24th
Portland to San Fran
After leaving Portland we headed West to travel the 101 South towards San Francisco. We were leaving Portland on a Saturday, so the roads, beaches and towns were full of vacationers; fellow car travelers, giant RVs, big pickups towing enormous trailers and the odd cyclist in full touring kit who we cheered along each time.
We stopped at various viewpoints to take in the amazing scenery with a longer stop for Ilana to paint before making camp at a state park for the night. The next day we walked through the amazing Oregon Dunes, stopped again for Ilana to paint and then entered California and proceeded to drive through the amazing Redwoods to the Humboldt Redwoods State park where we camped under the cover of trees many hundreds of years old. Monday morning we hiked for about 2.5 hours starting and ending amongst Redwoods that have lived through the Middle Ages, the colonization of North America, earthquakes and many forest fires.
Shortly after hitting the road again we detoured off the 101 to the twisty curvy highway 1. Constant seaside vistas are punctuated by little towns. Hawks constantly circle above the road, and we can’t help but stop periodically to take in the sweeping views.
We stopped to see the sunset and finished with a very curvy night drive in to the city.
