Today was an eventful day in our Western States RV Odyssey. For those just tuning in, we are touring Oregon, California, Nevada and Idaho in a rented monstrosity of an RV, in order to satisfy a Congressionally mandated Foreign Service “home leave” (between overseas tours), and in order to avoid camping with relatives for an entire month.
We stayed in Emerald Forest something-or-other RV Park, which was a dark and gloomy place (due to the giant redwoods towering overhead), much in contrast to the photos on their website, which imply the beach is a bit closer than a mile away…
But we made our way down to the beach just north of Trinidad, California – which turned out to be one of the most scenic beaches I’ve come across in a very long time. For reference, you can compare to these beach photos sent to me by TripAdvisor while I was writing this post (*waves to the NSA*)
We saw almost no other people. We did see vultures – about a dozen, circling over the forest just inland from the beach. As we were deep in Bigfoot Country and convinced we would come across a family of them at any moment, we were sure that the vultures were circling over a recent Bigfoot kill – probably an elk or something (photo of Oregon elk, snapped yesterday, provided for reference).
But as we continued down the beach, we saw a group of about four of them sitting on the ground, and a fifth perched on a makeshift totem pole someone had put up on the beach and surrounded with a circle of stones (witches in Humboldt County? nah…) As I edged closer with my camera, there was one particularly determined vulture who kept picking at something on the beach.
I got within 20 feet of him before he finally flew away and I could see what he had been working on. Shark sushi! Obviously caught by a Bigfoot and abandoned there when the witches came to perform their totem rituals. Don’t you love how the vultures always go for the best parts of the shark first?
After that beach, we went for a walk in the woods to take a look at other nearby beaches like this one:
Unfortunately, on the way there, we had to pass through the woods where Bigfoot lives:
But as we were passing through, I heard a loud rustling sound in the woods and stopped to listen while the others continued on. I was eventually rewarded for my patience when I spotted this little guy:
Tomorrow’s installment: Really big trees. And hopefully more fast food. Today we ate in this healthy, funky little restaurant in Arcata, whose downtown has more than its fair share of both vintage stores and people high on one substance or another.
