Day 63: Meyers Flat to Casper, CA

What an exciting day! 

Most novel was the earthquake. We were just pulling in to the parking lot to start a hike, when we got the “Drop and Cover” emergency earthquake alert on our phones. We didn’t feel the 5.6 magnitude quake as we were driving, but it sure made us feel like Californians to be here when one happened. The epicentre was 11km North of Redwood Valley. This is 2hr from where we were at the time of the quake, but only 7km from where we are sleeping tonight! 

Aside from the quake, the rest of our morning was tranquil as we walked among the giant redwood trees. The forests were cool and calm, full of ferns and shamrocks that are thriving under the protection of the redwood canopy. The boys were thrilled with our visit to the redwood groves, ranking it at a 9.5/10.

Trying (and failing) to count the rings. This tree is likely close to 2,000 years old!

Redwoods have a huge but relatively shallow root system.

The redwoods produce teeny cones full of loads of teeny seeds.

Another point of interest was the high water marker for the Christmas flood of 1964. The combination of warm rain and melting snow caused catastrophic flooding of the Eel River. Luckily the redwoods escaped relatively unscathed, though many homes and towns did not.

The high water line reached the top of the electricity cables.

After a quick lunch, we drove south toward Fort Bragg. To get there we took the windiest road we have driven so far. We wound up a mountain and down a mountain to get to the coast and then zigzagged along the coastline of sky high cliffs and crashing waves. We drove alongside groves of eucalyptus trees and through tunnels of wind blown cedar trees to eventually end up at our destination of the beachside town of Fort Bragg.

Hairpin turns kept Ian on this toes and maybe shaved a few years off his life.

Eucalyptus trees.

Cedar tunnel.

Fort Bragg is the home of Glass Beach. This spot used to be an old dump (can you imagine a dump on the seashore?!) and now houses a beach absolutely filled with sea glass from all the old bottle shards that have been smoothed by the sea over the decades. The sea glass pieces were tiny but came in every colour imaginable (white, green, blue, burgundy, red, brown). The glass pieces were mixed in almost equal parts with the rocks and shell fragments to make up the beach. It was incredible.

We arrived at the beach precisely at the second low tide of the day which was great for sea glass exploration but also for checking out the tide pools. Finding all the hidden sea creatures was as good as looking for sea glass. We saw snails, anemones, and crabs galore! We also caught a look at an adorable sea lion resting in the sun.

Our campsite tonight is at the Jug Handle Nature Centre, just south of Fort Bragg. It is super quiet and private. Perfect for a good night’s sleep before we head into Reno for the excitement of the rodeo.