I told them the few hikes available in the area and the girls decided on the pygmy forest - I'm thinking they were envisioning tiny little trees - so we packed up and headed that way. They trees were small - many topping out at Ryan's height. The hike was quick and we learned quite a bit along the way.
We were all amazed to learn about the Mendocino Cypress that is only in this local area. When outside of the pygmy forest it can grow 100 feet tall. In this forest there are trees that are only 2-3 feet tall and a quarter inch in diameter but they have 80 or more growth rings.
Our next stop was Mendocino Beach were we laughed at all the dogs enjoying the water. They were jumping, and fetching, and rolling like it was their best day ever! The view was not to shabby as well!
Our next stop was Fort Bragg where Brayden noticed a homemade ice cream shop. I'm not sure if there is every a bad time for ice cream because we haven't found it yet! I always love the local flavors too so I tried Hokey Pokey made of ice cream and honeycomb candy made by the candy store down the street. Brayden and Ryan tried Candy Store Floor with tons of bits of candy mixed in and Laney tried cookie dough with oodles of homemade cookie dough and chocolate chips mixed in. It was delicious and a perfect time for a snack but still not as good our Michigan ice cream. I'm not sure we'll find one that is!
They did decided on a new motto though!
Just on the other side of downtown is Glass Beach. According to everything I'd read this place was a dump site until the 50s. They would just back a truck up and dump stuff right into the ocean. I can't imagine the destruction this caused but I guess at least it wasn't a ton of chemicals like we use today. So over the years the glass and garbage was churned and softened in the ocean to return to the beach. There were colorful bits of glass all over! So the kids grabbed a few pieces each and even found me a few heart-shaped ones.
We decided to climb around the boulders away from all the people to enjoy the view and Ryan spotted this guy eating lunch. He dipped in and out of the water always returning to crunch something up and look for more. We were so focused on watching him we didn't even noticed the seal on the rock above him!
We climbed around and checked out all the little tide pools the ocean had left. This was the kids' first experience with the Pacific tides so I made sure they noticed how high the water got and to imagine if the tide came in while we were on the rocks how they might get back to land. It's something I hope we don't have to experience on this trip but I'd rather be prepared!
Ryan was thrilled to see our friendly otter fishing right below her rock. He looked up at her and never was seen again so I'm assuming she scared him like crazy! She thought it was the sweetest, cutest little creature on earth and she was so excited he was only 2 feet away from her!
My kids have always been climbers but probably Brayden the most. He loves to explore and take the tough ways to where he wants to go just to see if he can do it. Today he just wanted to go high.
We left Glass Beach and all the people to drive some of the most curvy roads I have experienced yet. We would be driving S-curves all along the cliffs and then dip into the forest long more curves to get around a cove. Over and over again. We emerged from the forest one time to this view and I had to stop. I've always been drawn to the water and I just wanted to stop and watch it at this spot. It's difficult to drive and still try to see all these views!
Little did I know this would be our last ocean view until just before our spot. We dipped into the forest and prairie for about 2 hours before emerging again at the Redwoods National Forest. It was time for dinner again by the time we arrived so we set up and Ryan cooked some veggie burgers. Laney and I ate 1, Brayden had 4, and Ryan had 2. Where do they put it all?
We noticed there was a program tonight so we hiked to the amphitheater. We were all in awe of the massive trees we were walking next to. There was one that was the size of two of my car at the base at least.
When we got to the amphitheater noone was there. There wasn't a ranger at check in so I assumed this was the spot but the sign was now gone. The kids decided to make up their own program while I texted Grammie to make plans to meet up. We were in another campground without cell service but I noticed there was wifi at the amphitheater. I've actually been very fortunate being able to update the blog at every site up until now. We are used to no service or wifi at the majority of our sites on trips in the past.
We decided to walk back on the road to see the elk in the prairie. We had spotted them sitting down on our hike but they were all now up and eating away. One even decided to cross the road and eat where we were walking. Needless to say we took a detour back to the trail the way we came.
We decided to have another game night beginning with Uno Flip then Brayden finally agreed to let us teach him the new Cataan dice game. Ryan killed us all with her strategic rolls and I came in last trying out a new agressive strategy that failed miserably. It was getting chilly so we retired to the tents to go to sleep. Brayden and Ryan were pretty grumpy so I was hoping sleep would do them good.
