Scotia California

We are in redwood country now. It was a beautiful drive here through forested hills and canyons.We crossed a couple of high bridges over the Eel River. From that height we could look down over the tops of the trees and into the river canyons below. Quite a spectacular sight!  Highway 101 in this area can be quite narrow and winding. John commented that it was similar to driving on the coastal highway except that this time he was trying to avoid the big redwood trunks on the sides of the road, not rocky boulders. There were many tempting stops along the way such as the drive through tree, and tree/log houses to tour. Many small shops sold tree carvings and large wooden statues. How is this for a log sandwich?

Sometimes I think that it is good that we are driving a big rig because then we are less tempted to stop at the tourist traps! After we had parked at our next scheduled rv park, we drove our little tow car into the town of Scotia. This was one of the few remaining company-owned towns in the late twentieth century. The logging company, Pacific Logging, went bankrupt several years ago. It was interesting driving around this small town. Small houses (all looking alike) line up neatly on each street. We saw steam coming up from under the streets. We wondered about what would cause that phenomena, maybe some underground fire from the logging mill? We asked a town resident who was working in her lawn. That steam was the source of free heat she received in her home, provided by the power plant nearby. And that heat source was going to be cut off soon because the power plant was going to be shut down.  My thoughts were then  in sympathy for the townspeople- first unemployment, and now they had to buy furnaces for their homes. I  wondered if the Pacific Logging Company could have done anything to avoid bankruptcy, but I all know of that situation was that they got into trouble when California would not let them continue to cut old growth trees.The manager of the park we are currently residing said that the trees here were once part of that logging operation and now there are third growth trees around us. It is impressive how these tall trees grow out of the old stumps!