DAY SEVENTEEN
If Day Seventeen could be summed up in two words, it would be ‘HUGE Trees’.
We had read that Northern California is famous for its giant redwood trees but nothing had quite prepared us for seeing them up close. Originally we had planned a short drive along Route 101 through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, but we decided to take a detour onto the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ (part of the old Route 101 before the bypass was built) and we soon knew that we had to spend the rest of the day amongst these majestic trees.
Here are a couple of pictures of the trees (with Iain and Cai for scale)
Of course, Cai wasn’t content to sit beneath the giant redwoods and had soon decided to conquer them one by one…
Luckily there weren’t too many people around to witness her trail of destruction. While the ‘Avenue of the Giants’ itself was fairly busy, once you were out on a walking path it was easy to feel like you were completely alone in this incredible forest. It really was one of the most romantic and enchanting places we visited on the entire honeymoon.
After spending hours wandering through the forest of redwoods, we decided it was time to head off to our next stop. Of course, there was one last thing Cai had to do…
DRIVE THROUGH A TREE!
After all that excitement we rejoined Route 101 and took the exit at Leggett on to Highway 1 — the two-lane coastal road that would be our home for the rest of the trip.
The initial few miles were pretty treacherous — managing to combine steep inclines, hairpin turns AND impatient locals — but once we were on the coast again it was a much more enjoyable drive.
Rounding off a perfect day, we arrived at the ‘Handcrafted Hideaway’ near Mendocino.
We had stayed in quite a few Airbnb properties by this point, and this really was one of the very best. The cabin, and its stunning Redwood surroundings, rejuvenated us after a long trip and the books in the cabin provided lots of fascinating information on the history of Mendocino.
The cabin combined gorgeous, rustic solitude with an impressive standard of luxury, and it was all topped off by wonderful personalised touches like this honeymoon gift from our hosts!
