Posted by Karen on 15-May-2010
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After enjoying all the wood carvings and kissing the bear, Pauline and I took a left turn and headed towards the Sinkyone Wilderness State Park and the coast. Sinkyone is one of the most remote state parks I’ve visited; to reach the north entrance of the park you traverse through the mountains of the King Range Conservation area and the last 3.5 miles are a narrow, winding pot-hole-filled dirt road. Pauline was a trooper and didn’t show any nervousness peering down the steep embankments on her side of the SUV, but she did show excitement when she spotted the heard of Roosevelt Elk below us. We arrive at the visitor center and after a nice chat with the park hosts, we enjoy lunch in the barn protected from the ocean breeze. Afterwards, we continued along the coast road and when it ended, we hiked down to Bear Harbor, a tiny black sands beach that’s very pretty. We explored it for awhile, enjoyed talking with some folks that were camping out there and then as we were leaving, Pauline, said get ready to take the picture when I fall into the water while crossing this creek to get back out… I had the camera aimed, but she never fell, handled the log hopping like a pro actually! On the way out, we took the road past Shelter Cove to see the lighthouse and then it was back across the mountain to our campsite.
Posted by Karen on 24-May-2009
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Yesterday was a gloriously full and long day and I decided to sleep in and laze about this morning instead of going down to the cold waterfront and watching the 2nd day start of the Kinetic Grand Championship race. So, to start off my lazy day, I drove over to Palmer’s Point, the southern point of Patrick’s Point State Park. It’s a seal hangout spot and I enjoyed watching them for a bit. I drove to Eureka, listening to KHUM Radio, thinking I might catch up with the race somewhere along the line, but other than the water launching, there isn’t really any spot to sit and watch them, they are racing along the roads and highway today. There was an car accident that they tried to blame on the race, but no sculpture was involved–some yutz decided to just stop dead in the middle of the highway to look at a scuplture and he got rear-ended, which is not the racer’s fault. I didn’t see any of it, but the radio gave excellent play-by-play reporting of the incident. I saw a half-hidden sign for Fort Humboldt State Historic Park, and you know me, I love the historical parks, so off I go. Fort Humboldt was a remote military post established in the 1850′s to help keep peace between settlers, gold miners, and native Indians and to provide protection as needed. The most famous person stationed there was Ulysses S. Grant, famed Union General of the Civil War and our 18th President. Of course, he was stationed there long before he became famous and it is here that he actually resigned his military commission and returned to civilian life until the Civil War. It’s a lovely park, there is a museum, plenty of open space where families were having fun picnics and an outdoor logging museum on the grounds. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around and chats with friendly people.
Posted by Karen on 22-May-2009
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I drove to Patrick’s Point State Park last night and set up camp for a long weekend on the north coast. After a lazy morning, I put on my new hiking shoes and took a stroll along the Rim Trail that follows the rim of the coast. I don’t know why, but every time I visit the north coast I am blown away by how many varieties of wildflowers there are. The trail, like the campground, is very protected from the ocean wind by the thick vegetation and humongous ferns and makes for a pleasant hike. Along the trail, there are some short steep trails that lead down to the ocean. Of course a couple of hundred steps down, means a couple of hundred steps back up! Using these spurs, I checked out Rocky Point, Patrick’s Point, Wedding Rock and Mussel Rock. I decided to just view Agate Beach from the rim. Weddings really do happen at Wedding Rock; while there I met a guy who was checking it out because he was attending a wedding there tomorrow at noon (he wasn’t thrilled.. LOL).
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 3.04 miles • Total Time: 3:13 • Moving Time: 1:19 • Moving Average: 2.3 mph • Overall Average: 0.9 mph
Posted by Karen on 08-Feb-2009
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I woke up at Salt Point State Park and after having breakfast and packing up the tent, I went down to the beach to explore the bluffs a bit. I saw some skittish deer on the way to South Gerstle Cove; usually deer in the state parks aren’t nearly that skittish. The visitor center was closed, but I continued on and walked along the bluff for a few hours, mesmerized by the sandstone colors and tafoni shapes that cover the area. Tafoni is the Italian word for “cavern” and shows up in the sandstone as pits and holes, and ridges that have been worn away by the waves–very interesting stuff. Discovered a skeleton of some unknown creature and saw some seals and a few people, but for the most part it was the coastal rock structures that kept me intrigued.
