April 26, 2015

We drove a short distance up the coast on Hwy #101 and off a bit to historic Ferndale, which was settled by the Danish in the 1870’s. They began to raise dairy cattle and today there’s a tradition of superb (so we’ve read) butter from the area. We weren’t able to find any to sample! Some amazing architecture though!

Ferndale

buildings in Ferndale

Beautiful buildings in Ferndale

Then on to Eureka. We were hoping to find some beach camping so Bruce could do some surfing but alas! It’s not to be. The one place that sounded promising was Samoa Dunes but the campground (pretty much a parking lot) was taken over by off-road people who were driving on the dunes. Looked like it might be a bit of a noisy bunch so that didn’t work out. The only other campgrounds in town were at the fairgrounds (camping in a field for $35/night) or the Shorline RV Park – which we’d stayed at before. It’s marginally on a shoreline of an estuary coming into town but also right off the highway so you have constant traffic noise in the background. Just an RV park with no picnic tables or anywhere you’d even want to sit out. But it was a place to stay and with our Good Sam discount – cheaper than the fairground!

Old Town Eureka

To the boardwalk in Eureka

Old town eureka

Old Town Eureka

We checked out another beach today where we’d been led to believe had beach camping – Clam Beach – but again a VERY small parking lot (really a parking lot!) which was next to a beach. Again … full of other people mostly in tents and didn’t look too appealing.

Then on to Trinidad to see the lighthouse  on Trinidad Head, but the way it’s placed you really can’t see it from land! We hiked up the many paths we thought would take us there but not so much!  On the beach, at Trinidad State Beach, we ran into the owner of Sterling Kayaks who was there with a bunch of his boats and paddlers for a surf kayak ‘event’. Nice beach … but too far to come back to for Bruce to try and surf.

Hiking to Trinidad Head

Trinidad Head

lighthouse

Almost a lighthouse!

Sea lion swimming off Trinidad Head

Trinidad Head and State Beach

Then on the way home we stopped in to a Seafood Market and bought some fresh ‘dry boat’ scallops for supper! Super fresh and very sweet!

Tomorrow we’ll head inland to Whiskeytown Lake to try and find some more ‘rustic’ camping and warmer weather. It’s basically early spring here on the coast with the trees just beginning to flower. I’m craving some warmth again … so we’ll see what we can find!