Day 8: Crescent City, CA to San Francisco, CA
Redwood National Park, Point Reyes, In-N-Out Burger
The original plan for Day 8 was to drive along the Pacific Coast to San Francisco stopping at Mendocino, Fort Ross, Point Reyes, and Mount Tamalpais. We decided to prioritize seeing Redwood National Park, which we had missed the previous day due to traffic, and cut out everything but Point Reyes.
To keep things quick, we picked a popular loop trail in Redwood National Park and spent only about an hour there.
Next we drove down the 101 until we got to the turn off for Point Reyes National Seashore. We made a stop at the Cyprus Tree Tunnel, the Point Reyes Lighthouse, and Drake’s Beach. There is a historical marker at Drake’s Beach that tells the story of its discovery. In 1579, Sir Francis Drake landed in the area that is now Point Reyes and staked a claim for Queen Elizabeth I. He would later continue on across the Pacific and become the first Englishman and expedition commander to circumnavigate the globe. His success would inspire the English to colonize Roanoke in 1585 and Jamestown in 1607.
After leaving Drake’s Beach we drove to In-N-Out Burger and then on to Mason’s uncle’s house where we stayed the night.
Some observations about the west coast: gas is expensive, but not as bad as we expected. Most gas stations are charging around $3.15 in California. However, Costco gas stations can be as cheap as $2.55. It’s not unusual for Costco to be $0.40 cheaper than the competitor across the street. Needless to say, we’ve been getting good use out of my Costco membership. We’ve only stopped for gas at three places that weren’t Costco since Butte, MT, and each time we only filled up enough to get to the next Costco.
Tomorrow we spend the whole day exploring San Francisco.
