Trinidad, CA

Cottonwood, CA - Trinidad, CA
5/17/24

Miles Traveled   178
Trip Total          4204
Travel Time       5:52

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA

What a day!  Todays drive from Cottonwood CA, to Trinidad CA has been they toughest drive yet.   When we made our reservations for Azalea Glen Campground they sent both Mark and I a confirmation email.  Neither of us read past the dates and check in time.  WHAT A MISTAKE. 

Leaving Cottonwood our GPS gave us the choice of two routes through the mountains.  Highway 229 or Highway 36.  Both Mark and I thought that Highway 36 would be a more scenic route as it would bring us lower on Highway 101, along the coast.  

Highway 36 is the road from hell.  The speed limit in the entire road is 55MPH. During the entire 88 miles I never made it above 40MPH, and spent lots of time under 20MPH.  The entire time we were either going uphill or downhill, as for guardrails I guess there was no  money in the budget for them, instead they spent the money on carving the roads out of the sides of cliffs. As the very narrow road twisted and turned through hairpin curves, the state was nice enough to add a couple of signs "Roadway Narrows".  What the hell, I could hardly fit between the white line and the yellow line as it was and then the road gets even more narrow.  Literally 10 inches from the white line, the hill just dropped away.    We have definitely done steeper hills and longer hills but these were crazy.  One trip we climbed 6000 feet, the highest elevation change we faced today was 4000 feet.   

About 2 hours into our trip we could smell the brakes heating up, and the Tire Pressure Monitoring System alerted me that my front tires we 148 degrees, normal temperature is 80 to 85.  Angel radioed Mark & Karen and told them we were pulling over the first place we could find.   Once we pulled over I was able to measure the disc brake temperature and they were over 250 degrees.  With what little cell service we had i found out that this was normal for the type of driving we were doing.  Apparently as long as the disc stay under 300 we are ok.  After everything cooled down we headed back up and down the mountains.  This time I kept the RV in 2nd gear, and that help slow us down.  The brakes still heated up but not as fast.  

After getting over the brakes heating up we started hitting construction zones.  The construction zone were both a blessing and a curse.  The blessing was it gave the brakes time to cool down between mountains.  The curse was the construction zones made the roads one lane, and we had to wait up to 15 minutes at each one.   They would shutdown traffic in both directions for a few minutes, then they would let each direction go, one at a time.   

The last construction zone was in the middle of the Redwood Forest, with giant redwoods on either side of the road.  After sitting for about 10 minutes they let the opposing traffic through, and one of the lumber trucks hit our side view mirror. After he hit our mirror we heard an even louder bang, and both Angel and I thought he sideswiped the entire RV.  The worst part is the driver never stopped.  After talking to the driver of the pickup truck behind us, it turns out the second bang was the truck hitting a redwood tree on the opposite side of the road.  

Looking at the sideview mirror, the mirror glass was knock out of the housing, and hanging by wires.  I was able to unplug the wires and save the glass.  Driving past the construction zone, we found a turnout where we pulled off.  Fortunately other than the glass falling out there was no damage. With Mark's help I was able to get the glass back in place, and other than a bunch of stress everything was fine. Using the video from the dash-cam, I was able to identify the truck, and get the trucking companies contact information. Since there was no damage to the RV we did not contact the trucking company, but it is nice to know that the camera does work.  

After pulling out of the turnout, the roads got much wider and the hills were not very steep, The last hour was much easier.

Now for the great part of the trip.   Before we even got out of Cottonwood Angel & I had to stop twice, for cows in the road.  The first one was just walking down the road with out a care in the world.  As we approached she started heading into our lane, as we got closer she got out of the road, but looked like she was coming back into the road at any second.   The second cow stopped in the middle of the road right in front of us, turn and looked at us, and was like what the hell are you driving in my pasture for!

While Highway 36 was the highway from hell, it was also a beautiful drive.  In a car it has be incredible.  The views and the scenery were unbeatable.  Sorry but we did not take any pictures while we were driving.  (Karen did get a couple of pictures of us going through one of the steepest turns.)  Then when we got close to the end we arrived in the Redwood Forest.  If Angel opened her window she could have reached out and touched the redwoods as we drove.  It is unbelievable how large and close to the road these trees are.

Leaving Highway 36 we turned onto Highway 101 which runs along the coast.  (This is the reason we took the route we did, just to spend more time on 101.)   I am not sure it was the right decision but as we crested a hill and saw the ocean in the distance it sure took  some of the suck out of the days drive.  As much as we have seen the Atlantic Ocean, in northern California the Pacific Ocean is an entirely different animal.   Instead of miles of sandy beaches the coast is lined with hills and rocks with small pockets of beaches.  

We arrived at Azalea Glen Campground much later and tired than we planned, when I mentioned to the host that Highway 36 was a long tough road, she exclaimed "Oh God, you did not take 36!" didn't you read our email.  Apparently in the bottom of the email there is a line:

9. We do not recommend Hwy 36. Use Hwy 299 if possible.

but it is one of many in a list, several of them highlighted, we wish that line had been highlighted!

Once we got the RV's setup, we headed to the beach and then a quick dinner.  Of course when we got to the beach I had to run in the water.  COLD, but I had to do it.  Six weeks from shore to shore.  The west coast is much different than the east coast.  First the sand is much different, it is grey and black instead of the white sand that we are use to.  Next the beaches are very rocky, and not little rocks, the mountains come right to the beaches, and the biggest difference is parking and the beaches are free. 

Leaving Trinidad we are heading up Highway 101 to Crescent City, CA.