Crescent City

Battery Point Lighthouse was our primary destination. Built in 1856 it has a unique feature which we were interested in seeing.

Built on a point off the harbor in Crescent City, the stone masonry lighthouse sits 45 feet off the ocean surface on a huge rock. When the tides are in, the rock is literally an island 30 or 40 feet from the coastline. But when the tides are out, you can walk across to the rock. Luckily for us the tides were low in the late morning this week so we were able to get across and tour this unique structure.

One interesting feature of the partnership between the US Coast Guard and the Del Norte Historical Society is that Society operates the lighthouse for the Guard. Because access to the lighthouse is prevented by tides for more than half the day, volunteers actually live in the lighthouse, generally for a period of a month. The volunteers monitor the light’s operation, perform maintenance and restoration, and conduct tours. It sounds like an interesting experience!

About 14 miles north is the St. George Reef Light. In 1865, the paddle steamer Brother Jonathan, struck a rock off Point St. George and sunk. Of the 244 socially influential passengers on board only 19 survived, making it the deadliest shipwreck to that time. In response, the Coast Guard commissioned the building of the St. George Reef Light.

In order to be visible and useful, the Light had to be built out on one of the rocks. To make it work a 50 foot tall caisson had to be poured on which to place the light. Much like Battery Point, the light was on the top of the keeper’s house. Nearly all lighthouses are stand alone with a keeper’s house nearby. As it turned out, it was the most expensive light ever, construction costs coming in at over $750,000, twice the original estimate. Sadly, the Light is not open to visit as you can only get there by helicopter, and they have yet to be able to pull together the resources to do that.

California has many hands full of state parks protecting groves of redwoods. Since Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park was less than 10 miles away we decided to get one more fix of these majestic trees before leaving the area.

Somehow we managed to save the best for last. We ventured into the Stout Grove, named for the family of lumberman Frank Stout who made the original donation of forest land in 1929 for the establishing of this park. I didn’t think that anything in the area could have outshined the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, or the groves we hiked through in Prairie Creek, but I was wrong. Stout Grove actually takes your breath away. The density of mammoth trees makes you feel completely insignificant, like the pimple on the ass of the elephant!

Somehow we managed to get skunked after about a week of hiking in the redwoods. We were told we would certainly spot some banana slugs, but we spotted none. All we were able to scare up was this Wandering Salamander. But he was pretty cool nonetheless.

Talk to you soon!