Monthly Archives: July 2021

157 - Arcata, CA, Uncategorized

Northern California Coast – Arcata and Eureka area

We got to the coast in Arcata, CA.  It’s wonderful here after the heat of Coarsegold and Pollock Pines where it was in the 90s and 100s every day and barely cooled off at night.  Here we have a marine layer every day and it only got as warm as 70 a couple of days.  A few days it was actually chilly all day until mid-afternoon.  One reason for that is we are under a huge tree and the sun only starts to hit the rig about 3pm.  What a nice change!!

While in this area we took a few drives to see the country.  On one drive we went to Blue Lake, which is really a wide spot on the Mad River.  We drove along it for a ways but in the area where we drove the access to the lake would have meant scrambling down some rocks to get to the level of the lake, and as Laddy hasn’t been feeling well lately we didn’t want him to exert himself so we only looked out at it from the road.  It’s beautiful and very unspoiled.  Here’s a picture:

On another drive we went along the coast.  Arcata is at the north end of the Arcata Bay, and we drove out to the coastline through two small towns – Manila and Samoa.  Interesting names!  Samoa was originally Brownsville, and as the harbor is similar to that of Pago Pago in the Samoa Islands, and because of a crisis there in the 1890s the name was changed.  From Samoa you can drive to the Dunes Recreation Area and there’s a bridge from Samoa across 2 small islands to Eureka.

On one of the two small islands there is a marina and a restaurant where we had dinner at the Café Marina & Woodleys Bar.  Great food and live music too!  Here’s a picture of the marina taken from our table:

And another drive took us north to the small town of McKinleyville.  Hway 101 is right along the beach for a few miles in this area and there was a vista point that looked down to the mouth of the Mad River.  It runs parallel to the coast for a way before it turns to enter the ocean.  There’s no beach access here because of the river, even though it appears very shallow.  We looked down at the mouth of the river and were surprised to see lots of seals on the sandbar.  Here’s a picture:

156 - Garberville, CA

Avenue of the Giants

While in the Benbow area of northern California we visited a nearby scenic drive called “Avenue of the Giants”.  It’s called that because much of the forest that the scenic drive bisects are large redwoods.

The drive itself used to be part of hwy 101 – but early in the 1900s they built a bypass for 31 miles.  Some people who loved that 31 miles started a movement to save the area and especially the large trees.  They were successful and the area is now a state park.

There are several pull-outs and short drives so you can get close up to some of the large trees.  There are a few very primitive campgrounds as well, but we certainly wouldn’t get our big cougar into a site even if we wanted to ‘dry-camp’ (no elec or water).

We drove the 31 miles and stopped several times to see the forest nd large trees.  It’s a gorgeous area and the trees are magnificent!!

Here are some pictures of the area:

155-Pollock Pines, CA

Our stay at Ghost Mountain Ranch

A few years ago Jeff and I purchased a membership in a group of campgrounds. It’s called Colorado River Adventures (CRA) and they have 9 campgrounds. Several are along the Colorado River and we stayed at several of them the past few years. One is in Julian, CA about 45 miles from Vista up in the mountains. We haven’t stayed at that campground yet.

One campground is in northern Ca. less than an hour from South Lake Tahoe. It’s called Ghost Mountain Ranch and we’re at the tail end of a two week stay here in the campground near the town of Pollock Pines.

It’s beautiful here, lots of pine trees as well as Ca. Oak and Madrone trees. Madrone are similar to manzanita which is very common down in San Diego County. Madrones have the red wood like a manzanita but they are large trees instead of large bushes and they have larger leaves.

The campground is quite rustic, which we don’t mind. Our site is amongst large pine trees so we are in the shade most of the day which is great cause it’s in the 90s here every day!!

One thing I don’t care for here at Ghost Mountain is the very fine dusty dirt. The campsites are somewhat gravel and mostly fine dirt which gets all over your feet and shoes and gets tracked into the house. Lots of vacuuming and washing of feet/shoes!

We head out on Monday going towards the coast where it’ll be cooler.

Here’s a picture of the campground – not showing our site however.

155-Pollock Pines, CA, Uncategorized

While staying in Pollock Pines, we took 2 drives up to lakes in the nearby mountains

There are many beautiful lakes up in the mountains to the east of Pollock Pines. While staying in Pollock Pines we took 2 drives up to different lakes in the nearby mountains.

Wright’s Lake is within the El Dorado Natl Forest. While Pollock Pines is at about 3,900 feet and was 96 degrees when we left for our drive, Wrights Lake is at 6,969 feet and was 79 degrees. What a difference!

The drive up to the lake was beautiful, lots of pines and other types of trees, some wildflowers were in bloom and the views at various points were great! When we got to the lake we discovered that there were several primitive campgrounds around the lake and we saw lots of people enjoying the cooler weather at the lake.

Here are some pictures we took during our drive up to the lake:

Our second drive was to IceHouse Reservoir and nearby Union Valley Reservoir. They are both beautiful as well, and at about the same elevation as Wright’s Lake. The drive up was very pretty, and the reservoirs are very popular with locals in the summertime. Here are some pictures we took at IceHouse Reservoir: