CALIFORNIA
Oregon Road Trip - Day 2
It was a quick drive to my first hiking destination – Russian Gulch State Park. It’s been on my list for a year or two. I picked out the waterfall trail called Fern Canyon trail which is 5.4 - 6.3 miles depending on the route you take.
The barebones route is on a pretty smooth path, nearly a fire road. You can definitely take bicicyles on it, you just can’t go all the way up to the waterfall with a bike. There is a place to lock up your bikes when that happens though.
When I arrived I was a little miffed at how all the campsites were empty! When I tried to book online it said none were available. I’m guessing it’s still a bit early in the season and they’re not accepting reservations yet. Or something. But the campsites seemed super cute.
From what I read online there wasn’t much of a benefit to taking the longer route so I just followed Fern Canyon Trail and stayed left at the fork to go straight to the waterfall. You can continue going and loop back around that way but yeah it’s about a mile longer. I did have time to kill so I did follow the North Trail back from there. It was nice enough but I agree with the internet’s assessment that it isn’t really necessary.
The waterfall itself was pretty nice:
And the rest of the hike had decent trees and greenery:
Of course, coming from the Bay Area, I wasn’t seeing too much I hadn’t seen before.
On my way out I knew I needed real food so I stopped in Fort Bragg to eat at Eggheads and had coffee and a burger.
A couple cool things about this place – for some reason it’s Wizard of Oz themed. The plate is also recycled materials.
There was actually a somewhat long wait for a table since the space is so small so I did a little shopping next door at a thrift store called CLOTH. I kinda picked it at random because it was nearby but I found a cute dress. There’s a bunch of little shops and curiosities along this main street.
Then I continued my drive up the coast! I kept on 1 until it turned into 101. Avenue of the Giants is on this route and it is highly recommended. I’ve actually done it before on a motorcycle trip. This whole segment of the drive was really gorgeous. I did get foiled by Google Maps which led me off the avenue before it was actually over which was a bummer.
As I was driving I saw out of the corner of my eye a big deer that seemed to be wearing a collar. I was a little spooked by it, and started slowing down my driving. I then started seeing a bunch of signs mentioning elk.
What I didn’t know was the route to my campsite crossed a place called Elk Meadow where apparently a bunch of elk hang out! There were a bunch of people stopped taking pictures of them.
Then I had to wait for the buggers to finish crossing the street so I could continue on to camp!
Gold Bluffs Beach campground is 5 miles down a windy, narrow dirt road. I am SO glad I didn’t attempt it after dark. It was a good test of the mettle of my all wheel drive and dirt mode! Haha. The Rav4 handled it like a champ though. I had low expectations for the campsite but was ultimately wowed. It has hot water, free showers, and clearly delineated campsites. The views of the bluffs and the ocean are also really nice.
I was cooking my dinner on my little camp stove and learned I had forgotten to bring any non-plastic utensils for stirring a boiling pot of water. I ended up stirring my noodles with my folding knife!
With a hot shower and clean clothes I got all cozy in the Rav4 and it started raining pretty hard! It was pretty soothing from the safety of my car and I fell asleep more easily tonight.