Wednesday, July 12th, 2023

Starting mileage: 7949, Distance travelled: 351

Miles hiked: .5

We headed south through the rest of Redwoods National and State Parks, taking the Drury Scenic Bypass which cuts through old growth forest in the Prairie Creek State Park. Along the route we stopped to hike in to Big Tree. Right before leaving that bypass, we pulled over to watch a herd of elk sun-basking in the prairie.

After two nights in the park, we finally got to the National Park Visitor Center and snapped our only sign photo in the parks. We checked out the exhibits and scored our 10th park passport stamp. We bought David a kit to grow his very own redwood at home!

Once we exited the southern end of the park, we shortly came across another scenic byway, the Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It passed through a beautiful old growth forest, with some colossal trees right on the side of the road. Also in Richardson Grove State Park, we drove by a one log house that looked like a hobbit house with a regular sized door, but sadly no photo.

Desperate to find a place to stop to make sandwiches for lunch, we were lured to drive-thru tree place right off route 101. Our camper van was too big to fit but we did get to walk under it and take a photo straight up the hole in the middle.

Our next stop was to check off one of David’s bucket list items, a visit to the Russian River Brewing Company, home of top-rated IPA Pliny the Elder. They also had the best spicy chicken wings (with Pliny sauce), slightly spicier than Buffalo sauce.

As we got closer to Berkeley, our next stop, we became increasingly concerned about Laura’s health and decided to get her and David a hotel room rather than follow our plan to stay at our friends’ Susan and Patti’s house. We did go over for dinner and ate outside in their lovely backyard. They treated us to an amazing homemade meal, something we haven’t had in nearly 4 weeks. Sadly, we got zero pictures of Susan and Patti and only came away with pictures of the kids.