Bright and early Saturday morning, we psyched ourselves up to do the insane drive back up to Hwy 101. This was our “Avenue of the Giants” day!
Our first stop was to see the “Chimney Tree”. ..
This is the door entrance into the tree…
Looking up while inside the tree…
As you enter the “Avenue of the Giants”, you can pick up an auto tour map, which shows different areas of interest to visit along the way.
Stop #1 F.K. Lang Grove
This was a small loop trail that was set aside to honor Franklin K. Lang , the Secretary of the interior under President Wilson. He was also the first volunteer President of the Save-the-Redwoods League. This is where we learned what poison oak looked like. It was everywhere. Fortunately, there were signs educating us on this and were able to avoid it.
Poison oak…
Stop #2 Bolling Grove
Dedicated to Colonel Raynal Bolling, an american officer who died in action during WW1.
Stop #3 Visitor Center
Everyone was ready for a break to stretch the legs and eat a picnic lunch, so we stopped at the Visitors Center…
Inside the Center was an attractive historical display of the area, as well as an interactive area for the kids…
There was a man named Charles Kellogg who could replicate many bird sounds. He had albums made of them with music in the background. He also had a log hollowed out and made into a car. He traveled around, selling war bonds, and educating people on the Redwoods…
Stop #4 Weott
This was one of my favorite stops and we almost missed it! We did not see the sign amongst the tall grasses. Reading the sign, we learned that the town of Weott (and Pepperwood, and what was left of Dyerville) were all destroyed when the Eel River flooded in 1964. It did not seem like it was that dramatic, until we turned and saw the post behind us…
See the top of the post?? That is how high the water was!! Here is a drawing of the town of Weott as it used to be. It is kind of surreal for me to think how towns were wiped out as recent as 1964…
An interesting grass in the area…
Exploring the old sidewalks of Weott…
Stop #5 Founders Grove
Big trees. Really big trees. We went on a nice hike that made us feel tiiiiiiiiny…..
I think this tree was the largest one I have ever seen. It wasn’t marked, so I can’t be certain, but it felt HUGE! (Do you see Dado?)
This reminds me of an old man in a tree…
For Christie…long live Aloha…(no, I did not do that…)
This ground cover was everywhere! ‘R’ said he wanted to make it his blanket and spend the night there.
Stop #6 Dyerville Overlook
The town of Dyerville was named for it’s oldest resident in 1890, Charles “Dad” Dyer. (BTW: Eel River was named because of the lamprey in the river. People thought they were eels. Homeschool assignment for you: Look up a graphic of the lamprey…)
The final two stops were Chandler Grove and Drury-Chaney Grove. Both had small hikes we could have gone on, but it was getting late and we were ready to move on.
20 minutes north of the “Avenue of the Giants” is a town called Ferndale. We drove there to explore a little bit. Much of the downtown corridor and nearby homes are in the victorian style…
The town had a very large cemetery. We did not explore it, but I find old cemeteries fascinating…
We all decided we were hungry and looked around for a place to eat. Nothing piqued our interest, so we opened our handy iPhone app, urbanspoon.com, and found the Eel River Brewery in Fortuna. Aside from a couple of questionable t-shirts the staff wore, the meal was a delicious end to an active day, and the service was friendly and professional.
