PCH - Day 5 (Eureka CA to Portland OR)

Today I drove from Eureka CA in the Humboldt Bay area of northern CA up through the Redwoods National and State Parks and the Oregon Coast before turning inland to Portland. I stopped at 'Trees of Mystery' in Klamath CA to get a picture of their giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox which are famous on the route. They have a guy on a microphone who's speaking as if he is Paul Bunyan so there's this booming voice coming out of this giant statue, it's fun to watch the little kids reactions. I decided to take the tour of the 'Trees of Mystery' which was really fun -- they have lots of oddly-shaped trees, burls, lightning trees, old redwood giants that fell and were grown over etc. in addition to just a gorgeous forest of redwoods and spruce trees. After the tour, they send you through the gift shop to exit like a bunch of places but this particular shop also has a 5-room exhibit on all of the Native American tribes, from the pueblos of the southwest to the coastal tribes to the northern plains, it was really interesting and supposedly is one of the best private collections around. After that I drove into Oregon and along the coastline which features a bunch of rivers and bridges and bays that come in and out of the shoreline. I stopped in a place called Gold Beach for lunch which was a great little sleepy beach/surfer town and then kept moving up the coastline to North Bend/Coos Bay. I saw a ton of VW buses of every color along the way which was fun. After Coos Bay, the Oregon coast turns towards a 'dunes' area with huge windswept sand dunes that people body surf on like the waves. When I got up to Newport, I took the turn inland across Route 20 into a central valley and then onto I-5 to head into Portland. I stayed in downtown Portland for the night. I walked around a bit to explore the area when I got there in the evening and more the next morning, on first impression it's a very hipster-y foodie driven scene and if you were into taking advantage of the outdoor activities around Portland you'd love it but I can imagine it feeling like a small community.