Pacific Coast Trip: Day 3, Fortuna to Brookings, OR

So the next morning we were at Les Schwab at 8:00 AM on the money, and have the tire fixed, and were out the door in 17 minutes flat, plus it was FREE! Thanks you Les Schwab.

So from here we decided to head south and hit the "Avenue of the Giants" which parallels HWY 101 for quite some ways, winding its way through old growth redwood forest. This drive proved to be very scenic, but not very photogenic. After running through the redwoods, we ended up down in Redway, CA. I had planned to head from Redway back out to the coast via some windy 2-lane through Honeydew and Petrolia, and then on to Mattole Beach, then back up to Ferndale, and then boogie to Brookings where we had a yurt reserved for the night at Harris Beach State Park.

Instead of heading straight to Honeydew, we decided to head down to Shelter Cove first, which proved to be a very windy and bumpy drive, but well worth it for the phenomenal beauty of the Shelter Cove area.

On the way back out from Shelter Cove, we decided to take a Detour on a road called King Ridge Road, a single lane gravel road which would hook us up with the road to Honeydew after about 20 miles. It turned out to be a GREAT side trip.

Once we got back the pavement, we wound our into the heart of the King Range, to Honeydew, Petrolia, and on to Mattole Beach. There is some real pictureqsue scenery here, and I didn't know there were areas of CA that could be so untouched.

The drive from Mattole beach out to Ferndale (like the drive the whole day) was very windy, very bumpy, and very steep. But it was tons of fun, although I wouldn't want to do it if the conditions got slick and nasty, it would be impossible.

From Ferndale we hot-footed it north to Brookings where we spent the night in a Yurt at Harris Beach State Park. These proved to be comfy accomodations, in a beautiful area.