip up US1 north. We plan to skip the San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland area just because it seems like a lot of traffic for little gain. We may change our minds...you never know. 

Day 26, Thursday March 26th: Yosemite

Thursday morning it was 43F when we got up..brrr. We decided to do the most popular hike in Yosemite, Vernal Fall via the Mist Trail.  It is called the Mist Trail for obvious reasons. We set out for Curry village about 09:00 on the scooter, it was about 50F and it is a 45 minute ride...a bit chilly. We looked around Curry Village for a while, it is quite interesting, it has over 400 tents with some cabins; it is a city of mostly young people here to enjoy Yosemite. 

About 10:30 we set off for Vernal Falls, the sign at the trail head said this trail gets 3000 hikers per day in peak season. The trail gets steep pretty fast and then gets steeper and harder; so although 3000 per day start, I am guessing a lot less get past the Vernal Fall footbridge (about 1 mile) because it gets even steeper and wet after that. 

The view from the Vernal Fall footbridge is amazing and if you keep going you better be wearing rain gear, I brough my rain coat, June's coat was fleece...doh. 

Vernal Falls

We stopped on the stairs for a picture before we got wet. 

June was warm so had taken off her fleece and was glad to have it after the heavy "mist".

I took a short video, that really doesn't do justice to the spectacular fall that is roaring over the cliff with deafening thunder.

By the time we passed the fall we were completely soaked and a bit cold. The climb to the top is up over 600 steep stair steps cut into the rock that are wet and slippery, it is a hard climb that will make you too hot and too cold at the same time. 

We arrived at the top about 11:40, so it only took an hour and 10 minutes to get to the top of Vernal Fall.

Top of Vernal Fall

The top of the fall is a large flat rock area where people take a break or just hang out. 

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View from the Top of Vernal Fall

The views at the top of Vernal Fall are just amazing. 

Looking over Vernal Fall

June would not lean over the railing and look over the falls....it does make you a little dizzy looking over the 317 foot water fall .

We could definitely feel the climb in our old legs so had a snack and set out for Nevada Fall, another 1.5 miles up steep rocky switchbacks. 

Top of Nevada Fall

The top of Nevada Fall is open with flat rocks, with a lot less people than at Vernal Fall since it is a difficult climb.  Again the views are spectacular.

At this point I looked at my tracker which I turned on when we left the scooter, we had clocked 4.6 miles. We planned to continue past Nevada Fall and take the John Muir Trail back down, since we prefer to not backtrack. 

We hiked about a 1/4 mile and the trail was closed....not very nice of the park to not post that the trail is closed back at the top of Nevada Fall.  

So we doubled back and started back for Vernal Fall, but did take a detour to Clark Point and pickup the John Muir trail there; it is longer but it avoids going down the 600+ wet steps by Vernal Fall.  It does require a climb up to 5400 ft which we expected would give some good views. 

Hikers

You never know what you will see on these hikes. 

Vernal Fall from Clark Point

We were not disappointed, as we got higher we got a beautiful view of Vernal Fall. 

Half Dome, Mt Broderick, Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall

Clark Point also provided spectacular views of Half Dome, Mt Broderick, Liberty Cap and Nevada Fall. 

Cooling off

We were high and in the shade on this section, and there was snow along the way.  

By the time we got back to the scooter is was 16:30, we had been hiking 6 hours and were pretty bushed.  I looked at my tracker, we logged 10.5 miles (getting back to the scooter) and climbed over a mile in elevation, no wonder we were tired. 

Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall Hike

Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall hike. 

We scootered back to the Serenity, another 45 mins, had dinner and retired early....pooped,

Friday, we don't yet have a plan, we may do some easy hikes around the visitor center, and spend another night. We will celebrate Fred's birthday somehow.

Day 25, Wednesday March 25th: Moving on to Yosemite National Park

Wednesday we took our time leaving camp and got on the road about 09:30, then stopped at a Walmart for some food and DEF. Then we stopped at Tractor Supply to fill with propane and Micky's for an Iced Coffee :-), it was about 11 by the time we really got on the road. 

We drove past miles and miles of orchards east of Monterey; we finally pulled over to inspect the crop, they were olives, miles and miles of them. California is really the primary fruit and veggie basket for America, it is amazing how much farming we have seen here. 

As we left the coast we climbed and climbed and although the scenery was not coastal, it was still quite stunning, California is just beautiful. It is no wonder there are about 40 million people (over 10% of the USA) living in California. 

Lunch on the way to Yosemite

We stopped for lunch on the road, it was another scenic stop...and we did not plan it 

Merced River

We had the same problem we had on the coast, it was hard to make progress when you keep stopping to take in the sights, as we entered Yosemite, the scenery just compelled us to take the time to stop, it is jaw dropping.  

As you enter Yosemite on CA=140, there are a few places that make you hold your breath when you are driving an RV. At least it is one way traffic.

Ribbon Fall

The farther we went into the park the more impressive it became, it is no wonder Teddy Roosevelt was so enamored with this place. At one stop you can see Ribbon Fall coming off the West Side of El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls. 

Bridal Veil Fall

We stopped at  Bridal Veil Falls and had a tourist take our picture, then I took theirs...let's just say I am a way better picture taker than that dude.....

Bridal  Veil Falls

We hiked the short trail to Bridal Veil Fall and it got cold and wet...we were not even that close....it was awesome.

In the words of our tour guide from Ireland, "This place is lousy with Castles Waterfalls".  Ed, Jean, Donna and Bob will get it! There are over 25 named waterfalls in Yosemite.

We parked about a mile from the Visitor Center, my god there are a lot of people in California, all visiting Yosemite.  We asked the nice park ranger at the visitor center about camping, much like the response we got at Joshua Tree, she said you are pretty screwed, but you can try Hodgdon Meadow Campground. It is an hour drive and then you can try xyz....not too helpful. So we set off for Hodgdon. 

We climbed to over 6000 feet and passed through 3 tunnels, lowest said 10'3" clearance, the Serenity is exactly 10'3" in height, but I am sure that number is on the edges...right.

At 6100 feet there were patches of snow on the ground. 

Hodgdon Campsite in Yosemite

We arrived at Hodgdon Campground about 4PM, as in JT, there were plenty of sites.  They are not very level but for $14/night (Senior is 1/2 price), we were happy.

When we arrived there was another Leisure Travel Van in the campground, a Unity.  Phil and Janie were from Alaska and we had a nice chat. Then Bob and Melissa from North Carolina arrived with another Unity, it was like a Leisure Travel Van Rally! All nice peoples.

We walked the campground and then settled in for the evening, we are at about 5000 feet and it is noticeably cooler than the valley

Thursday we plan to do a few hikes, but are having trouble finding loops. I prefer loops, I don't like back tracking, we will see.