Travelogues
2019 Oregon Trip

Sunday, July 21

Back to Red Bluff

Today was a long, tough drive to Red Bluff. We only had to drive about 6 miles to enter California, but then we backtracked north on Highway 197 and 199 to find a corridor through the mountains to Interstate 5. The first 50 miles on Highway 99 was gorgeous as we drove through the coastal redwoods and then through the very narrow gorge of the Smith River. The downside was the road was VERY narrow in many areas with the redwoods right at the edge of the pavement. Many of the redwoods bore the scars of vehicles that had misjudged the space. Even when we got past the redwoods, the narrow gorge was nothing but a series of curves. It would be fun to drive in a sports car, but not so much in a motorhome and toad.

We backtracked north all the way to Grants Pass before we reached I-5. From there, we cruised over the pass near Ashland, through the Cascades and over Lake Shasta, down into the Central Valley, and finally to Red Bluff. As expected, Red Bluff was well over 100 degrees when we arrived. The first order of business was to get plugged into electricity in our campsite and turn on both A/C units.