Sunday 2 September 2018

Sunday of Labor Day weekend is a good time to leave a campground. Only one night of campfire smoke and revelry and then on to a new location. We drive westward again through Redding which was recently in so much peril from the Carr Fire. We have a delicious breakfast at a restaurant called Deja Vu. As we leave town we see hillsides covered with brown trees, both deciduous and pine, leaves and needles dried to a crisp from the heat of recent fires. Some hillsides have only standing blackened trunks. We begin to see piles of rubble that used to be homes and businesses. Near some of these are people taking photos. We are not sure if they are owners documenting their losses, or tourists. On intact buildings are many signs and banners thanking the firefighters. The area of destruction goes on for almost 25 miles!

Finally we climb into the Klamath Mountain range and the trees are green again, except for scattered areas of previous burns with small patches of new green dispersed among the blackened trunks.

We drive along the scenic Trinity river valley until we reach the coast and Route 101. Here we turn north towards Crescent City. The last portion of the trip takes us through parts of the Redwood forests with incredibly tall trees. We pass a herd of elk in an open area near the highway. I study the map as O drives and realize that the drive I heard on Brokeoff Mountain as “Howling Creek” last Thursday was really Howland Hill Road, a scenic drive near Jed Smith State Park, where we will be camped for 2 or 3 nights. We hope to have time to drive this route during our stay.