We have arrived in California and add a new sticker to the map tonight.  We did need to change our plans about the Redwood National Park.  There are exactly 3 roads/highways that travel from Oregon to California.  One on the east, one on the west and one down the middle.  The one down the middle is 199 the Redwood Highway.  We planned our last stop in Oregon so we were at that highway and would take it about 87 miles to the Jedediah Smith Campground.  Perfect plan in February when we booked this trip.  In August a wildfire started in the Redwood National Forest and consumed about 95,000 acres.  The highway has been closed for about a month now.  There was an alternative route that required us to drive about 50 or so miles on a forest road, which we have done before and that means just a packed dirt road one lane road.   Google maps estimated 4 hours to travel the 50 miles.  My concern was we can go about 15 miles an hour and that’s if there are no others on the road, highly unlikely.   What if the fire came our way, we would not be able to outrun it.   There was the option of going down 101, the west road, but we had to go back quite a distance to pick it up and the trip was estimated to be 6 hours.  We had discussed 101 before we left and decided not to take it since it is often narrow and turning and not ideal for an RV.   The last choice was going down the east road – US 5 and then quite south to cut across the bottom of the fire and then north again to Crescent City, also estimated to be 6 hours.  We are not through drivers.  We stop a lot for the dog, to switch drivers, to see a town, to eat lunch, get ice cream, basically whatever we see on the road or google.  A six-hour trip for us is closer to 9 or 10, so we nixed all of the ideas.  While we were looking at the east route, I noticed the campground we were going to after the National Park was on the way.  What we decided to do was to stay an extra day in Grants Pass and add another day on the front end of Lake Siskiyou which is in Mount Shasta, CA.  It worked out well.

While driving to Mount Shasta we had a really nice view of it for a long time. 

We stopped in Yreka for lunch.  I did not misspell that; it has its own Wikipedia page.  Jerry found this spot called Nature’s Kitchen and it was very good.   It had a really hippy vibe as you can see from the pictures.  Some guy playing the guitar, all sandwiches, soups and salads homemade and no beef or fried food.   Jerry was a bit disappointed.  I had excellent tomato bisque soup and egg salad on a bed of salad.  Jerry had a tuna sandwich. 

I walked around the town after lunch, and I did write that in the singular for a reason, it must have been a wild west town for sure.   There was a gold rush there in 1851 and I enjoyed seeing the buildings.   Many of them are still housing businesses, a hardware store, several salons, a coffee shop.  There were several old churches too. 

We are now staying in a forest, not a redwood one but a cedar and pine and there are lots of birds around.   I have my bird book out to see if I can identify any.  Saturday, we go to Lassen Volcanic National Park.