Day 45 - 5/29 - Wow! Today was an amazing day! We started out the day with a short hike from the upper Day Use area at Russian Gulch State park to the sink hole - however, nothing too amazing going on out there. We then drove to Point Cabrillo Light Station and hiked out to see the Lighthouse. It was actually pretty cool because we were able to see the Fresnell lens that we learned about yesterday at the Point Arena Lighthouse in use. It was a nice, little lighthouse and after the busload of school kids left, it was quite a peaceful setting. After the hike back to the car, we made out way to Fort Bragg for some groceries and gas. However the first market that we found did not have any bread. It’s not that we couldn’t find the bread, we walked the store four times and there was simply no bread - and not like an empty aisle where the bread should have been either. So we headed further into town and lucked out at a second market, this time one that carried bread (as well as other food items). We had lunch in Westport, CA and then drove the final 20 miles of Highway 1 on twisty and curvy hills until the road ends in Leggett at a junction with 101.

In Leggett, Brett and I decided to play tourists. We drove through a redwood tree. I would like to say that it was life changing and awe-inspiring, but really, it was just driving through a tree. Well, not that easy - I do travel with a photographer. Everyone else just drove through the tree. However, we, did not. We drove to the tree at which point Brett exited the car with his camera and tripod and went in front of the tree to set up. Then it was my job to drive into the tree - not through the tree - just into the tree. And then I was to exit the car and take part in a photo shoot. However, exiting the car was no easy feat. After our photo shoot, I then had to figure out how to get back into the car so that I could remove our car from the tree. And all of this so that when my sister said, “What? You drove through a tree? I won’t believe it until I see pictures.”, I would have them - the pictures to prove that we drove our car through a tree.

We drove from Leggett North on 101 to the Avenue of the Giants. It sounds like a cool name and rightfully so, we determined. The trees up here are much bigger than the trees we saw yesterday at Muir Woods. I cannot begin to describe how big they are and neither the pictures that Brett took nor the video that I shot will do any justice to their beauty or enormity. They are massive!

We found a campground in Myers Flat, set up the tent and then went out driving through some more big trees. We stopped at a picnic area overlooking a river to have dinner and listen to the Yankees game on the XM Radio as the signal is not very strong through the trees, go figure. The Yankees won. We headed back to camp and then headed to bed.