Mile 5389 – Prospect, Oregon. Started out in Gold Beach, on the Oregon South Coast. It looked like it was going to be another sunny day, but as we started off, we soon got fogged in. That spoiled P.J.’s intent to take an “Aunt Esther postcard picture” of Arch Rock and other South Coast monoliths. We could not see a thing.
On to Redwood National Park, dipped into California. Two of Aunt Esther’s postcards today were in a tacky park called the “The Trees of Mystery”, with a talking 45-foot-high Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox, “Babe”. Normally, we would not have paid to enter such a place, but Aunt Esther “made us do it”. One of the post cards was of the “Cathedral Tree”, a half circle of nine redwoods grown together. Today there are religious texts displayed and schmaltzy music playing. You can now rent the tree for weddings. I am convinced that those who do get married there will live happily after, because they would lack the discrimination to find enough fault with each other for the necessary divorce.
At the end of the day, we needed to drive back to Oregon and we decided to take a “shortcut” through the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It was a one-lane dirt road that snaked between giant redwood trees, but what a spectacle! The highlight of the day and totally unexpected!
Once we crossed the Cascades on our way to Crater Lake, the weather changed from a foggy 57 (14 C) to a smokey 86 F (30 C). We have not experienced heat in three weeks! The sky turned smokey yellow because of forest fires. ‘Tis the season.
Vintage Postcard Project: August 30: Redwoods, California
[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]