Family & Friends,
I recently took a long-weekend trip up the California coast to do some hiking and adventuring with Kait. My boss let me borrow a Canon 5D Mark III, so I got to shoot some pretty cool photos and videos. We drove five hours up to McKinleyville (near Eureka) after work on Thursday and arrived at a cozy little Airbnb.
On Friday, we drove up to the Redwood National and State Parks and hiked through Lady Bird Johnson Grove. It was a little rainy, but still a great experience. At one point, I decided to walk across a fallen Redwood and promptly slipped and fell on my ass. At least I didn't fall off of the tree into the brush below!
After the Grove, we went to Humboldt Lagoons State Park and Beach. It was beautiful and Magic Hour was fast approaching, so we got to see some cool colors.
Then, we drove part of Patrick's Point Drive to Trinidad, which reminded me of parts of Maine. It was windy and cold, so we didn't stay long.
After that, we returned to the Airbnb and Kait cooked us a delicious steak and broccoli dinner!
Other notables from Friday:
- We saw some elk on the side of the road and encountered a mudslide near Stone Lagoon after the crazy storms we had in California.
- We stopped for gas in a tiny town called Orick, which I had to take photos of.
On Saturday, we endeavored on our big hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to Fern Canyon (where they shot Jurassic Park). We took the James Irvine Trail and were hiking almost non-stop from 12PM to 6:30PM, which meant we got stuck in darkness for about 15 minutes at the end there. On our hike, we encountered a huge "treehouse..." That is to say, a hollowed-out Redwood that we climbed up into. Because of the storms, there were a lot of fallen trees and blocked trails. We also saw a lot of intricate spider webs along the way.
We were supposed to take the Fern Canyon Loop into the canyon, but it was filled with water from all of the rain. We attempted to wade through the creek, but quickly aborted when we saw that the whole trail was flooded (plus, the water was freezing). But hey, it was an adventure! We had to go around the canyon, but even the end of that trail was blocked. We had hoped to reach the beach from there, but alas, we had to turn back the way we came. We went back on the James Irvine Trail, to Clintonia Trail, and then Miner's Ridge.
After our exhausting day, we drove to Brick & Fire Restaurant in Eureka for dinner, but they were all booked. They suggested we go next door to the Brick & Fire Wine Bar, which was just as fine and much more low key. We gorged on an Italian sausage pizza and a tasty wild mushroom cobbler. I also tried one of their homemade pomegranate Italian sodas, which was impressive.
Once we got back to the Airbnb, we passed out in exhaustion.
On Sunday, we checked out of the Airbnb and drove to Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where we did the Drury-Chaney Loop Trail, not far from Avenue of the Giants. This trail reminded me of the movie, The Princess Bride. There was this huge Redwood tree stump that had notches in it, so, naturally, I climbed up it. It was hollowed-out and the middle looked like a well with all of the collected rain water.
Finally, we had to drive back home and we stopped for a pho dinner in San Francisco.
All in all, the trip was a grand success and I had a blast. Check out some photos below taken with the 5D! I will post a video soon with some of the pretty shots I got.
Onward,
Chris
I recently took a long-weekend trip up the California coast to do some hiking and adventuring with Kait. My boss let me borrow a Canon 5D Mark III, so I got to shoot some pretty cool photos and videos. We drove five hours up to McKinleyville (near Eureka) after work on Thursday and arrived at a cozy little Airbnb.
On Friday, we drove up to the Redwood National and State Parks and hiked through Lady Bird Johnson Grove. It was a little rainy, but still a great experience. At one point, I decided to walk across a fallen Redwood and promptly slipped and fell on my ass. At least I didn't fall off of the tree into the brush below!
After the Grove, we went to Humboldt Lagoons State Park and Beach. It was beautiful and Magic Hour was fast approaching, so we got to see some cool colors.
Then, we drove part of Patrick's Point Drive to Trinidad, which reminded me of parts of Maine. It was windy and cold, so we didn't stay long.
After that, we returned to the Airbnb and Kait cooked us a delicious steak and broccoli dinner!
Other notables from Friday:
- We saw some elk on the side of the road and encountered a mudslide near Stone Lagoon after the crazy storms we had in California.
- We stopped for gas in a tiny town called Orick, which I had to take photos of.
On Saturday, we endeavored on our big hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to Fern Canyon (where they shot Jurassic Park). We took the James Irvine Trail and were hiking almost non-stop from 12PM to 6:30PM, which meant we got stuck in darkness for about 15 minutes at the end there. On our hike, we encountered a huge "treehouse..." That is to say, a hollowed-out Redwood that we climbed up into. Because of the storms, there were a lot of fallen trees and blocked trails. We also saw a lot of intricate spider webs along the way.
We were supposed to take the Fern Canyon Loop into the canyon, but it was filled with water from all of the rain. We attempted to wade through the creek, but quickly aborted when we saw that the whole trail was flooded (plus, the water was freezing). But hey, it was an adventure! We had to go around the canyon, but even the end of that trail was blocked. We had hoped to reach the beach from there, but alas, we had to turn back the way we came. We went back on the James Irvine Trail, to Clintonia Trail, and then Miner's Ridge.
After our exhausting day, we drove to Brick & Fire Restaurant in Eureka for dinner, but they were all booked. They suggested we go next door to the Brick & Fire Wine Bar, which was just as fine and much more low key. We gorged on an Italian sausage pizza and a tasty wild mushroom cobbler. I also tried one of their homemade pomegranate Italian sodas, which was impressive.
Once we got back to the Airbnb, we passed out in exhaustion.
On Sunday, we checked out of the Airbnb and drove to Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where we did the Drury-Chaney Loop Trail, not far from Avenue of the Giants. This trail reminded me of the movie, The Princess Bride. There was this huge Redwood tree stump that had notches in it, so, naturally, I climbed up it. It was hollowed-out and the middle looked like a well with all of the collected rain water.
Finally, we had to drive back home and we stopped for a pho dinner in San Francisco.
All in all, the trip was a grand success and I had a blast. Check out some photos below taken with the 5D! I will post a video soon with some of the pretty shots I got.
Onward,
Chris