USA 2006: Las Vegas & California
(continued)
Situated near the Jack London State Park, the Benziger Family Winery is perched beautifully on the side of an extinct volcano. A tram
tour through the vineyards and production areas ends with wine tasting
We spend the night of June 15th at the Best Western Vista Manor Lodge at Fort Bragg, California. Fort Bragg is located on Highway
1 and has picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean.
Our hotel has views of the Pudding Creek Trestle, a 527-feet long, 44-feet high wooden
bridge constructed in 1915 so that the Ten Mile Railroad could carry timber into from a logging area.
Evidence of the importance
of timber to Fort Bragg is provided by a section of a 334-foot-high tree felled in 1943.
Fort Bragg is a frequent location for
film crews, and the exterior shots for the TV series Murder, She Wrote were filmed in Mendocino, just to the south of Fort Bragg
(left)
This small fishing village on the Mendocino coast has a famous name
North California Coast:
over
the two days of June 15th and 16th, we follow the windswept, craggy beaches of this coastline by driving north on Highways 1 and 101;
these visually magnificent roads provide many spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean
Point Arena Lighthouse: one of the tallest (115-feet) of the Pacific Coast lighthouses.
It was built in 1870, and rebuilt after the
San Francisco eathquake
June 16th: Redwood National and State Parks, in the northwest corner of California, preserve an area of 58,000-acres where some of
the world's tallest trees grow in thick dense forests. We follow a trail through the redwoods to Lady Bird Johnson Grove, named after
the former President's wife.
The area is also home to Roosevelt Elk
Crescent City: our overnight stop before driving further north into Oregon. Our hotel room has lovely views over the Pacific Ocean
and of the nearby Battery Point Lighthouse - the oldest working lighthouse on the west coast
June 17th:
Our route from California into Oregon follows Highway US-199 alongside the scenic Smith River and through the heavily-wooded
Six Rivers National Forest.
Seventy-six miles north of Crescent City we visit the Oregon Caves National monument. The ˝-mile
tour of the caves leads to some impressive formations including a splendid example of flowstone.
Above ground, a trail leads
up to views of the Illinois Valley and the surrounding Siskiyou Mountains.
After the hike, we reward ourselves with ice cream sundaes
in the old-fashioned diner of the Oregon Caves Chateau before driving on to the Crater Lake National Park