Ell Alley: Oregon & California: Day 4

Monday, April 21, 2014

Oregon & California: Day 4

On day 4 of our trip (Sunday April 5) Jordan got up early to walk around Crescent City & take pictures. Steve & Rusty were out late the night before. We had breakfast at Denny's.

Crescent City, CA

We continued down US Route 101 for about 15 minutes until we decided to stop at the lovely beach at False Klamath Cove in the Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. After about 30 minutes on the beach, Rusty needed to find a restroom. He left Jordan & Steve on the beach for nearly an hour before he returned. He had gone back to Crescent City, when he might have continued a short distance south to Klamath. Steve was quite worried.

False Klamath Cove, Smith Creek

The next stop was Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We diverted from US 101 to the Newton B Drury Scenic Parkway, which ran along Prairie Creek through a large redwood forest. We stopped for a short hike on the Little Creek Trail, then a much longer hike on the Cathedral Trees Trail. We saw many large redwoods & other forest plants. Many of the understory plants also grow in Washington.

Little Creek Trail, Redwood Sorrel (Oxalis oregana)

Jordan & Rusty

Prairie Creek

Cathedral Trees Trail, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Trillium (our favorite flower).

We had a nice lunch at the Big Blue Cafe in Arcata. It was located on Arcata Plaza, a town square surrounded by many shops & restaurants. Some of the buildings dated back 100 years or more.

Arcata Plaza

Arcata, CA

We continued south on US 101 to Humboldt Redwoods State Park, where we diverted to the Avenue of the Giants. This was an older section of the US 101 that had been rebuilt a short distance away. It was dark & narrow with huge redwoods growing right up against the asphalt. We stopped at Founder's Grove. It was so densely shaded that very little grew in the understory, mostly just redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) which also grows in Washington, although in a different form. It was impossible to take pictures late in the afternoon with such low light. We felt satisfied that we had seen enough redwoods.

We returned to Eureka, checked into our hotel & had dinner at Marie Calendar's right next door. We did not tour the city, but walked a short distance to a small park where the Elk River entered Humboldt Bay. It was pretty there.

Here are more photos from Oregon & California.

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About Ell Alley

Ell Alley is the home of Jetta, Jordan, Kitty, Rusty, Steve & Toby. It is named for the alley beside & behind the house that forms an ell: the shape of the letter L. It is located in the Rainier Vista development, in the Rainier Valley of Seattle, which extends 7 miles southeast from Downtown Seattle to Rainier Beach, between Beacon Hill & the lakeside ridges of Mt Baker, Lakewood & Seward Park. Ell Alley is 4 miles from Downtown Seattle, 0.4 miles from the Columbia City Station & 0.7 miles from the center of the Columbia City Landmark District.

Rainier Valley History

The first settlers arrived in the 1850s, but settlement was slow until the forest was cut down & milled, as it was throughout the city. Developers bought logged-off land toward the end of the 19th century. They laid out the communities of Genesee, Columbia City, Hillman City, Brighton & Dunlap.

Cheap land in the valley, just outside the City of Seattle, attracted Italians of rural origins & they planted large, productive gardens. The north end of the Rainier Valley became known as Garlic Gulch. Japanese immigrants also had farms in the valley. The produce filled local markets including Pike Place.

The Rainier Avenue Electric Railway opened the valley to greater development, reaching Columbia City in 1891 & Renton in 1896. In 1907, the City of Seattle annexed most of southeast Seattle, including the Rainier Valley.

At the start of World War II, Japanese residents were forced into internment camps east of the mountains. Tens of thousands of war workers came to Seattle to work at the Boeing Company, the shipyards & the port. The US government constructed thousands of temporary housing units at Rainier Vista, Stadium Homes (now Mt Baker Village) & Holly Park in the Rainier Valley.

After the war, the temporary housing became public, low-income housing. Suburban development took many white residents away from the valley. Blacks moved into the Rainier Valley from the over-crowded, nearby Central Area. Interracial couples found acceptance here. Filipinos arrived in large numbers.

After the fall of Saigon in 1975, refugees came from southeast Asia: Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Lao & Mien peoples. Many settled in the Rainier Valley. Chinese continued to arrive, although most settled on nearby Beacon Hill. There was a small influx of Mexicans. Somali immigration began after US involvement in Somalia in 1992.

Work on new housing at NewHolly (formerly Holly Park) began in 1997 & continued for a decade, with 1400 units sold to private owners. The rebuilding of Rainier Vista began in 2003 & still continues. Columbia City rapidly gentrified starting in the late 1990s. Many units of new housing were built in the form of townhouses, condos & apartments.

The current population of the Rainier Valley is about 41,000. The racial breakdown is 34.1% Asian, 26.9% Caucasian, 26% African American, 1.6% Pacific Islander, 6.5% Mixed Race, 1% Native American and 3.4% from other races. Hispanic or Latino of any race are 7.2% of the population.

Our Land & Climate

The city of Seattle rests between 2 bodies of water: Puget Sound & Lake Washington. Puget Sound is a substantial part of the Salish Sea & a very small part of the Pacific Ocean. The Salish Sea is set apart from the Pacific by the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington & Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. The dense, wet clouds of the Pacific Ocean travel as far as the Cascade Mountains, near the Salish Sea & not very far from the ocean. East of the Cascades lies the desert of the Columbia Basin. The moist, temperate climate of Seattle extends south to northern California & north to southeastern Alaska. The Pacific Northwest Coast from San Francisco Bay to Cook Inlet shares a flora dominated by evergreen coniferous forest. The central portion, west of the Cascade Mountains, is called Cascadia. The climate is cool & wet from fall to spring, warm & dry in summer. The Olympic Mountains block Seattle from much of the Pacific rainfall. Seattle is drier than the Atlantic coast of North America & northern Europe, cooler in summer & warmer in winter. It lies near the latitude of Paris & Quebec City.

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Monday, April 21, 2014

Oregon & California: Day 4

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