Our last day in the redwoods - we were bummed that this vacation was coming to a close, but excited for some super fun activities.
First - we took the three oldest on an early morning hike. Amy really wanted to hit the 6 miles hike along the coastal trail. The trail head was at the end of Eckerts Beach road and ran along the coast for about 3 miles before going inland for another 3 miles and ending at hwy 101. The trail was named "Last Chance Trail". Rather than doing a loop, we decided to drive Dad's car to the 101 crossing, then drive back up to the trail head, hike down to Dad's car, then come pick up the other car. We left the house at 7:15am, hoping to be back by 10am at the latest. Well, by the time made it to the south part of the trail, it was already almost 8am, so we decided we should try hiking up the trail first. We tried and instantly realized that we would NOT be hiking along the coast, so we turned back. Here are a few photos of that first .25 mile out-and-back hike:
So, we decided that even though it was already 8am, we would drive to the coastal trail head and make the 6 mile hike. Well, after driving ~20 minutes to the trailhead, we learned that the trail was actually closed due to a landslide. SUPER BUMMER!!! We took a few scenic shots and then drove back to the Dad's car at the 101 crossing:
Finally, around 9am, we started hiking on the right coastal trail towards the beach, but we never made it to the beach. But, we did about 4 miles, saw some beautiful Redwoods and got some good exercise. We made it home around 10:45am, which wasn't too bad given all of the wasted time driving!
Next, we went home, showered and packed up the family and our lunch and headed out to the Endert Beach to do some "beach-combing" and have lunch. This turned out to be way more fun than I expected as we found many full sand-dollars and the temperature was about perfect. Too cold to jump in the ocean, but the kids didn't mind wading into the water to find shells.
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After the beach, we wen to the "castle park" in town to let Jarrett play for about 45 min. He really enjoys going to the park and running around. We enjoy it as well as he is so much happier when he can burn off the extra energy!
Finally, we headed south again, all the way back down to Klamath, where we had booked a Jet Boat tour up the Klamath River. It was a 45mile round-trip adventure and we really enjoyed looking at wildlife, doing fun spins in the water and enjoy the relaxing rythm of the boat as we cruised at high speeds up the water. It was a really fun 2 hour activity - once again planned by Amy - the super vacation planner!
In the following photo, I captured a bald eagle about to take flight from the side of the river. We saw 4-5 different bald eagles on the trip.
This cute little bear has some weird hair loss that doesn't make much sense. We saw him right at the beginning of our trip. We saw his brother, who looked very healthy, on the way home at the same spot. It was fun to see real wild bear on the side of the river! We would have like to have seen Momma bear as well, but maybe its best that we missed her....
On of the highlights was seeing the "Blue Creek" spill into the Klamath River. You can actually see the blue water merging with the more brown water of the Klamath River. The Blue Creek gets its blue color from the minerals along the creek bed and the water is actually blue! It is also one of the best places in the world for fly fishing with Sturgeon and Salmon being the most popular catches. One our our guides has caught 7-9 feet long sturgeon from the Klamath River - incredible!
Another Bald Eagle in the tree below:
In the following two photos, we captured the first Osprey that I've ever seen. This is also the bird that is called "The Seahawk". Very beautiful, smart and powerful bird. The guides explained how much "cooler" they are than even the Bald Eagle!
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