Sunday, May 3, 2015--Arcata and 52 degrees to Willows and 87 degrees

We left the ocean and Arcata behind at 8 am and headed across the mountains on Hwy 299 toward Redding 148 miles away. We were quickly into conifers. Though I did not get a photo, it was surprising to see pampas grass growing wild along the hillside mixed with pines.

We drove up and down over 4 or 5 different summits, the highest at 3200 feet elevation. This is a panorama photo of one of the summits.

The road was winding and curvy with the speed limit at 55 which seemed too fast to us, but not for the others on the road.

We stopped frequently for breaks, lunch, and to try to find birds. 

The best spot was the turn-off to Hoopa where we chased a Western Scrub-jay around.

 and Paul got a photo of an Acorn Woodpecker.  There were lots of oaks once we got to the east side of the coast range of mountains.

We went for miles and miles along the  Trinity River, lots of muddy water and lots of rapids with a deep canyon and few guardrails. At times it was a white knuckle ride for the passenger!  The driver tended to business!

The saving grace was two different pieces of road construction with traffic stopped for one lane passage. We maneuvered to the end of the line after our lane passed through, and then the next bunch of cars did not catch up to us for a while!

We finally got to the bottom of the canyon beside the Trinity River. Pretty though it was, we were glad to say goodbye to the tiresome twisty-turny road!

At Redding we joined the throng on I-5 South to Willows, CA. The landscape changed dramatically to hilly, scrubby trees

and then to flat farmland with almond and olive groves, the coast mountain range very faint in the distance.

For several miles along the freeway the median was ablaze with colors of pink, red and white flowering shrubs.

We arrived in Willows at 3 pm after a very long and tiring 210 miles--the temperature was 87 degrees!

At our motel an insistent Northern Mockingbird teased us with its loud calls until we finally located it and got its photo.

We also saw a Western Kingbird.

P. S. A curious note is this photo of hot sauce choices in a grocery store--quite a colorful array. We did not sample any!