Roadtrip to the Land of Giants — The Towering Travelers

In the first half of 2024, we took a break from international travel and took a road trip closer to home. I had been wanting to drive down to the southern Oregon coast and visit the California redwoods. The trip ended up being about 1400 miles over seven days, and we stopped at eight state parks, two national parks, a national monument, and a state scenic area.

Our first stop was a campsite in Sunset Bay State Park, where we set up camp and then spent some time hiking along the beach.

Sunset Bay beach at low tide (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole standing in front of a culvert to walk under a road. — A giant culvert to the beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

A wooden sign with an image of a route over the northern United States and a hot air balloon that says "From this point on October 4, 1973 Malcom Forbes of New York began the first transcontinental crossing of the United States in a hot air balloon." — There are a lot of interesting transcontinental journeys that began or ended in Oregon (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large, green, shiny leaf. — Giant leaves on the edge of the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

Action shot of Nicole jumping over part of a muddle trail. — Mud obstacle course (photo/Jason Rafal)

A lighthouse perched on a rocky stretch of land, with ocean and rocks in the foreground. — Cape Arago Lighthouse (photo/Jason Rafal)

In the morning, we hiked down toward Cape Arago, where I had heard we could find some sea lions. The hike started with plants, birds, and a surprise deer on the beach.

An orange flower. — A pretty coastal flower (photo/Jason Rafal)

A deer trotting over a beach. — A deer ran across the beach on our morning hike (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small bird perched on a branch. — A cute Swainson’s Thrush (photo/Jason Rafal)

We heard them before we saw them, and once we got to the Simpson Reef lookout, we could see dozens of sea lions lounging on the beach. We could also see a lot of them swimming around the area.

Dozens of sea lions laying on a beach, surrounded by rocks. — Sea lions lounging on the beach at Simpson Reef (photo/Jason Rafal)

A rocky outcropping in the ocean, with some sea lions on the rocks and some swimming. — Lots of sea lions playing and lounging (photo/Jason Rafal)

We were looking for sea lions, but we also had a great view of lots of birds (we saw a crazy number of bald eagles during this trip) and some very sleepy harbor seals.

A bald eagle flying over the ocean and rocks, with seals asleep below it. — A bald eagle flies over sleeping harbor seals (photo/Jason Rafal)

After our morning hike, we packed up and headed down the coast to a room we rented for the night in Brookings, Oregon. On the way, we made a few stops for short hikes and pretty coastal views.

Looking down at two arches under the cliffs on the coastline. — Afternoon sun at Natural Bridges - you can see a person on top of the left one if you squint (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our VRBO was very close to Harris Beach State Park, which has a beautiful rocky beach.

Nicole on the beach, with a sunstar behind her. — On Harris Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

The house we were staying at had amazing views of the ocean, and we spent a lot of time that evening watching the orange sunset over the rocks and water.

Jason and Nicole in front of a rocky beach. — Sunset views at our place (photo/Jason Rafal)

The sun setting beyond the ocean, with large rocks in the water in the foreground. — Sunset from our VRBO (photo/Jason Rafal)

Eight pelicans flying over the water. — Watching pelicans from our deck (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent a beautiful morning at the beach before driving to California. The plants and animals that live among the rocks are so fun to watch.

The lovely Secret Beach (photo/Jason Rafal)

Small plants growing on top of a coastal rock, lit up by the morning sun. — Morning light on a very vegetation-covered rock (photo/Jason Rafal)

A dark rock face with black and white birds nesting. — Pigeon guillemots perched on a rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

By the afternoon, we were hiking among giants in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I love hanging out with these trees; their sheer size and the amount that has happened during their lifetimes is both amazing and comforting to me. They’re very difficult to photograph, but looking up is a good way to convey the feeling of being so very small.

Looking up at the top of a grove of redwood trees. — Looking up at the giant redwoods (photo/Jason Rafal)

A sunstar shining through the leaves of a giant tree. — A very large tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

The view through the tunnel created next to a redwood that fell over. — A very cool plant tunnel next to a fallen redwood (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the next couple of nights camping in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, with very little service and lots of big trees.

Nicole standing between two large redwood trees. — Very large trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small, white, striped flower amidst leaves and a cobweb. — A delicate flower in the forest (photo/Jason Rafal)

A squirrel on a fallen tree. — A cute little squirrel (photo/Jason Rafal)

Ferns and other plants growing out of a fallen redwood tree stump. — I love how many plants a fallen tree in the forest can support (photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole hugging a huge redwood tree. — In my happy place (photo/Jason Rafal)

A bright yellow slug. — A banana slug with a leaf hat (photo/Jason Rafal)

When we were driving to the beach to have lunch on the second day, we saw a sign for a skunk cabbage trail. I love skunk cabbage; there’s a ton of it where I grew up in Crested Butte during the summer, and I’ve never seen a large quantity outside of that. We didn’t see as much as we’d hoped for, but it was still a beautiful trail covered with ferns.

Nicole smiling at ferns and skunk cabbage. — Looking at the ferns and skunk cabbage (photo/Jason Rafal)

Plant stalks growing through the leaves of another plant. — A plant growing through the leaves of another plant (photo/Jason Rafal)

The next day, we drove to central Oregon, stopping at Crater Lake on the way. There was still quite a bit of snow, and the Rim Road isn’t open until July, but we drove to Discovery Point and walked around a bit to take some pictures. I didn’t have a lot of expectations, but the lake was really cool, with its absurdly deep blue water and snowy ridges on all sides.

Crater Lake, with snow in the foreground. — A sunny day at a snowy Crater Lake (photo/Jason Rafal)

We kept an eye out for the Clark’s Nutcracker, which lives at Crater Lake, and we saw them pretty quickly. They’re very loud, fluffy birds with big black beaks.

A gray and black bird perched on the edge of a dead branch. — A Clark's nutcracker perched on a dead tree (photo/Jason Rafal)

A gray bird with a large beak perched on an evergreen branch. — The nutcrackers, while larger than I expected, were adorable and fluffy (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our next couple of days were spent in Bend, where Jason worked some and we did some small afternoon hikes at Smith Rock and Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Looking down at the Crooked River winding through large rock faces. — Dramatic views at Smith Rock State Park (photo/Jason Rafal)

A river and green plants running between tall rock towers. — More beautiful views (photo/Jason Rafal)

Looking up at a steep rock face, with lots of chalk spots from climbers on the rock. — We liked seeing the chalk from climbers on the sides of the rock face (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last day in central Oregon was also very clear, and we had great views of the snow-capped peaks of the Sisters, Broken Top, and Bachelor. We went out to the Lava Butte lookout, where we hiked around the very apocalyptic-looking lava flow area.

A firetower on the edge of a caldera, with snow-capped mountain peaks in the background. — The view from the trail at the Lava Butte lookout, with the Sisters in the background (photo/Jason Rafal)

The apocalyptic scene from the caldera (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small plant with a flower made of tiny bulbs in the volcanic rock. — Little lava plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black lizard sitting on dark lava rock. — A little black lava lizard (photo/Jason Rafal)

Overall it was a great trip, with a variety of beautiful landscapes and a lot of lovely hikes. It was fun to get to explore more of the Pacific Northwest, and to hang out with some very old, very large trees.