Smith River NRA, California--June 30 & July1

From Harris Beach we headed into California. We hoped to find a campground somewhere along US 199 which is also known as Redwood Highway. We stopped at the Smith River National Recreation Area information center. The ranger told us about two campgrounds she thought would have spaces--Panther Flat and Patrick Creek. Panther Flat was 2 miles east of the information center. They had spaces, but not through July 4th. So we drove about 5 more miles and stopped at Patrick Creek Campground. It was originally built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the 1930s.

There were spaces available at Patrick Creek so we took one we thought would get good solar since there were no hookups. Unfortunately, our spot had too much shade when the sun was directly over us--even though it didn't look like it! We did okay with recharging even though we didn't get much sun. At least we didn't have to run the heater! This was the first campground where we haven't had to run the heat. That's right, we have needed heat every night of this trip! Yes, it is the end of June and into July! We've been on the road since November 14 (237 days)!
This is Patrick Creek for which our campground was named.

We walked around the campground and then we went across the highway (but not really--we walked on the path under the bridge) to Patrick Lodge. It was also built in the 1930s as a roadhouse for travelers going between Cave Junction, Oregon and Crescent City, California. We went back to the campground for the night and just rested.

Tuesday morning we went hiking. Our first stop was the Myrtle Beach Access to the Smith River. It was located near the old stage road where we went to visit Stout Grove in Redwoods NP. We walked down to the river to look for gold since this was a large mining area.

We didn't find any so we drove about a hundred yards down the road to Myrtle Creek Trail. It was an interesting trail as it followed an old mining ditch used to run a hydraulic monitor during mining days. The monitor blasted out huge areas of rock and sand with an enormous stream of water. The trail had signs pointing out different flora of the area and remnants of mining equipment. Some of the equipment is on the National Historic Register! Hard to believe since most of it is rusted and rotted!

At the end of the trail there is a short path to Myrtle Creek which followed the trail, but was down in a small gorge. The water was cool, not something I would want to wade in. We looked for gold in all the appropriate places, and still came up empty handed. We'll have to keep our retirement checks--can't give them away yet!

We returned to the campground and decided to visit the lodge again. This time we weren't sightseers, we were patrons of the bar. We sat and watched the traffic go by. We have seen more rvs and travel trailers out here than anywhere else we've been.

The plan for Wednesday was to visit Oregon Caves National Monument.