USA - California - Northwestern California

Dense forests and wild Pacific coast

(photos of April 2005)

To view in full-screen mode: press F11 (press again for normal mode).
To return from a link in Internet Explorer: point at top edge and close window or tab.
To return from a link in Mozilla Firefox, etc: point at top edge and press back-arrow.
Return to Table of Contents

Californian forests and rivers

The mountainous northwestern section of California is covered in vast forests and has little space for human population. Wild rivers prone to damaging floods cut through this vast territory with few roads.

Starting from the north and heading south, we encounter famous Humboldt Redwoods State Park (map), home to the world's tallest trees (one exceeds 112 m or 370 ft). The pictured redwood tree lost much of its base in a fire.

The park borders the long, tortuous and sometimes violent Eel River.

One victim of the Eel River's fury is the railway line that follows it from Eureka on the northern coast to near Willits, leaving abandoned trackage, bridges and tunnels over much of its length, as also seen in the following scrollable 360-degree panorama near Farley (map). Indeed, rainstorms can make the river rise to track level, causing landslides, demolishing bridges, etc. Thus old equipment awaits a new calling at Willits.

Northwest Pacific coast

The rugged northwest coast of California is distinguished by rocky shores, a few dunes, dense forests, strong waves, cool weather and varied wildlife. The following view shows typical rocky outcroppings and dunes north of Fort Bragg (map).

Continuing south along the coast on spectacular US Highway 1, one reaches the charming small artistic town of Mendocino (map) on its beautiful little peninsula surrounded by a colorful rocky coast, as shown in the next 360-degree panorama. It is described in Wikipedia.

Sea Ranch

Driving further south, one passes countless scenic spots (the contrails above are due to flights between East Asian cities and San Francisco or Los Angeles).

Soon Highway 1 cuts through the uniquely Californian community of Sea Ranch (map, also described at Wikipedia). Here, on former sheep-raising meadows, modern wood residences were styled to merge into the beautiful windswept and often foggy surroundings. (The scrollable panorama within Sea Ranch spans 360 degrees.)

Russian River estuary

Between Sea Ranch and the estuary of the Russian River, the coast becomes very steep and treacherous at times, with landslides a constant threat.

The next two panoramas (the first spanning 360 degrees) show the estuary of the Russian River near the hamlet of Jenner, as seen from the north (map). The sandspit, which collects much driftwood, is home to sea lions and sea birds (people may not pass the line of red flags).