6/13/12 - Day 12: I woke up early and drove back up from our cabin at to Crater Lake to take some morning pictures. The weather the day before was chilly and windy, and I wanted to see the lake when it was calm and sunny out. I'm glad I sacrificed sleep to do so, because the lake was even more beautiful in the morning under a bright sunny sky. After taking a few pictures, we grabbed some breakfast snacks at the nearby general store and hit the road (again...).
The drive through southwestern Oregon into northern California was just as incredible as the drive the day before. Oregon officially makes the list of "beautiful states to drive through!" We stopped in Crescent City for gas (> $4.00/gallon...yikes!) and lunch at the Harvest Cafe, which was the top restaurant on Tripadvisor. It seemed to be a local homecooked food type of place, and despite the bad service, the food was pretty good. I had a grilled ham and cheese and Cari enjoyed a BLT without the T (a "BL," if you will).
Full of food, we drove south on 101 through the Redwood National Forest. We stopped on the way to the visitor center and took several pictures next to the colossal trees. Taking pictures with the trees was a little more difficult since it's hard to get an entire tree into one shot, but we managed. We got to the visitor center, bought a postcard, and saw lots of male elk grazing in the field in front of the building (and lots of dumb people getting as close as they could for a good picture). Our next stop after driving through more of the forest and along the coastline was Fern Canyon, which was recommended in our Fodor's National Park book. About 90% of the drive to Fern Canyon was dirt or gravel, and the first part looked like another scene out of Jurrasic Park - very dark drive through forest with huge trees and eerie moss hanging from everything. The road was barely big enough for one car, so we had to use the pullouts when there was another vehicle approaching. Once we made it through the forest down to the beach, we drove along the coast for a few more miles, having to drive through some flooded creeks (only about a foot of water though). Finally, we arrived at the trailhead to Fern Canyon.
The hike was short, but was not very well marked. We found what we assumed to be Fern Canyon, which was a creek bed with high walls on both sides covered in different types of ferns (hence the name, Fern Canyon). We walked over rocks and rotten boards down the creek bed for about a half mile, enjoying the scenery and taking some pictures before turning back. It was a beautiful area and a fun hike overall! We didn't have much time to do anything else, so we continued through the park down the Eureka and ate dinner at a wine bar/bistro. The food was excellent, but the service was such that we felt like we didn't fit in (especially in our grungy hiking clothes).
After dinner, we had a rough drive down to our cottage in Fort Bragg - we took a long, EXTREMELY windy road toward Route 1 and then made it to the beach. The drive along the beach would probably have been nicer in the morning, but it was somewhat terrifying not being able to see the ground/water below, driving along cliffs, and knowing we were a hundred feet up. We got to our cottage pretty late and stressed out, but enjoyed the friendly service and the quaint, but very nice accommodations. San Francisco in the a.m.!
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