Trapped in a Tourist Trap

Having arrived in Eureka the night before meant that we would be unable to traverse the remaining part of the Avenue of the Giants which was blocked off to us on our previous trip. Instead, we decided to head into Redwood National Park again and do a hike that time did not allow for last time. This hike was at the Lady Bird Memorial Grove. Apparently, Lady Bird herself had

been at this part of the forest for its dedication which was in her honor. It was a beautiful old growth redwood forest and we took about an hour to complete the 1.5 mile interpretive trail starring me as narrator. After our hike we

headed to the north side of the national forest to a place called the Trees of Mystery. This place was what seemed to be a giant tourist trap from the outside, but since we had a hole from our initial plan, the Avenue of the Giants, we decided to take a look. The big and newest attraction of the Trees of Mystery was a gondola ride through the redwoods. This is beautifully pitched and has, in my eyes, limitless potential. I envisioned a ride amongst the mid to upper section of the trees, seeing them on either side and being virtually engulfed in their tops. Katie's vision was much more pessimistic and was ultimately nearer the mark, but we decided to check it out anyway. Along with the gondola ride, the Trees of Mystery also feature a number of tree oddities that when compared to normal trees may indeed be weird, but in reference to redwoods are really quite common. A number of these trees were in some way featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not museum, hence the uncanny name of the attraction. The tree that I found most fascinating was called the family tree. This tree held in it branches,

15 other redwood trees that are completely independent of the main one, some of them reaching up to 150 ft. themselves. Needless to say it was pretty cool. They also featured a group of trees called the Cathedral

Trees which form a sort of half circle and which is still in use as an alter for Easter ceremonies as well as weddings. After we walked around amongst the mystery trees for about a half hour we made it to the gondola ride which turned out to be a big disappointment, for me at least. Katie got pretty much what she expected; just an ordinary gondola ride up the mountain. Not to say that it wasn't neat, I think that the gondola rides always are, but this one had so much more potential, at least according to its ad campaign. The ride was not amongst the redwoods at all. All the trees were cleared for about 20 ft. on either side of the gondola, essentially creating a 60 ft. gap of no trees for the gondola to ride up and down in. Also, there was not even any redwoods alongside the path. It was all western hemlock and sitka spruce, maybe a fir here and there, but no redwoods were in the vicinity! Once at the top we enjoyed a hazy view of the ocean and looked at the forest below us through the complimentary binoculars before deciding to head down. This time, instead of taking the gondola, Katie and I decided to take the hiking path down the mountain. It was reportedly extremely steep in places and we were warned that only experienced hikers should even attempt it. They offered complimentary hiking sticks for the brave souls hiking in either direction and the trail was also outfitted with ropes to assist you in hiking up and down the steep parts. This too turned out to be laughable. At the steepest parts I was literally skipping down the mountain and instead of using my walking stick as a brace for my decent, I was spinning it around and brandishing it as a sword. After we had completed this harrowing decent, one that surely would make Mt. Everest seem like a Sunday stroll, we went into the final attraction at the Trees of Mystery, the Trail of Tall

Tales. Now, after being let down at every turn, I expected the Trail of Tall Tales to just be the proprietors standing in a line handing you a brochure to come visit the Trees of Mystery. Again, I was let down and what we saw was giant wood carvings depicting the tales of Paul Bunyon and his friends. By this time we were pretty much done with this portion of the redwoods and rather hastily walked through the rest of the attraction, even though they were quite impressive. We got back into CJ and began to plot our next moves. Though my vote was to head inland and explore the Oregon Caves, Katie persuaded me to continue along the coast and drive northward along highway 1 into Oregon. As we drove north and finally reached the Pacific Coast again, it unfolded before us in such a quick and expansive way that it could easily take

ones breath. We pulled off the highway at the top of the first bluff and got out and looked around. I was instantly reminded of Red and the first time I watched The Shawshank Redemption. "Pacific Ocean? Hell. Like to scare me to death, something that big." We continued northward winding along the coast with terrible yet appropriate slowness. We stopped frequently, sometimes getting out and hiking to the cliffs edge and other times just to absorb the scenery around us and get a more intimate view. However, after while the sunlight began to fail, both heading off into the horizon

as well as being consumed by an approaching storm. We decided that there was no point in making slow steady progress up the coast if there was no view to enjoy and heading inland for the night seemed the best idea. We drove back toward Interstate 5, the boring nothingness of a drive that I described in a previous post, meeting up with the highway just south of Eugene. We had a few hours to spend before Katie or I would be tired, and seeing as we had not eaten a proper meal all day, we decided a restaurant would be a good way to spend it. We had looked up a place called Steelhead before Katie's phone died and located it with no problem in the city center. We enjoyed our meal and relaxed for a bit, trying to figure out our plans for the next day. Sea Lion Caves was the main attraction and aside from that our only goal was to make it to Portland by evening.