The Roads Less Taken

I don't know about you, but I really hate driving the same exact route both coming and going to a destination, even a local destination, like from home to work and back each day. For someone with this particular pet peeve, I live in a brutal place. Only two paved roads go in and out of our county, one north-south along the coast and the other, north-east away from the Ocean into Oregon. For most other towns we go to, there IS only one route to choose from. 


The one exception is when I head south to Arcata or Eureka. Southbound, there's a great scenic by-pass that winds through old-growth redwoods AND saves gas because it's significantly flatter than the highway. I take that most of the time, even sometimes in both directions. But recently, it's been unavailable because of this:

There was a massive tree-fall across the by-pass several weeks ago. This picture comes from the Redwood National and State Parks Facebook page. I've been reduced to stealing photos because of the whole business of the computers in the hands of thieves and the hard drive in the hands of the sheriff. It's annoying.


I have to admit that I'm ok with the trees having fallen -- even though a couple of them were massive old beauties -- because it's a natural process that occurs to trees. It's not as if someone cut them down. But I was definitely not ok with having my alternative driving route taken away for weeks. It's almost ready for action now, after massive efforts to remove the enormous amount of biomass these trees hold. You can watch them on this YouTube video, also courtesy of the amazing media specialist Park Ranger at Redwood National and State Parks.


And you? What are some of your favorite drives?