Stout Grove 001

Our next stop on our western adventure was Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park along HWY 199 between Oregon and California. Several people told us that the best hike in the park is Stout Grove and we have to agree. It is awesome!

The five-mile drive to get there and the hiking trail is one giant redwood after another. It is like walking through a cathedral of the tallest trees in the world. It is hard to describe the feeling while standing under the canopy of such large trees. The redwoods dwarf hikers on the trail. Some of these 2,000-year-old trees can get to over 350 feet tall.

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Giants

In the parks campground we came across a couple that was biking the Coastal Hwy. They were from Minnesota and let me photograph their tent. It really gives perspective to how big these trees are.

Giants

Stout Grove 002

They are so tall that you really can’t photograph the entire tree in one photo. Even with a wide-angle lens.

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Drive Thru Redwood

Just off of Hwy 101 is a redwood that you can drive through. Karla took a photo of me driving through it.

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Bandon Beach 001

We are currently travelling up the Oregon coast. We first stopped of Bandon, Oregon. A nice little town with rugged rock outcroppings called sea stacks just off the beach. Karla took this panoramic view of the beachhead.

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Bandon Beach 002

At sunset the sea stacks reminded me of Monument Valley in the desert Southwest.

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Bandon Beach 003

This one is called face rock. It is easy to see why.

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Both nights we had great sunsets.

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Roosevelt Elk 001

We saw Roosevelt Elk both in California and along Dean’s Creek in Oregon.

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Roosevelt Elk 002

There were several big bulls bugling but the biggest ones were at the edge of the trees and wouldn’t come out. You can see that this one has been in a few fights from the marks on his side.

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Shell Island Sea Lions 001

Shell Island off Cape Arago is a resting and breeding area for marine mammals and several kinds of seals and sea lions were on the rocks. We also saw over a dozen wales farther out beyond the rocks. You could see them easily with the binoculars but a little to far to photograph.

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Shell Island Sea Lions 002

This sea lion was the king of the hill.

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Sea Lions

Close to where we camped we saw the sea lions up close when they were resting on the docks.

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Thor's Well 001

Cape Perpetua Scenic Area is where Thor’s Well and the Spouting Horn are located. Here is Thor’s well.

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Thor's Well 002

There is an opening at the bottom so the surf comes up from below and then returns down into the cauldron.

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Spouting Horn

The Spouting Horn I found even more interesting. At higher tides the surf comes into this crevasse and shoots up through a small hole in the rock above. The spray shoots up about 20 feet or more with an awesome sound similar to the spouting of a whale.

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