We’re in Eureka, CAand have a few more hours until we head to Ferndale to camp for the night. A short day (~40k) as we originally intended to take the day off to explore Eureka/Arcata. But lack of hotels (it’s graduation weekend at Humboldt State University) and a push to get to San Francisco by next Friday is moving us on.

We’ve been through the redwoods, we might be through some more and we already have a different kind of coast ahead of us. It makes the Oregon coast seem so so far away, especially when trying to push thoughts of it aside to not judge California against it.

But while memories are still fresh, I’m going to make a toast to magnificent Oregon sand dunes. The first area we came across was after the Cape Lookout climb (I think). It was a longer climb and after cruising downhill for a bit the forest suddenly opened up into a landscape like nothing I’ve ever seen: evergreens growing from sand, cool air and dry grass.

That was just a taste of what we would encounter further south. Staying at the Honeyman State Park, a path lead us to a massive dunes area. We wanted to get to the ocean but after climbing over a number of sand hills and one big mountain (I started wondering if sand-alanches were possible and later heard they are), the ocean was still far, night was coming and we were without headlamps.

The view from where we were was spectacular enough already so we enjoyed that and…

…taking the fun way back down of course.

As was demonstrated for us in Cape Kiwanda:

It’s an area I hope to get back to for more exploration in the future, maybe sleep a night in the dunes.