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| Another similar looking selfie, this time from a stop somewhere along the Pacific Coast Highway |
Like the previous day's drive, google maps showed this drive to be a little over three hours. Also, like the previous day's drive, because of the numerous stops to enjoy the scenery it took us over six hours to make the 156 mile drive.
At times we were hugging the Pacific coast line. At other times we were surrounded by massive redwood trees on both sides of the two lane road. While at other times, we had redwoods on the left side of the car and the ocean on the right hand side.
The U.S. 101 portion of the drive was for the first 113 miles. We did a slight diversion off the highway to take the "Avenue of the Giants" scenic byway. This byway is actually part of the original U.S. 101, running parallel to it, but on a narrow road cut through the redwoods. There are numerous entrances and exits from U.S. 101. If you stay on it the whole way it's a little over 30 miles.
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| Gives new meaning to the word "tree house" |
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| You could get a neck ache looking up to the tops of the trees |
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| The area where we were standing when we took this picture was once the town of Dyerville. The entire town was swept away during a flood in 1955. |
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| The top of the sign shows the high water mark for the 1964 flood. The river is about 50 feet down a slope on the left hand side of the road. |
A little bit after 12:00 noon we decided to stop for lunch in the town of Garberville. As we drove in we both quickly picked up on the fact that we didn't look like the rest of the folks walking along main street. Young or old it didn't matter, tie dye and sandals were the clothing of choice and everyone seemed to be happily mellow. The restaurant that we picked was good, but while sitting at the table we saw a poster that confirmed our suspicions. Unfortunately, we were a few days early for the Feast of Flowers Cannabis Cup! A quick google search and we learned that the economic driver of Garberville is marijuana cultivation (legal) and that it even has a Cannabis College! According to the BBC, the town is the marijuana heartland of the US. Even though it's only around 500 feet above sea level, Garberville is quite possibly the highest place in California!
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| I'll bet this would have been very entertaining! |
The final 43 miles were on California State Route 1, which is also known as the Pacific Coast Highway. As amazing as the scenery, was the number of curves along the way. We've driven a bunch of curvy roads in our time. Some of them may have been as winding as this one, but neither of us could recall one with more twists and turns.
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| Along the winding Pacific Coast Highway |
Two days on the road, some nice pictures and even more great memories!
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| The welcoming committee at our Airbnb in Fort Bragg. |
