Cross-country: Headed for the Left coast and north to home
After about 5 days in the Valley of the Sun we headed west to Manhattan Beach to see Charlie and Brittany. We had a choice of two paths. We had considered heading north to Teasdale , UT near the Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area to see Cathy’s cousin Valerie but since it was over Labor Day she wasn’t going to be around. She’s a Park Ranger and that’s a hella weekend for her and she had scheduled a rafting trip after she was done with the tourists. Two years ago we weren’t able to see Charlie and his fiance so we headed to LA.
Brittany works as a “nanny” for a couple and their two girls and an 8 month old Lab, Cash. The family was gone for the holiday weekend so she was house sitting with the abandoned pooch. Her employers allow her and Charlie to have guests in when they do and they invited us to stay there for a couple nights. It’s a real nice house. Talk about changes in abodes. From the little house with the composting toilet and local snakes to a house in Manhattan Beach that cost a couple mil before the remodel that took almost 2 years. The lap of luxury, except that their private pool area will soon be overlooked by a new house going in next door. So much for the privacy of the master bedroom deck. The owner is involved in media productions, naturally, and his spouse is employed by a major internet company. The house has been used to film commercials, no surprise. I’ll wager the owner claims some tax benefits from it having a business use.
The town’s not real large but it does have some real nice restaurants because of the income level of the locals. You can smell the money. We took a long walk on our full day there. Charlie had to go to work, if you can call what he does work. He is employed by company that sets up streaming from music venues so he gets to travel around the western US attending festivals and concerts getting approvals from groups and the promoters to stream the shows. He’s extremely knowledgeable about all the current bands and genres and good at his job. He got out of the midwest several years ago. Another reason why most of our relatives left in Peoria are dead. Not much to life there. Even Caterpillar has shelved plans to rebuild their world headquarters there. Most of the manufacturing plants are gone. There’s still assembly of some of their larger products and a major parts warehouse in the area and a training center in downtown Pissoria. I don’t think it’s going to be there long. The city resembles a rust-belt town, now more than ever. Too many empty storefronts downtown to be hopeful.
From LA land we headed north to Livermore for a night and then to Mendocino County to stay at the Howard Creek Ranch about 20 miles north of Fort Bragg. We’ve stayed there several times. It’s a working sheep ranch right on the coast. The owners are wonderful people and the farm breakfast is a highlight. They use to have wifi but apparently they’ve shut it down for the ranch. I know that Sonny would shut it off at night because their server whine kept him awake. No great loss. We’ve been out of connection so much on this trip because AT&T service outside of populous areas in the west is terrible and we didn’t miss it for a couple more days. We’d connect when we were in town.
On the way there we hit terrible traffic around the Bay area. We had hoped to go up the east side of SF bay before heading to the coast but there were accidents on that path and we had to “detour” through the center of San Francisco and go over the Golden Gate to get to 101. That took an extra two hours of crawling traffic. We really felt the time loss when we left 101 and headed towards Mendocino via the Anderson Valley along the Navarro River. Damn that traffic. There are dozens of wineries in the Anderson and we didn’t have time to stop and try any of them. And, reds are the prominent varietals. Maybe we’ll do the Anderson some year. Lots of small family-run vineyards, which we like to check out. We’ve done the Napa/Sonoma around Calistoga and Healdsburg and the Alexander/ Russian River valleys too.
As we headed north, and before we knew about all the wineries we’d pass, we saw signs for Fort Tejon. It was founded in 1854 to help stop cattle rustling and, believe it or not, protect the local tribes. There are active displays showing the style of life at the time. Kind of like old Williamsburg in Virginia. There are volunteers cooking in the restored kitchen. preparing period meals for the workers on the site and a blacksmith shop using mid-1800 tools and processes. We were there on Labor Day weekend and there were hardly any tourists at the site. We spent a bit more than a hour at the park talking with the volunteers and wandering around checking out the buildings.
Not many photos from here to Howard Creek Ranch. We did stop in Santa Rosa, the hometown of Charles Shultz, the creator of the Peanuts comics. Driving CA 128 to the coast didn’t give much opportunity to capture shots in the wine country because of the winding road but we did get opportunities along the coast for a couple. There are a lot of photos from our previous trips in earlier posts if you want to go back through them. Santa Rosa has statues of Peanuts characters salted around the town.
While on the coast we drove to the Usal Beach access. The road off of Rt 1 is dirt, no gravel, and dusty as hell. It’s one lane and has a few places where you can let someone pass by. I was surprised by the amount of cars headed out but once you get most of the 6 miles in there is a large meadow that was full of campers. Surprisingly there were some large trailers back there and the road is signed that trailers are not to be taken in. Obviously these are “locals” that ignore the laws. This made it pretty hairy at times as we had to get past them on a narrow road. The Rav definitely needed a wash after this. It had turned yellow. Usal is the start of 60 miles of roadless coastline, similar to the Washington coast north of Rialto Beach to Lake Ozette.
On weekends the Westport Hotel has an open restaurant which is really good, Most nights, however, you have to drive to Fort Bragg for dinner. In Fort Bragg a great place to eat is at Silver’s at the Wharf, down by the marina. Driving back at night along the coast you have to watch for deer, which are often right next to the road.
Leaving the California coast we headed north towards Tokeland to see our friend Katherine, who used to own the Tokeland Hotel, the first resort hotel in the state of Washington, built in the 1870’s. We like to take the scenic route through the Redwoods National and State park to check out the trees and the elk. This time, as we drove through the appropriately named Elk Meadows, we came upon a large herd right next to the highway. All of them ignored the cars and tourists, they were too busy eating for the winter.
On our way to Tokeland we stopped in Crescent City, CA and Lincoln City, OR. There is a good restaurant in Crescent City, the Chart Room. It’s worth patronizing. Decent food and prices with a nice view of the harbor. We have eaten here before, when we came through on our Burning Bridges Tour in 2016.
After crossing the Columbia at Astoria we stopped at Dismal Nitch, Lewis and Clark’s camp just short of the coast. They were trapped there by a storm off the Pacific. We’ve been past there a couple times before but haven’t stopped
The Corps of Discovery’s view from Dismal Nitch, in much better weather than they had.
The Tokeland Hotel is no longer owned by our friend Katherine but she lives next door in their house so we spent 2 nights at the Hotel and had breakfast with Katherine and treated her to dinner at the hotel, when she no longer has to cook the food. We visited with her for most of the day, catching up on our last few months. She’d love to have Rachel come down and we’ve passed the information on. Rae has a friend in Seattle now that she met in school in Malta. Katie is a traveler and would be a good person to visit with.
While in Tokeland we started thinking about how to get back to Seattle. Well, we were close enough and had a day more before the mail and newspaper were to restart and we decided to drive to Cape Flattery, the farthest northwest point in the contiguous US. It meant stopping for the night in Forks, WA, the closest town with assured lodging. There are a few places along the Strait of Juan De Fuca as you near Neah Bay on the Makah Reservation but Forks has some amenities that would be hard to find, like choice in restaurants. Besides the Cape is only a 45 minute drive. We checked in to the Town Motel and immediately headed up the road.
After you get to Neah Bay it’s about 15 more miles out along the headlands to the Cape. The road is paved, a plus after Usal Beach road, and there’s a parking lot and restrooms, which you’ll need. The path out to the headlands is about a mile long. A large part is boardwalk because the ground is damp and uneven. Take water, it’s hot in the summer and humid, even if it’s not raining. When you get to the end of the path there are viewing platforms allowing you opportunities for shots of the coastal cliffs.
Just beyond Cape Flattery is Tatoosh Island and it’s lighthouse at the entrance of the Straits. Can’t get much further unless you go past Canada to Alaska. So, we made it from the furthest Southeast corner to the furthest Northwest one on this trip.
Heading back to Seattle from Forks we stopped at one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. Lake Crescent, on the north side of the Olympic National Park is almost as clear as Crater Lake, in Oregon, and it’s accessible. You can rent boats and canoes at Lake Crescent Lodge and fishing in national parks does not require a license. Big plus if you’re here for a couple days. It’s a popular spot and there are a couple other private lodges/resorts on the lake where you can get a room or cabin. The Lodge restaurant is, like many national park lodges, is kind of hit and miss due to the seasonal nature of the kitchen staff. We’ve stayed here a couple times, once the dinner was excellent, the other it was acceptable but not memorable.
Lake Crescent tour boat taking off
One last stop to make. You can’t go through Port Angeles without going to Hurricane Ridge, overlooking the Strait of Juan De Fuca and the Salish Sea. It takes a couple hours, a bit more if you get out and walk some of the trails at the top. You get to look into the Olympic Mountains from the northernmost view point. If the weather’s cooperating you can get some great shots of Vancouver Island, across the Strait, and into the heart of the Olympics. On this day the weather was normal, cloudy and cold, for summer. While there look for the deer, who come to the parking lot looking for bugs on cars, a source of salt most likely. There have been problems with mountain goats. One unfortunate tourist got gored by a billy in heat and died a few years ago. The park is currently working to move the goats out of the park and relocating them to the North Cascades, a natural habitat. The goats were introduced decades ago but they are invasive and bad for the ecosystem. Those that can’t be captured will be culled.
OK sports fans, this finally ties it up. Second round around the US. I’ve been pretty lax on getting this done and now I have another post to do on a trip to the Dominican Republic.
Ciao for now.