Pacific Northwest Road Trip: Day 8

Upon waking this morning, we were met with rain…the forecast predicted 100% chance of rain all day. This prediction, it seems, was right on the money. Neither of us wanted to spend hours hiking in without the prospect of it ending so we had a lounging day in our hotel room, then we went to Wal-Mart to pick up some fruit, lunch meats, cheese and other odds & ends.

Not wanting to waste an entire day in our hotel room we discovered that there was scenic drive that wound through the heart of the southern portion of the Redwood National and State Park system. It is called the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway, spanning ten miles and ending just past the Prairie Creek Visitor Center and Park Headquarters.

Newton B. Drury (1889-1978) served in WWI in the U.S. Army Balloon Corps. We had just seen an exhibit about the Balloon Corps when we visited the Museum of Flight that I featured on Day 5 of this blog. The U.S. Army Balloon Corps were responsible for using hot air balloons to conduct ariel reconnaissance, mapping of battlefields, spotting enemy positions and directing artillery fire. It is thought that Drury’s witnessing of the destruction of war motivated him to becoming a conservationist. Drury went on to serve as the 4th Director of the National Parks Service under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1940 to 1951. After his tenure at the National Parks Service, Drury became the head of the California Division of Beaches and Parks. During his tenure here he championed the preservation of the Redwoods, serving as board chairman of the Save the Redwoods League until his death.

The drive was really very lovely, slower paced than US-101 and it is not open to commercial vehicles which was a bonus. We even enjoyed the consistent but soft rain which lent a sense of romanticism to the drive.

It is remarkable how big and close the trees grow next to the roadway. The scenic highway is a paved two-lane road with many areas where one can pull over to let faster traffic pass or to pause to snap a photo. We saw many trailhead markers along this highway also; there isn’t a designated parking area so those who want to hike a specific trail just pull over to the oversized shoulder to park then access the trail. We plan on coming back to this area and hiking some of these trails in the coming days.

View from the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway

We took the Scenic Highway all the way to the Prairie Creek Visitor Center. Inside the center were some souvenirs for sale, trail maps, and park rangers giving recommendations and directions to hikers. There was a magnificent art sculpture by Jennifer a’Midi of a full-sized Roosevelt Elk covered in mosaic tiles representing 138 unique habitats, plants, animals and fungi native to California. So beautiful!

This area of the park is known for its population of Roosevelt Elk which are commonly seen, unfortunately we did not see any on our drive today.

We turned around for our drive back, retracing our route through the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway. We had noticed on the drive out that there was another scenic road titled the Cal-Barrel so we decided to take it to see what it was all about.

This road was an unpaved dirt road, very narrow and could accommodate only one vehicle at a time. If you encounter another vehicle coming from the opposite direction you just have to do your best to pull over far enough to let them pass. The going on this road was slow, we only managed 5-10 miles an hour, so the 3 miles length seemed much longer.

I’ll admit I was getting a bit anxious; the road was muddy and beginning to pool with water in the tracks left by previous vehicles. I kept imagining getting our wheels stuck in the mud and being stranded in middle of the forest. These are the times that I wished we had a Jeep! However, my hubby wasn’t at all concerned, encouraging me to continue on to see what was at the end.

At the top, the road opens up to a wide dead end where there are some trail heads that can be accessed if you want to hike on by foot. There was also a marker that said, Remembrance Grove. There is another plaque with the name Arthur A. Schmidt, 1880-1947. I could not find any more information on this man, although on the Find a Grave website it does list his burial site in Los Angeles and a few other relatives including his son Frederick. Frederick Schmidt served in WWII as a First Lieutenant in the Army. He was tragically killed in battle in 1945 and is buried in the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Liege, Belgium. Arthur and his son passed within two years of each other, was the sorrow of losing his son too much? May you both rest in peace. You can read Frederick’s full obituary here, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56285309/frederick_a-schmidt