Our decision to take this trip wasn’t ever one that we took very seriously. At some point at the beginning of July, we had a casual conversation about how we both wanted to see the redwoods in a Starbucks, and it went from there. Casually picking dates. Casually looking at attractions. Casually booking campsites and buying gear. Until we were not-so-casually sitting in the front seats of Mahala’s Prius, with the back of the car stuffed with duffle bags, blankets, and tents and Moose laying in the backseat. It was suddenly very real that the both of us were about to do something that we thought was a little crazy, but we were too excited to back down.

So armed with high spirits, a sense of adventure, and pink pepper spray cans in our fanny packs, we set off.

A little side note, Mahala’s name isn’t pronounced Ma-ha-la. Its Ma-hey-la. I know it isn’t detrimental to the story but it’s important to me that you know.

Anyways.

Day one: Bandon, OR and Cresent City, CA.

We took I-5 south until we could cut across to Coos Bay. This part of the story isn’t super exciting. It was mostly us just laying the ground rules for our trip and chatting. We were hoping to stop at Coos Bay to let Moose run around on the beach, but lo and behold, there is like, no beach access in Coos Bay so we kept driving until we hit Bandon. We pulled into Bullards state park and finally stretched our legs.

It was cold and cloudy on the coast whereas it had been 95 degrees in Lebanon, so picture this. Grey skies. A little rainy. Everyone is wearing heavy jackets, rain coats, and rain boots. And then there are two girls romping around the beach in shorts and tank tops chasing a dog around.

But it was such a great time. We took a million pictures and just enjoyed the view. The waves were big and chaotic and blended with the grey sky. It was a pretty moody aesthetic. Mahala went to the water to take pictures and I sat on a log with Moose and just watched. It’s very rare for me to say this as someone with some pretty nasty anxiety, but I felt this strange contentment inside of me that I rarely ever feel. In times like those, I just have to close my eyes and drown myself in it.

That’s gonna be a recurring theme in this post. That peace that those of us with anxiety rarely feel.

After we wore Moose out, we got back into the car and continued the journey.

We saw the most amazing and bizarre things that day. The fog was so thick in those coastal mountains, it swept over the sides like steam. At times we had to pull over and just watch. Just observe the world working around us. We saw amazing beaches with giant boulders popping out of the waves. We never see those at the beaches we frequented, and to those who lived in those towns, it was normal.

That was a weird thought for me. How many things do I see every day leave others awestruck.

I’ll skip ahead to California. We eventually got to our campsite in Crescent City, at the KOA campground. It was super nice and we had a cabin and whatnot. Blah blah blah.

We settled in and had dinner, wandered our campsite, and eventually went to bed.

Day two: Trees of Mystery and The Avenue of Giants.

In the morning, we set off to find the Trees of Mystery. We saw a million bill boards for the Sky Trail on the way to Cresent City and we got our hearts set on it.

Y’all, I kid you not. On the way there we hit a roundabout and there was just a giant elk? Deer? What’s the difference – in the middle of the roundabout. Just standing there.

Not important to the story, but we were absolutely tickled pink over this elk. Totally didn’t even think to take a picture.

We got to the Trees of Mystery and the first thing we notice is the absolute unit of a Paul Bunyan and Babe statue. It was talking, the standard “don’t leave your dogs in the car, we’re pet friendly!” and “stop by our gift shop!” recording.

Or so. We. Thought.

We very quickly realized that Paul was NOT prerecorded and he said something along the lines of “you two girls in the parking lot! Bring your adorable dog in with you!” And that’s where we both jumped out of our skins.

Just think about this. The Trees of Mystery has a guy on payroll who’s job it is to talk into a giant Paul Bunyan and startle tourists. Amazing.

So this place was more touristy than we expected but it was still great fun. Admission is $18 per person but it’s worth every penny. There’s so many interesting trees:

The Sky Trail (basically a closed in ski lift that takes you through the trees, service dog friendly too!):

Sorry for the lack of pictures on that one. The view was too good to worry about pictures.

At the top, you get out and there’s a viewing deck. That’s about when we stopped for lunch. There’s two different ways to get down, you can ride the gondala back, or take the…

Wilderness trail (dun dun duuun…)

Y’all they hyped that trail up way too much. There’s a million warning signs outside of it:

Totally made us think that it was gonna be terrible and scary.

The average Oregonian isn’t gonna have any problems on that trail. To be fair, it has some challenging parts but if you can hike Iron Mountain, you got this on lock.

After this trail, we went through the Trail of Tall Tales I think? It’s basically a bunch of carvings recounting the tale of Paul Bunyan. I won’t post all the pictures of the carvings so you can be surprised if you ever decide to go. I can’t spoil everything. There’s a lot more to this place that I’m skipping, but again, I want you to be surprised.

Now here’s some random pictures of the Trees of Mystery that I really liked:

The exact moment Mahala realized there was a bug in the tree roots:

My Moose next to a dog statue:

Fun fact: I had to teach Moose to pose for photos like this and to tolerate hugs. The things they don’t tell you about dog ownership.

A huge tree cut out marking significant historical events in its lifetime:

The whole attraction ends in a gift shop where we of course got t-shirts and magnets.

I’m realizing now that this entire post is turning into a huge wall of text, so I think I’m going to split it up. Stay tuned for the Avenue of Giants and Crater Lake!