We Spent One Night Inside a Redwood Forest
Join us as we Airstream the Redwoods! We’ll take you from Harris Beach in Oregon all the way to Gualala River Redwood Park in California.
We already have a pretty long drive day of 6 1/2 hours (and that’s according to google maps), but we decided to extend that by over an hour by taking the Avenue of the Giants scenic route.
We also are sure to take the official start of California One in Legget, but we may have regretted that decision as one of us may have actually thrown up after the twisty turny drive, but I’m glad she can laugh about it now.
Driving California 1 has been on my bucket list for a while now, but this wasn’t quite how I pictured it. Luckily, tomorrow is a new day with a bright, beautiful sun, so stay tuned for our next video in which you’ll see California 1 much brighter.
We finally made it to Gualala River Redwood Park after a really long day. The whole drive was quite scenic, but it was still exhausting, and we were glad to get parked in those redwoods!
Some people call it gwa-LA-la, but the natives call it wa-LA-la. This comes from the Kashaya Pomo Indian phrase, "ah kha wa la lee" which means, "Where the water flows down", which makes sense--for the river goes out to the ocean right across from the center of town, right by that big sand bar where the whales stop for lunch every year.
Google Earth:
Harris Beach to Gualala river resort park
Harris Beach to Avenue of Giants to Leggett to Gualala River resort
Gualala river resort zoom in to Gualala River
Wild, Wild West Adventures of Mom, Dad, Girl, and a Little White Dog
Daily Journal
Day 53 of 75:
We leave Harris Beach on the Oregon Coast to head to California!! While we’ve been in California a couple time to visit the Redwoods, this will be our first night officially spending the night in California.
We hop off 101 to take the scenic drive of the Avenue of the Giants! We unfortunately miss seeing the two significant giants off the road because there weren’t any signs off of the main road to tell you where they were. That’s one disadvantage of trying to see things while pulling the airstream - you can’t easily turn around and go back if you missed something. Oh well, we did see some pretty awesome Redwoods even without seeing these extra awesome Redwoods. 😎😜
We Airstream the entire 31 miles of the Avenue of Giants, taking in the outstanding views of the redwoods at a little faster pace than we did yesterday.
Back to 101 until Leggett where we hop on the official start of California 1!!
Driving California 1 has been on my bucket list for awhile now, although pulling Airidessa Airstream wasn’t on the original agenda, she’s part of it now! 😜
Woah.
This is a crazy road. I snapped a screen shot to show the craziness. Poor Alexis didn’t fair very well. She was feeling quite sick. 🤢
She almost made it to Gualala, but after 3 hours of a crazy curvy road, she ended up throwing up 🤮 (luckily OUTSIDE of the truck) right as we were about to pull into the Gualala River Redwood Park. Poor baby. 😥
The first thing the sweet girl said was “Sorry, Daddy, I think I got some throw up on the truck.” She knows Daddy likes to keep the truck clean.
After Alexis settled her stomach, she wanted to explore the Gualala River Redwood Park! Really cool campground!! Totally that nostalgic feel that generations had camped here on their family trip out west. There’s even this cool Cathedral Tree!
Lots of good Redwood vibes!! 🥰
Airidessa Airstream (and the rest of the Wohlgemuths) made it from Leggett to Gualala on California 1. Tomorrow we continue 1 to Pismo Beach!! 🤗🏖 💖🏝 💕
Day 54:
As I step out of Airidessa Airstream I am greeted by a giant Banana Slug!! They say everything is bigger in Texas, but I’m beginning to think everything is bigger in the Redwood Forest. 😜
We start the morning with a morning campfire (always my favorite 😍) roasting bagels and sipping tea, enjoying the sun shimmering through the Redwoods as it slowly rises through the forest. Ahhhhh....... this is almost as good as the morning ocean view. 😎
As Alexis collects kindling, she notices more and more Banana Slugs! 7 in all! She starts to collect them in her habitat she made especially for them with lots of decaying vegetation for these decomposers! And of course, she named them all - Sunny, Saffron, Sorrel, Banana Bread, Fern, Moss, and DashLynn (because she was the fastest 🤣)!
Although we’d enjoy a little more time here, we must travel on!
But it was an AWESOME stay in the Redwood Forest!! What a fun experience!
Now it’s time to head back to California 1 and drive to Pismo Beach!!! Fun, Crazy road!! 🤪
#airstream #redwoods #familytravel #roadtrip
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:46 Avenue of the Giants
01:22 Official Start of California 1
02:32 Gualala River Redwood Park
03:49 Cathedral Trees
04:29 Waking Up in a Redwood Forest with Banana Slugs
06:22 Mommy & Me Review
08:33 Tour the Campground
10:50 Dump Station 💩
11:07 Back to California 1