Summer Vacation to California's North Coast and More!

[Dusty]

My wife and I just got home from our 2-week summer vacation. Some of you might remember our summer road trips from last year and the year before, which were Bronco-only. This year we took the RV, with the Bronco in tow. For those interested, my RV is a 1998 Country Coach Intrigue with an 8.3L Cummins. The Bronco is a '21 Base 2-door that's already been well documented here on the forum.

From our home in Southern California we traveled a total of 3,068 miles. That includes 1,467 miles driving the RV with the Bronco in flat tow, and 1,601 miles in the Bronco itself on side-excursions from our various campsites. Our general route covered much of California's north coast, then hitting some Central Valley and national parks on the way back down. We stayed at 4 different Elks Lodges, one Moose Lodge, and one KOA, spending 2-4 nights at each and making day trips from our basecamps. I'll spare you guys most of the non-Bronco pics from the trip, to keep this on-topic

Or first basecamp was at the Santa Clara Elks Lodge, where we stayed for 4 days to attend the Metallica concerts at Levi's Stadium. The shows were of course amazing. I'll throw in a pic of us pre-gaming in the parking lot

There was an off-day between the two concert dates so we hopped in the Bronco for a day trip over the mountains into the coastal redwoods around Pescadero. I had gone to science camp in that area when I was in 6th grade and wanted to show Steffie around. We grabbed some sandwiches at the store in Pescadero then headed out to the beach for lunch. That sort of set the tone for most of the rest of the trip, which would feature lots of big trees and rugged coasts.

We finally packed up the morning after the second night of Metallica, and headed north to our next basecamp at the Elks Lodge in Petaluma. From there we took day trips out to the coast, from the north end of the Golden Gate to Point Reyes and Tomales Bay, where we had some awesome seafood. Also did an inland tour up through the Bohemian Highway and the Russian River area.

...to be continued...

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[Dusty]

Our next basecamp was at the Benbow KOA, near Garberville CA, which would be our jumping off point for excursions into the Redwood state parks and the Lost Coast.

On our first full day of this leg we headed up to the Avenue of the Redwoods and the cool little towns of the Eel River valley.

Day 2 in this area was our first and only "off-roading" of the trip as we headed out to do Usal Road and Usal Beach. This is deep in the Lost Coast, the most remote stretch of California coastline.

 

[userdude]

Home turf for the Metallica boys.

Been through a lot of that, the Avenue of the Giants and Redwood National Park are pretty amazing. Lot of good beer up through the Russian River Valley, although I think several of the famous ones burned down in the fires few years back.

 

[Dusty]

Next we moved north to the Elks Lodge at Eureka, CA. After getting set up we hopped in the Bronco for an afternoon trip out to the Samoa Dunes, out on the other side of Humboldt Bay, then went into Eureka for dinner.

On our first full day from Eureka Steffie wanted to head up to Oregon since she's never set foot in that state. It was only 2 hours away so I obliged LOL.

We had lunch in Brookings, OR, then headed back to Kalifornistan and enjoyed the scenery coming back down the coast.

Saw a herd of Roosevelt Elks just outside of Orick, CA.

 

[Dusty]

Day 2 from Eureka we headed north again, to Redwood National Park and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Steffie had been on the hunt for banana slugs since our first foray into the redwoods down at Pescadero, where I had kissed my first one back in 6th grade, but so far they eluded us. Sorry for the lack of "Bronco content" in this one but most of our exploring was on foot so we didn't really get many pics with the Bronco that day. The trees in this area are spectacular, even the fallen ones.

It was getting late on our last day in the Redwoods and Steffie still hadn't found her banana slug so she jumped down in a creek bed and poked around under the stink currant bushes and finally hit the jackpot LOL.

 

[Dusty]

Next, we finally turned and headed south, starting the long trek back toward home.

But we had a few more stops to make along the way. First was in Lodi, my hometown, where we checked in to the Lodi Moose Lodge for a few days so I could show Steffie around my old stomping grounds. After setting up we headed into town for dinner and I discovered that one of my favorite old burger joints was still in business so we stopped in for burgers and fried burritos.

The next day I showed Steffie around Lodi, starting at my friend Jim Creel's place, Wild Horses 4X4.

Lodi is the birthplace of A&W Root Beer so we of course had to stop in for one. There aren't many A&W's left but there's still one here in my old hometown of Lodi, and also our current hometown of Mentone, CA.

Had to stop by the site of my former glory, Lodi High School class of '87

Growing up here we lived way out in the country, out near Thornton. So we went and tooled around out there, showing Steffie more sites and locations from my childhood that I won't bore you guys with. We finished if off in the historic town of Locke for refreshments at Al's Place.

 

[Dusty]

After a few days in Lodi we moved one more time, down to Merced, where we checked into the Elks RV Park there. If anyone has any questions about camping at Elks and Moose lodges let me know. The one in Merced is very nice, with full hookups and pull-through spaces. After setting up we headed into town for a drink at their lodge and dinner. This is farm country so we had to pull over to admire the corn LOL. Steffie says corn needs to be "as high as an elephant's eye by the fourth of July" and I think this field has that beat.

By the way did I mention we brought Betsy with us? She's a good camping dog

We would have 2 full days here before the final leg home, so we spent the first one by heading down for a run through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We had just come from the redwoods so Steffie wanted to take a look at the giant Sequoias to see how they measure up!

Steffie said both were quite impressive. She said the vertical length of the giant redwoods was something to behold, but the immense girth of the giant sequoias was truly astonishing

 

[Dusty]

The last day trip of our vacation was a bombing run through Yosemite National Park. You have to have reservations, which we didn't, so we got up early to get through the gates before they start checking, at 6:00 AM. We beat it by about 5 minutes

Here's Half Dome, from the backside

It was only a half-day run through Yosemite Valley then up to Tioga Pass. Really kind of a shame to short-change a Yosemite visit like that, but we only had a short time to do it on top of an hour and a half drive to and from. But we'll be back some day to give this awesome place the time it deserves.

That brought our total to 4 National Parks on this trip. It was also our last "fun day" of the trip. The next day we packed up and headed for home. It was another great summer vacation, thanks for checking it out

 

[Dusty]

Home turf for the Metallica boys.

Been through a lot of that, the Avenue of the Giants and Redwood National Park are pretty amazing. Lot of good beer up through the Russian River Valley, although I think several of the famous ones burned down in the fires few years back.

Yeah there are breweries everywhere up there. I kept wanting to stop at some, but breweries tend to be a time-suck for me LOL. I've been to several of the ones that have been around for 25+ years but none of the newer ones since I hadn't been in that area since then.

 

[FordOwner]

Great pics from an awesome sounding trip! Our family drove up the 101 to see the redwoods and got as far north as Klamath (just over the river) before we started to head back south in April. I also went to Yosemite in April and have a 5 day trip planned for Yosemite later in the summer.

 

[TheShark]

Wow, that looked like a great trip, loved the pics.

 

[Shazamalingo]

Yosemite is the best. We were just there last week in our bronco. Up to the Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Pass, drove around Mono Lake, got some ice cream, and headed back. Was beautiful. And Bertha (the Bronco) got about 25 mpg (‘22 4DR OB 2.7 SAS) the entire time inside the park. She was at home.

NorCal is really impressive and pretty.

Next time, if you can swing Crater Lake in Oregon, you won’t be disappointed.

Congrats on an awesome trip!

 

[Dusty]

Yosemite is the best. We were just there last week in our bronco. Up to the Tuolumne Meadows, Tioga Pass, drove around Mono Lake, got some ice cream, and headed back. Was beautiful. And Bertha (the Bronco) got about 25 mpg (‘22 4DR OB 2.7 SAS) the entire time inside the park. She was at home.

NorCal is really impressive and pretty.

Next time, if you can swing Crater Lake in Oregon, you won’t be disappointed.

Congrats on an awesome trip!

We have Crater Lake on our radar but that will have to be on a future PNW trip

 

[2door]

Awesome pics!

Some of the places look so familiar

 

[Broncoup]

Thank you, for a trip down memory lane!!! I grew up in Northern Cali and I remember many trips to some of these places.

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