The Redwoods
Plus Crater Lake and a brief stint in San Francisco. Most importantly: time with my mother.
After Seattle was a week with my mother. It was our first vacation just the two of us, and it was absolutely splendid.
After picking her up from the Portland Airport, we drove to our hotel on the outskirts of the city. We sat chatting and catching up for about an hour before deciding to order Thai food for dinner. I drove to pick it up and we ate in our beds watching Adam Sandler’s movie Blended. A 10/10 very relaxing evening before the busy schedule ahead of us the next day.
We ate our complimentary breakfast at our hotel before driving the four and a half hours to Crater Lake, a lake created by a volcanic eruption roughly 7,700 years ago. With a maximum depth of 1,949 feet, it is the deepest lake in the United States. According to oral histories passed down by the Klamath tribe, their ancestors actually witnessed the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama that caused the creation of Crater Lake.
We pulled up to the first overlook viewpoint of the lake and were captivated not only by its size but also by the vibrant blue hue of the water. According to the Department of the Interior, the deep blue color is possible because of the purity of the water. Because there are no inlets for other water sources, there is no sediment or other deposits brought into the lake. The water comes only from snow melt and rain. The pure water molecules absorb the red, orange, and yellow wavelengths of light while scattering the blue ones.
There was a visitors center that served lunch – chicken tenders and fries for each of us. We brought it to the rock wall overlooking the lake and sat admiring its beauty and getting in a good bout of people watching. Then we were off for another four hour drive to our final destination that day: Crescent City, CA.
Crescent City was an adorable coastal town just 20 miles south of the Oregon border and a 20 minute drive into the portion of the Redwoods recommended to me by a friend, the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
After checking into the Curly Redwood Lodge, a motel made entirely out of the wood from one redwood tree, we looked for a place to grab dinner. After striking out at the brewery in town (it had an hour wait that neither one of us was keen on enduring), we went to a restaurant down the road, Enoteca. It was phenomenal. We grabbed a table and proceeded to have a wonderful evening.
After we sat down and each ordered a beer, an older gentleman at the bar in a cowboy hat came over to greet us. He said he was there six days a week and proceeded to give us two free drink tickets. He asked us where we were from, and we chatted for a bit before he left us to order dinner and enjoy our meal. The wait staff was incredible, all so friendly and welcoming. And the artwork that filled the place was stunning. Murals and smaller paintings covered the walls. We ended up staying until they closed. After our meal the owner came out and we had a nice conversation with him in which we learned it was his brother who had painted everything in the restaurant.
Another man, a good friend of the owner’s, came in right before close with his dog, an adorable deaf pitbull who we got to spend a bit of time with as well. Turns out the guy was also the MC of their trivia every Thursday night. They said we had to come back for trivia the next night, so our dinner plans for the following evening were set for us.
Not only was everyone we spoke with delightful, the food was also delicious. Both of our meals were so good. It wasn’t even a question for us; we would be back the next day.
The next morning we had breakfast at a little restaurant just a short walk down the road from our motel. Then we packed water and some snacks and set off for our first trek through the redwoods. We did the Mill Creek trail that was supposed to take us through the Grove of Giants. Unfortunately, Grove of Giants was closed due to weather, but we still had a fabulous walk through the giants that were accessible.
As promised, we returned to Enoteca for dinner and trivia. While we came in last place at trivia, we were winners in a much more important way. The owner gifted us free garlic parmesan prawns that he had informed us the previous night he makes for his staff every Thursday night. They were fantastic, just like everything else we ate there.
Our second day in the Redwoods we hiked the Boy Scout Trail to Fern Falls. A nice 7-mile round trip journey that included a quaint waterfall at the far end of the trail. We sat listening to the water run, counting the banana slugs we saw, and having a little snack before retracing our steps back through the trees. Although we saw a fair amount of people on the trail, there were moments it was just us and the forest. We would pause to look around and admire that all you could see in any direction were redwoods.
We showered and relaxed for a while at our motel before grabbing lunch/dinner at the restaurant across the street. Our main event for the evening was visiting the lighthouse in town on Battery Point Island. After checking the tide schedules earlier that morning, we knew our best time to go was around 7:20pm. We walked around the grounds and even ran into the lighthouse keeper sitting at a picnic table on the property. He told us that every July he and his wife spend the entire month at the lighthouse, maintaining the property and the building itself. You could tell by the inflection of his voice and the joy in his eyes telling us about it how much he enjoyed his life. I’ve had several conversations like this one along the trip, and they have all reaffirmed for me that those who appreciate the simple things and the relationships in their lives tend to be the happiest out of any of us.
After a most excellent conversation and some meandering around the grounds, we walked to the beach below the lighthouse to watch the sunset. I climbed onto one of the larger rocks on the sand in an effort to catch a better view of the ocean line. It wasn’t much better from the spot I settled on, but it did serve as an excuse for me to climb some rocks, which my inner child always enjoys.
Nervous about the approaching tide, we walked back to the car a little before the sun set. Truth be told, it was a rather cloudy evening, so the sunset wasn’t much to watch anyway.
Our next day was a bit of a tourist trap. After spending about a half hour or so reading at a beach that was on our way, we went to the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, CA. Its most redeeming quality was the giant robot Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues in the parking lot.
My grandparents own a board game that was an essential part of my and my cousin’s childhoods: Detour. The purpose of the game is to “drive” your car game piece around the board with the goal of collecting all six required postcards before returning to your house on the board. It was always a lively event when the six of us would be at their house. Everyone would be shouting at each other and fully engrossed in the game. We actually all visited them again about a year ago; Detour was of course pulled out and a game ensued. Anyway, the point of me bringing up Detour, besides introducing to those who don’t already know of the greatest board game to exist, is that Paul Bunyan is one of the six postcards in the game. I sent a picture to all of them letting them know I was one step ahead in real life Detour.
We went back to our motel room for a quick nap before driving back to Klamath to watch the sunset on the Pacific. We stopped at Safeway beforehand and stocked up on picnic foods for dinner. We spent the evening at the beach reading and watching the sky. It was the first time either of us had seen the sunset on the Pacific Ocean. It was incredible; unlike any sunset I’d ever seen before. Seeing the sun disappear behind the coastline was breathtaking. It was amazing to realize you were watching the planet rotate; one of those experiences where you’re acutely aware of your microscopic size and relative insignificance in the context of the entire universe. It was beautiful.
The next day we were off to San Francisco. We drove six and a half hours down Highway 101, partially along the coast but mostly through the forest of Northern California. Finally we saw the turn off on the highway for the Golden Gate Bridge. I took the exit and followed the signs up to the lookout point. It was largely covered by the fog that typically blankets the city, but we were still able to get a partial view.
Then we drove to the Painted Ladies, the only other tourist attraction I knew of in the city. We sat in the park across the street, set up my picnic blanket, and sat reading (lots of reading this week!) until it got too chilly and we drove to our hotel. It was our last night together. We spent it in the hotel room watching Celebrity Family Feud. And it was perfect.
After breakfast the next morning, I drove her to the airport just down the street. A bittersweet goodbye, but a wonderful week spent together.
Writing these now, roughly six weeks after the events actually took place, it’s a nice exercise in reflection. While my original intent was to keep the Substack more or less up to date, I quite enjoy what it’s become; it’s almost as if I’m extending the trip further by reliving it through writing. I am so grateful I was able to share this experience with my mother. As you get older, you appreciate these moments more, and I don’t know if I can ever put into words how special this time was.
I had a wonderful time with you, Lindsay. Thank you for letting me be a part of your trip.