Spring break at the Redwoods

Our friends, the Yorgesens, invited us to join them for spring break in northern California. Brent and I went to the Redwoods around San Francisco last year and wanted to take our kids to see them, so this was the prefect opportunity! We also met up with a third family who used to live in our ward, the Scotts. We met up with our friends for the second half of our trip.

We left on our trip right after school on Friday and drove to the tip of Southern Oregon. We stopped for hamburgers at a restaurant in Coos Bay and Audrey was a little stir crazy from the car:

I had been so worried about the weather because the forecast had said it was going to rain and be cold almost our whole trip! But as we drove, we had periods of beautiful sun, and then it would rain, and then it would be sunny again. It was the weirdest thing! We slept the night in Brookings Oregon, and then the next morning drove across the border into Crescent City, California.

We went to the lighthouse at low tide and the kids (and I) and fun looking for pretty rocks.

It was windy and cold, but I brought multiple layers for everyone, including winter coats, rain boots, and rain jackets.

The lighthouse is still used and is a private residence!

Helpers at the hotel:

After the lighthouse, the sun came out and we went to enjoy the Redwoods.

We went on a hike at Trillium Falls Trail. We went the wrong direction for part of it and it was SO muddy, that we decided to head back to the car and get our rain boots on and start again. The redwoods are spectacular!

It's hard to take pictures that capture the scale of the trees. Here's Ava by the roots of one.

The waterfall was bigger than it looks in this picture, but it wasn't huge.

Audrey was getting really cold on the hike, so Brent gave her his rain jacket. This was the best part of the hike- I'm so glad I got a video:

After trudging through the mud, with whiney and hungry kids, I convinced Brent to turn around and be done quicker with the hike rather than completing the loop. I think it about broke his heart to not completely finish something.

Beautiful coast view as we were driving back to our hotel:

Speaking of our hotel in Crescent City, I was so pleasantly surprised! It was really cute and had a nice breakfast every morning. 

The lobby of the hotel- Brent and the kids' favorite part was the hot chocolate that they got multiple times every day.

On Sunday morning we went to church in town and were so impressed with this little ward! The kids even went to Primary despite Ava insisting that she did not want to go. 

After church our friends arrived into town. They stayed in an RV park right by our hotel. We went to Jedediah Smith Redwood State park, and this was my favorite place from the trip. The Smith river was a gorgeous turquoise! We were trying to get to a hike across the river but there was no bridge at this time of year, so instead we sat and chatted while the kids threw rocks in the river. 

We then drove down the road a bit and went on the Simpson Reed trail, which was the best! 

The kids loved this "tree slide" which was really a fallen tree that was almost vertical. 

The kids loved having other little kids to run around and explore with.

That evening we had hamburgers at our friend's RV spot, cooked on a griddle outside. The kids roasted marshmallows inside the RV on the gas stove.

The next morning we went to see the sea lions near the hotel. They're so entertaining!

All three families went to Trees of Mystery, which was a bit of a splurge, but I'm glad we did it once while the kids were little.

 Here's "Nature's Underpass."

The coolest part was the Canopy Trail, which are suspension bridges between the Redwoods, 50-100 feet in the air (according to their website). 

As you know, I'm terrified of heights, but I did it! These bridges are only part way up the height of the trees and really help you understand just how tall the trees are!

I loved this poem at the Cathedral trees- "This is their temple, vaulted high, And here we pause with reverent eye, With silent tongue and awe-struck soul; For here we sense life's proper goal.  To be like these, straight, true, and fine, To make our world, like theirs, a shrine; Sink down, Oh traveler, on your knees, God stands before you in these trees."

We rode the Skytrail a couple times up the mountain through the Redwoods: 

Brent hiked the mile down the steep mountain with a few people, including Coen, while some other kids and I rode the Skytrail back. 

We walked along the Canopy Trail some more to get our money's worth :)

Ava in the pink coat:

Coen in the black coat:

We needed a picture of me with the "Little People." There were lots of carvings like this.

Audrey liked the bear out front and in the gift shop:

After Trees of Mystery our family went to the Tour Thru Tree in Klamath. We weren't sure if our car was going to fit through the tree but I wanted to at least go look at it. We were the only car there, so we drive through three times and then paid money on our way out. I hope my kids will always remember that they drove through a tree!

That afternoon we were hoping to go on another hike but it turned so stormy! It was like a mini hurricane. So the Yorgesens came to our hotel lobby to play games, and then we went to pick up dinner and eat it back in the lobby again. Their RV was rocking in the wind! As we were waiting for our dinner, Brent and I watched the waves crashing and going wild. 

Ava loved the shrimp we got for dinner.

All night and the next morning it kept storming. We couldn't do another hike and it was supposed to get even more stormy so we decided to leave for home. The power went out in the hotel right as we were about to check out. I was nervous about driving home in the storm, but about an hour further up the coast, it was beautiful clear blue skies!

Audrey spent all of her hours in the car on this trip working on these Gabby Dollhouse coloring sheets. Those were well worth the money!

The drive home was about 4 hours- we are so glad we saw these beautiful trees while we were not too far away!