Day 18: Gold Beach, OR to San Francisco, CA

Have you ever heard one of the travelers (or counselors) say they can’t get up early? Well we are all veterans at getting up and in the bus before the sun rises now. The loading crew got started at 5:30 this morning and when we got all packed up, we were on our way to San Francisco, California! Breakfast was a short distance down the road at McDonald’s in Brookings, Oregon. Everyone was patient as they did a fantastic job of getting all 81 travelers, 5 counselors, a tour director, a tour owner and 2 bus drivers our food, fed and out the door in approximately 45 minutes. 

Our first stop of the day would be at The Avenue of the Giants inside The Greig Grove of The National Redwood Forest. We found ourselves among clover patches, a fern filled forest and the biggest standing and fallen Redwood trees we have ever seen before. We took advantage of a path into the woods that led us on a short hike, only to come back to the beginning to take pictures, and climb and sit on the fallen Redwoods. The trees were so big that the travelers had to help each other onto the fallen trunks to even sit on some of them. One group of guys even connect arms to wrap themselves around a standing Redwood. You could hear our group from a distance away as the joy and laughter echoed throughout the forest. The Redwood stop ended with a group picture. After lunch and food bellies, due to the rest area not having plumbing, the travelers found themselves napping until we arrived in San Francisco.