My friend Austin had Alaska Airlines vouchers that he needed to use by the end of August, so it was time to make a trip back to the west coast! He’d been to Seattle and I’d been to Portland so we made a compromise and made plans to head to Redwood National Park in California. Funnily enough, our flights would take us briefly to Seattle and through some of the coastline of Oregon, giving us a bit of a win-win!
Our first stop in Seattle only provided us a three hour layover. Most people would stay at the airport, but I was not about to waste a whole half a day of vacation time sitting on a plane or in an airport. We thought we’d check out Angle Lake, which was just one stop over on the Link Light Rail. Well, first we thought we’d change the plan last minute and check out Rainier Beach because it was pretty close. Surprise, this did not work out – haha!
After leaving the residential area of Rainier Beach (couldn’t even see Mt Rainier), we got back on track to check out Angle Lake. A short walk through a little scenic neighborhood and we arrived. Unfortunately, we weren’t close to the public access, but we probably wouldn’t have gotten in anyway. It was a nice way to stretch our legs between flights and see a pretty sight. And that totally counts as a visit to Seattle, right? Yeah, probably not.
Onto another short flight to Medford, OR and it was time to pick up our car and meet up with my friend Jenna, who’d taken a different flight. The air was pretty smoky from the wildfires that were only an hour’s distance. We got our groceries and got on the road to California!
This was my second time driving toward the west coast this year, and it is just so damn beautiful. You have big fields of flowers, eerie mountains in the distance, and a wide coast with cliffs and giant rocks. Everything is in shades of blues, greens, and purples, except for when the sun comes out and then everything is cast with a soft glow. I know I’m waxing poetic over here, but I never was a huge fan of beaches until I explored the pacific northwest coastal areas.
We got to Crescent City, which is the main city in the northern section of the Redwood National Park. We stopped at a bodega for some local beer and crossed the street to the skate shop, Local Boys, because it seemed like a cool place. I love these little “adventure” towns because in the local shops you can find people who know all about the hiking and good nature spots, as well as find art and jewelry made by local artisans.
We checked into our campsite (booked in advance and the last one available), set up our tent, allowed Austin a mini panic attack when he thought he’d gotten poison ivy, and headed back out to the coast. We wanted to catch sunset before having dinner and enjoying some brews.
It wasn’t too busy for sunset on the Crescent Beach Overlook, so we enjoyed it and got some great shots. Then it was time for my favorite excuse for hiking trips – PB&J! Having not actually hiked our first day, we all got full so fast. Then we tried to enjoy our beers that was pretty hard considering everything. It’s hard to enjoy (or feel a bit of buzz from) your beer when you don’t have ice, you just ate too much, and you spend 20 minutes opening them without a bottle opener. Haha!
It got dark quicker than expected, but we hung around chatting until we had to turn on our headlamps. As always on camping trips, the sky out in the middle of nature is so awesome. You can see a billion stars and you don’t mind when it hurts from craning your neck back so long to keep staring. We got into our tent, wished no bears would bother us, and passed out ready for our full plans for the following day.