A beautiful day in Brookings with lots of sunshine with highs in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s. Included are images from Driftwood RV Park where we are staying. Then from up into the mountains in the Siskiyou National Forest along the Winchuck River. In our explorations of the area around Brookings we have found that the Front Range is a real obstacle. Todays trip was typical.

The Oregon Redwoods road heads east of US101 as a good two lane asphalt road traveling through farms in the valley then making its way up into the mountains past gated homes and ranches until a sign is says “End of County Maintenance”.

This is one of my favorite signs (Peg always grabs the hand hold by the windshield and tenses up, cursing under her breath causing Scout and I to chuckle. Of course, Scout is on the look out for bears and mountain lions as this is their natural home. We have been on several of these roads now including a jaw dropping, nerve wracking, one lane cliff hugger of a path hundreds of feet above the Rogue River to Agness, Oregon. You may note there are no pictures from that road trip. No place to stop the road was so narrow if you opened the door and stepped out you would step down 300 feet. So the pattern is known to us, two lane asphalt to one lane asphalt, to one lane gravel, to one lane dirt, to hoping there is an easy turn around.

This is an important point to remember if you are ever out here. The roads that go east into the Front Range eventually end, dead end, peter out, maybe stop at the edge of a cliff, etc. There is always the need to turn around. It must be that the folks who built the roads found the country to be so stunningly beautiful that it just made sense that you would want to see it all over again from the opposite direction. The forests here are a thing of wonder.

Today we took the road up to Ludlum House and campground over a gravel road that was pitted with potholes and overgrown with vegetation. The Ludlum House can be rented from the NFS and looked very interesting from a distance as it was gated off. We turned around in what can only be described as a primitive campground with no campers in bear country. Down the mountain to the Redwood Trail road south towards California we found the Oregon Redwoods Trailhead and stopped for a while to take in some of the forest.

This is the northern most location of Redwood habitat. The forest is mixed here with the Redwoods being younger and smaller than those just a few miles south. There weren’t a great many photo opportunities; however, I did find one place where a trail led down to the Winchuck. A very pretty place with the only sounds being the river going over rapids. It was a good trip.

Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Sjh

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