The North Coast

After a night in the Mt. Shasta Area I headed west, through the winding mountain roads of the Trinity Alps and out towards the coast north of Eureka, almost to the Oregon border.  This area is the home to Redwood national park and numerous smaller state parks.  My favorite being Prairie Creek Redwoods state park, a mixture of thick redwood forests and beautiful beaches.  This area is so from my home in southern California (it is a shorter drive from Seattle, Washington than from Santa Barbara) that I only first came through here a couple years ago in the summer and then again in the autumn of 2007.

Gold Bluffs beach - Prairie Creek Redwoods state park, California

Prairie Creek Redwoods state park, California - tents among sanddunes at Gold Bluffs Beach Campground

There is this super cool campground at Gold Bluffs beach, set amongst coastal dunes with the endless crashing waves of the Northern Pacific ocean just a couple hundred feet away.

Roosevelt Elk graze in camproung at Gold Bluffs Beach, Prairie creek redwoods state park, California

Roosevelt Elk lazily wander and graze throughout the tents and campsites.  I would have liked to get a photo of them walking along the beach, but I never saw them there this time.  More reason to go back again.

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Roosevelt Elk graze in camproung at Gold Bluffs Beach, Prairie creek redwoods state park, California

Prairie Creek Redwoods state park, California- Driftwood at Gold Bluffs Beach

South of the camping area, where the winding dirt road leaves the mountains and first meets the coast is this cool area filled with driftwood, a graveyard of sorts.

Prairie Creek Redwoods state park, California- Driftwood at Gold Bluffs Beach

Old trailer, Klamath, California

The towns up here in the north have definitely seen better days.  In most places there are numerous abandoned buildings and houses to be seen which gives the area an even more isolated and ‘lost’ feeling to it. The area surrounding the mouth of the great Klamath river is the present day Yurok Indian reservation.  In previous years, the Klamath river was a major spawning ground for Salmon and Trout.  The construction of multiple dams along the river means there’s not many fish anymore; progress.

Pacific ocean sunset, Prairie creek redwoods state park, California

Pacific ocean sunset, Prairie creek redwoods state park, California

One evening, as the sun was getting ready to sink below the ocean for the night, there must have been a fish run as the sky suddleny filled with pelicans and seagulls diving into the crashing waves.

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