Tuesday Along the Northern California Coast and CA-1

Tuesday morning we continued heading south along the Pacific Coast. We were now in to California and the rocks slowly gave way to more and more sand. We followed US-101 down to Humboldt where it edged away from the coast and into Redwood territory near Fortuna. We got off US-101 for a time to follow the Avenue of the Giants through Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The Coastal Redwoods are slightly slimmer than their cousins down in Sequoia and Kings Canyon, but they grow taller. Magnificent trees! I was too busy admiring the trees to take pictures. (And couldn't step back far enough to get a shot of one in any case!)

When we reached Leggett we turned on to CA-1 and headed back to the coast. WOW! What a ride! The signs on each end of this stretch of CA-1 strongly suggest that now long trailers, RVs or semis attempt the road. Not just because of the steep grade, but also because of the tight hairpin curves and switch backs. Even so, halfway through, a pickup with a (long) fifth wheel trail and I met on one hairpin curve. I steered to the inside and slammed on my brakes avoiding a collision as the rear of the fifth wheel came more than halfway onto my lane. Close!

I was too busy concentrating on my driving to do any picture taking! The California coast was just as beautiful as the Oregon coast had been. But, as I said, the rocks slowly gave way to sand and sand dunes. Very extensive and tall sand dunes! Signs for dune buggy tours and buggy and sand board rentals appeared along the road.

We found ourselves running late--again--so south of Fort Bragg, we turned southeast on to CA-128 so as to angle over to Cloverdale. This took us through the Navarro River Redwoods State Park and into wine country.

The Redwoods may be massive, but they are far outnumbered by grape vines!

In Cloverdale we picked up US-101 again and went south through Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Novato to CA-37 then it was east to American Canyon and Laura's house for the night. There we got to have a nice visit with Laura and her son, Matthew. And get some laundry done to boot.