On Day Two we were ready to see the Redwoods!

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On Tuesday morning we ate our breakfast, packed up our stuff, and checked out of our hotel room. (Did I mention how fascinated Bracken was with the remote control? He had never seen one before and he loved being “King of the Remote” and changing the channels. He also liked turning on the radio and anything else with an on switch he could find in our room.) We stopped to get some gas (boy, was it pricey there) and then headed out on Highway 199, also known as The Redwood Highway. Not far on the drive we were already pointing to redwood trees along the road and saying “woah, look at that one… oh look at that one over there!” Jeff had seen the redwoods before (he even lived in a tree house at one point in his life that was in some redwood trees, he has a lot of good stories which you’ve probably guessed by now), but it had been awhile.

We stopped at the Information Center. We asked for directions to Stout Grove. Our friend April recommended that we go to Stout Grove and when I asked my dad if he had any places he would suggest, he said the same place. So we figured it was a great stop for us to make. I’m really glad we got directions because the sign for the turn could have been easy to miss.

We turned off of 199 to get there. It was a beautiful drive to Stout Grove.

We weren’t to Stout Grove yet, but we got out of the car to marvel at this beauty!

Bracken and I being silly and showing how big it was.

This one had a really neat natural fort on the bottom. Bracken loved it.

I think Jeff looks like a little elf here, popping out of his woodland home.

We saw that Stout Grove was a loop trail. It wasn’t too long of a trail, a good length for us to walk, which worked out great. I knew Bracken wouldn’t be up for a long trail.

It was so awe inspiring, gazing up at those giant trees. Really shifts your perspective in a way that’s hard to explain.

It’s times like these where you really want a high quality camera to be able to capture the incredible beauty!

(Even though capturing them on the lens can never really do these trees justice!)

It was overcast, with the sun popping through here and there. The lighting was just the kind that our camera is finicky about. You’ll notice quite a few blurry photos (please excuse the blurriness), but I really wanted to include them still.

Jeff thought this burl looked like a monkey face and said “take a picture of that!”

Tree huggers.

Once we had soaked up all that goodness for awhile (that place was magical), walking and marveling at all the trees as we went, we got back on the road and back on The Redwood Highway.

The Redwood Highway went from Crescent City to Grant’s Pass. We met my dad in Grant’s Pass (where he works) and then followed him to his farm in Williams.

Bracken got to go on a tractor ride with his grandpa Bob. How fun is that?

My dad, Bob, and my stepmom, Dorrie, by the chicken coop at their farm- Dreamhill Alpaca Farm. We got to visit their animals (alpacas, chickens, ducks, dogs, and cats) and got to see Dorrie’s mom, Zoe, and her stepdad, Roger, who live with them.

Their alpacas had just been sheared.

And then? Bracken wanted me to go on a tractor ride with him. So I stood on the back.

By that point it was getting late in the day if we wanted to get back before it was dark (which we did.) It was about a three and a half hour drive back to our place from there by my dad’s estimates (it took us longer than that.) Bracken had not had a nap all day and he was exhausted. (Can you tell by now that naps are pretty important for him?) My dad and Dorrie gifted us with a bunch of eggs, which we really appreciated. We got onto I-5 and headed north. I hoped that Bracken would nap, but he had reached his limit of car time. It was a long two days for him and a lot of driving. Needless to say, the ride wasn’t very peaceful.

Eventually he did fall asleep for a little bit. Jeff pulled over to quickly grab some snacks out of the back and I snapped this picture. He woke back up in Eugene and was not pleased to see that we were still in the car. We pulled over to give him a break from his car seat for a bit, but we really did need to get home. Luckily, Morning Glory Farm was still open on our way back on 126. We pulled over and got some frozen blueberries and that kept him happy till we got home. We went and checked on our chickens right away. They were fine (but really bored being in the coop for all that time.) We unpacked some, but it got too dark to see so we left it for the morning. We ate some dinner. We were so happy to be home!

I had told Jeff before we left on this trip, that it would be fun to make a tradition of traveling somewhere nearby every year for my birthday. He liked that idea too. We were so glad we went on this trip. However, next year we’ll pick a place to visit that’s much closer so there won’t be so much driving. Then we can spend the time relaxing more together. I’ve already got some places in mind for next year’s adventure. There’s really so many places I’d like to see that aren’t that far from our home!