First Leg

Well, dear readers, it has been awhile, and as you can see by the changed title we are making this trip to the US Southwest as a duo, no longer a trio. It seemed strange pulling out from home and seeing two bikes instead of the third seat where Mazy used to travel in the van but given her age it is probably a blessing that she is not having to endure the marked changed in temperatures that this trip will entail.
It was a cool but bright morning when we left New Westminster but we encountered some showers as we made our way to our first stop south of Portland at an Oregon's Champoeg State Park. This is a pleasant serviced park in the rolling countryside surrounded by farms, included ones advertising alpaca fleece.

The second day found us motoring further along I-5 to Grant's Pass where we headed off to Hwy 199, the Redwood Highway. It seemed natural to make our stop that night at Redwoods Jedidiah Smith California State Park. While the scenery was beautiful, the state of the park left much to be desired. Obviously California Parks are suffering from budget issues. The park was definitely overpriced for the services provided (none - we never saw an employee or host the whole time we were there).

After a chilly night we left in the sunshine and drove down the northern California coast on Hwy 101 through very pretty scenery of coastal towns and views, Redwood forests and then the winding country roads of the Mendocino Valley to a funky RV park just south of Willits, CA. It's claim to fame is that the ranch that surrounds it was the home of Seabiscuit. Didn't see any horses just wild turkeys roaming the campground.
Our fourth day was a long day of driving through northern CA past the pretty Mendocino lakes and then into the highways of the central valley past groves and groves of orange trees and grape vines. We finally left Hwy 99 at Selma, no, not that one, this one is the Raisin Capital of the World and onto a saner Hwy 43 to our campsite at Colonel Allensworth State Park. Again a California State Park that had seen better days but we did meet the ranger and the washrooms and showers were clean and open. We thought we were going to have the campground (15 sites) to ourselves but after dinner another couple arrived and set up their tent.

 This park is actually very interesting being the first town settled by blacks in California. We were able to tour the remaining building from the outside as we arrived after closing at 4pm.
In the morning it was a much shorter day to Red Rock Canyon State Park just north of Mojave, CA. Here we had lots of campsites to choose from even though the website warned us otherwise (we were arriving on a Saturday). Again few facilities at this park but the Visitor Centre was open and the views spectacular. It was hot and sunny during the day but the wind picked up at night.