Today, we leave Oregon and enter California! Maybe it will be a little warmer?Our first stop this morning - tidal pools at Cape Perpetua. Beautiful stop! We walked down to the beach and rocks were we found some tidal pools filled with anemones, orange and purple starfish and purple sea urchins. There was a second path that led you to a blowhole, but since the tide wasn't high enough yet, we didn't get to see much of anything - only where we suspect the hole might be. Oh well.
We then continued on our merry way to Sea Lion Caves. It's a humongous cave where sea lions go. It's the sea cave in the world - or so the sign said. We saw sea lions and pigeon guillemots. We saw nests with baby cormorants as well. Pretty cool sight!
We drove off and by golly - there were very large sand dunes so we stopped to play for a few minutes. You would've thought you were in a desert - without the heat!
We then drove for a few hours and stopped at a "safari". It was similar to Papanack Zoo in Ottawa - except prettier. There, we petted: a baby bear, a baby tiger, 2 baby fox, a baby cirv
al, a capybara, and a Canadian lynx! It was probably a highlight of our trip. It was so neat to be able to touch these creatures! After spending probably about 1 1/2 hours here, it was time to go as we wanted to stop at the Fern canyon.
Finding fern canyon... what an adventure! My friend Ann would be proud. First off, we leave Oregon and enter California - where we should be going through the redwood forests. Let me tell you! These redwoods are something else! Redwoods are also known as giant sequoias.... they are giant alright! I've never seen anything like it! I guess I did - in Vancouver - they have redwoods there... but not as many as here! It's almost ridiculous how big these trees are! Even the car looks like an ant! Anyway - you can probably tell I'm in love with these trees and would love on in my yard =)The gps is telling us to turn on this scenic route, which we do. WOW! more big trees! It's a winding road (well, pretty much since we got in our car in Seattle), and it's just gorgeous. Ferns cover the ground, giant trees everywhere. The gps says "turn on the road". Ok, what road? There is no road. We continue on, knowing that this road will eventually connect back to the 101. We stop, look at a map on the side of the road that shows various trails. We see there is an interpretive center not too far away and we make our way there. It's closed but there is a better map showing how to get there, so hiking we go. Problem is it's getting dark. It says it's a 4.8miles hike. Is that one way? two ways? We decide we can make it, aware that it's bear and cougar country. Well, we hiked for about 25 minutes and decided to turn back. It gets dark very fast in a forest of giant trees! Disappointed that we were not going to see the canyon... that's life right?
We get back to the center, get in our car and look at the little paper map and see... there is a parking right next to the place we want to go!!!!! OMG! We've hiked up, up, up for nothing! Good thing we turned around when we did! So we get back on the highway and see... the sign for Fern Canyon - Yippee! It's a tiny gravel road, up, up, up the mountain. On the tiny road we finally saw some elk! Fern Canyon was beautiful. This is where they filmed part of the Jurassic movie. The canyon walls are covered with ferns. There is a little stream on the floor of the canyon. Pretty place. We then drove to our next destination: Eureka - just for the night.
Other things worth mentioning:
- took 17 000 steps
- saw pigeon guillemots and cormorant nesting
- saw lots of turkey vultures - they are not endangered that's for sure!
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