Big Tree day (Visit to “Trees of Mystery” in Klamath CA)

Tuesday:  October 2, 2012 

It’s a very interesting area here in Klamath.  The cold Pacific air blows in from the west directly into the warm land air and causes a lot of fog.  We are located on the mouth of the Klamath River just off of route 101.  There are fishermen fishing for salmon just a couple of hundred feet from our campsite.  Man do I love salmon!

Looking west toward the Pacific Ocean.

Same direction just a little farther back to show the RVs.

Because we are below sea level here by about 100 feet and the trees grow so incredibly tall, we do not have full sun until around 9 am.  The same at night, it’s getting dark at 5 pm.   Add in the constant fog just adds to the fisherman village atmosphere here.  We get up to 50 degrees at 7 am and we have the electric fireplace on to keep the inside temperature to mid-60’s.  When the sun hits us at 9 am we open all of the blinds on the east side of the RV and the inside temperature rises to 70 pretty quick.  Then we run around opening the west facing windows for the day.  Now we are ready to go out and explore.

On the way in to the campground on route 101 we past a touristy place called “Trees of Mystery”.  The place has a very, very large statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox out front in the parking lot.  What we found it that this place is really the real deal.  They have all of the big trees and then some with a recorded tour in boxes along the way.  The tour is too much in the way as you walk the path.  They have a ski lift gondola that takes you to the top of the trees and gives you a good view of the trees from the top.  The ride is only 7 minutes up and 7 minutes down.  I say this as I’m closterphobic and these gondolas are small.  They are supposed to hold 6 people, but since we are off season, it was the 2 of us.  I was mostly OK at 7 minutes.  It would be as nightmare with 6 people though.  We liked it!

Our Sanibel in the center.  The river is behind me.

The new sign for the city.  They are just now putting this up

 We stopped at the local post office to mail a card to Patty's mom. The whole town was all Native Americans of the Yurok tribe with a population of  >600.

Note the trees growing out of the branches of the big tree. Supposed  to be  like 9 trees growing out of the big tree.

The tree is happy to see Patty!

Jut thought this was funny.

Me under and in a tree.

Cathedral Trees.  Many marriages performed here.

This is what we got into.  Only 7 minutes though!

Dam big tree!

Here we go, this is ours!

View going up.

View looking up.

Patty on the trail.

The whole tour at Trees of Mystery took about 2 hours.  We enjoyed it and we learned stuff we may not have just walking around on our own.  They also have some great trees!  Another interesting thing they do is to have you pay at the end of the trail.  The cost was $15 each and that included the gondola trip.  We recommend the place even though it is somewhat commercial.

We were back at the rig by 4 pm, just as the sun was starting to set.  I was hungry for spaghetti and meatballs so we stayed inside and cooked.  We sort of alternate between eating inside and out.  With the sun going down and the fog rolling in, pasta and inside just felt good.

Tomorrow we are going to Crescent City to do some food shopping, maybe wash the salt off the truck, and maybe do a scenic hike.  Patty is studying the hiking trails for a good one for us to do.

Stay tuned!