USA: California Hwy 1: Portland to Eureka

ICONIC HWY 1 : Portland to Eureka

We began our journey on January 2nd. Slightly concerned of a huge storm was to be passing through for the next week, we left early. We had no real plan except to camp in Big Sur and to visit a bunch of breweries.

This road trip was a little different then all my others. I typically penny pinch my way through states, looking for free camping and cooking all my meals. This time around, mostly because of the weather, we chose to sleep in hotels and therefore ate out for most meals.

Day 1: Portland to Eureka
If we had a bit more time we would have traveled along the Oregon Hwy 1 as well, but let's face it, we didn't want to drive on New Years Day after a fun filled late night. Our drive was snowy and slow on our way to Crescent City.

Crescent City is a sleepy ocean town. We showed up around 2 and it seemed as though the town was still not awake or maybe they just never woke up.
We ate lunch at Beachfront Park which is a lovely space along the ocean. There are jetties you can walk out on (and some you're not supposed too), a swimming pool, rec area, Battery Point Lighthouse, and a 27 hold disc golf course.





Battery Point Lighthouse is accessible via a sand bar at low tide. Unfortunately for us the tide was up and it was stormy but the waves were spectacular.
We put on our hiking boots and rain jackets to play a very wet game of disc golf. This course's landscape is amazing, although the layout of some of the holes are rather silly. The back 9 run along the ocean and you even have to throw over the tide. It seems like it isn't played much so sometimes I felt of was hurting the landscape.

California campgrounds are unlike anything I've seen before. It seems that all State Parks are around $35 dollars a night and many surrounding camp areas that are heavily RVed based are not much cheaper. I typically jump on my phone before I want to camp somewhere and find the closest free area. The California coast is rugged and often without cell service. So I did a lot of research this time around and hope to make it back to update on some of these less expensive campsites we passed on the way.


Elk Country RV Park and Camping: $25/night for tent camping
They aren't joking that this area is Elk Country. We simply drove through but saw hundreds of elk. This was a beautiful area close to the ocean and right near Redwood National Park.

Patrick's Point State Park:
I was told they filmed Jurassic Park in this area.

Arcata/Eureka: We stayed the night in Arcata, unipressively at a travel lodge. I expected the downtown area to be a bit more charming. There seemed to not be much open besides Lost Coast Brewery and an uncanny amount of homeless. Before we got to our hotel we stopped at Redwood Curtain Brewery.

We were a huge fan. simple bar set up with lots of games to play and something going on like trivia night etc going on almost every night.

For dinner, we went to the famous Lost Coast Brewery. To be expected, it was crowded but we got a seat easily and the food was magnificent, debatably better then the beer. It was a unique twist on american faire with huge portions. Here is the menu.