Adventure to the Fort Rock Homestead Travel Blog

To kick off the summer of 2024, I jumped in the car with my parents for my first ever, legitimate road trip. I was intent on driving from Southern California up to Fort Rock, Oregon where my great grandparents, George and Myrtle Foltz, had homesteaded, and then taking the original Highway 1 all the way back down the Pacific Coast, meandering through all the majestic redwoods. The excursion was many years in the making, and so, too, is this travelogue documenting every stop!

My parents had both previously visited Fort Rock, but I needed to see it for myself after all the research I had done on the property. Plus, after watching the BBC series Detectorists and countless episodes of The Curse of Oak Island, I was convinced that waving a metal detector over the property would unlock further clues to my family's presence there.

I plotted out a 10-day trip, and off we went!

DAY 1

My NorCal friends were more than familiar with making a stop at Bravoland in Kettleman City, CA off the 5 freeway. My family and I on the other hand? We had never, ever seen a need to exit at this rest stop. Our go-to had always been south of it in Bakersfield. But when I learned it was kind of like a mini amusement park, I made it our first Point Of Interest on our road trip.

We got there early enough in the day (and on a weekday, no less), so we didn't have to worry about crowds. It was a cute and fun place to kill some time and have a nice lunch. They have some carnival games indoors, kitschy antique shops, and even a "Country Bear Jamboree"-like show. Plus, the outdoor eating area was themed for adults in an old western town, but behind the facades were slides and jungle gyms for the kids to play on.

We took our time here, because other than making our way up to the Sacramento area for our first hotel stay, I didn't have anything else planned for the first leg of our trip.

DAY 2

Just north of Sac, in Woodland, CA, is the California Agriculture Museum. I know what you're thinking - boring. But it's free admission, and they have a collection of over 100 tractors, old automobiles, and farming equipment. It was honestly a pretty neat stop. They host plenty of school field trips, so their exhibits are set up in a very fun and informative way. (FYI, as of February 2026, the address we visited is temporarily closed as they plan to relocate).

I even learned a fun factoid that had escaped my U.S. history classes. Have you ever heard of the Lincoln Highway? It was one of the first transcontinental highways in the United States and designed specifically for automobiles in 1912. It ran coast to coast from NYC to San Francisco. In the late 1920s, it was decommissioned, but cement markers were cast that were placed along the original route. Of course, over the years, they've been stolen, fallen over, been overgrown, came into disrepair, etc., but an association has made it their duty to recover as many as possible and save them as artifacts. The California Agriculture Museum had one on display!

After an exhausting morning of sign reading at a museum, it was time for lunch. Woodland has a cute little spot called The Hive that does free honey tastings. Not only did they serve up a delicious gorgonzola and pear pizza, but their honey offerings were first class. 

My parents and I aren't drinkers, so a honey sampling was such a neat alternative on the road. And their small jars for sale made great souvenir gifts for friends and family.

Our hotel was just a few short hours north in Redding. We made the quick drive up and checked in to the Americana Modern Hotel. To be honest, out of all of our overnights, this was the riskiest one I thought I had booked for the trip. It resembles more of a motel than a hotel from the looks of it (and the front desk staff confirmed it had been purchased and flipped). 

But in the end, I can now say this was my favorite place to stay on our trip out of the more budget-friendly locations I booked. If I find myself in this area again in the future, I'll definitely be returning. They are also super dog friendly! Their lobby included a polaroid scrapbook of all their furry guests. It was adorable.

After we dumped our stuff in our room, we took a 10 minute jaunt down the 299 highway to Shasta State Historic Park. The area is home to a row of brick buildings in ruins dating back to the district's mining days during California's Gold Rush era. Free street parking was easy along the highway, so we were able to get out and meander along the wooden plank walkways. 

They have placards with the history of each building and old photographs depicting what they looked like in their heyday. There was even a spooky overgrown cemetery, but unfortunately it was locked up, so I wasn't able to walk through it. 

I believe during their operating hours of Thursday to Sunday 10-4, it may be available for tours, but we visited on a Wednesday so everything was closed down, save for the local freemason lodge that had minimal activity coming and going.

DAY 3

The following day had us still trekking up north. I may love a tourist trap, but what I absolutely can't pass up is a seldom visited point of interest. I learned of a somewhat hidden natural soda water spring tucked away in a small bedroom community at the base of Mt. Shasta, and I had to check it out.

I didn't dare attempt to drink it, but I could tell the neighbors were used to the odd passerby climbing through the overgrowth behind their trash cans.

As we drove up and behind Mt. Shasta, we stopped for the obligatory scenic family photo. We got lucky with extremely nice weather and a great view of the snow-topped landscape.

Then, just over an hour of driving later, we crossed the state border into Oregon! I was very underwhelmed by their welcome sign, mind you. It came and went very quickly without a proper turnout for photos.

I navigated us to the first of two museums for the day. Favell Museum holds a collection of Native American artifacts and items from indigenous groups, including artwork. I didn't expect to find a connection to our homestead town of Fort Rock here, but I sure did! 

Fort Rock was "put on the map" in the late 1930s when archaeologist Luther Cressman first discovered a cache of sandals in a cave dating back about 10,000 years! They had been stored by local indigenous tribes that had made them out of sagebrush. While many similar sandals have been discovered around the high desert of Oregon in years to come, Cressman's find was the largest, exposing about 100 pairs of them under thick layers of cow dung, bat guano, and other dirt and grime that had accumulated in the cave over the millennia. [Note, as of Feb 2026, the Fort Rock discovery still holds the record as the most pairs, but at Cougar Mountain Cave, researchers have just discovered sewn material that can date back even further to roughly 12-13k years ago that may also have been a pair of sandals!]

The Favell Museum had an exhibit on display which featured prominent caves surrounding the Fort Rock area, along with a pair of the infamous sandals discovered there. Prior to our roadtrip, my online research had led me to believe that only the Museum of Natural History in Eugene, Oregon had one of the sandals on display. And because that would have been too far off our path, I had resigned myself to missing out on this attraction. However, the Favell Museum made my day with my first sighting of one of the sagebrush sandals!

After that exciting find, we crossed over to downtown Klamath Falls where I led us into the Klamath County Museum. This museum is of a larger scale and definitely meant for school field trips. They had tons of interactive exhibits that would entertain both children and adults alike (and probably annoy a few, too -- like the buttons that would play different animal sounds over a loudspeaker).

I was pleasantly surprised to find an entire exhibit room dedicated to Luther Cressman and his Fort Rock sandals discovery. They also had a sandal on display to gaze upon! If you can't tell by now, in addition to genealogy, archaeology is also an interest of mine. But because Cressman's find was located on my family's Oregon stomping ground, it captivates even more of my attention.

It was finally time to nourish ourselves. We chose the Common Block Brewing Company which had only recently opened where the old town creamery had once stood (I love a fun historical fact). The brewery had implemented an app-only based model for ordering your food straight to your table, which I actually really enjoyed. It was easy to customize everything and their servers were super helpful. Plus, their brussels sprouts were amazing. The restaurant even had an arcade and amusement area in a backroom.

Following lunch, we made a quick stop at our first Oregon gas station. I was waiting to try out our first Full Service experience where the attendants pump your gas, but alas, it turns out Oregon had recently started rescinding their law. Half of the pumps were still designated for Full Service but the other half were Self Service. And it's better that we didn't have to wait for their slow-moving attendants to pump for us, anyhow.

After that let-down, we were back on the road for about 2 hours, arriving at our Best Western in La Pine. We were staying here for the next 3 nights! It's a good thing it was a decent hotel. Our only complaint was the number of mosquitos swarming in their parking lot that were extremely blood-thirsty. They'd attack you the moment you opened the car door!

DAY 4

Finally, we'd reached the main destination area for this road trip. La Pine is situated about 45 minutes from Fort Rock by car. It was the nearest town I could find with a decent place to spend the night. Seriously. The only other options nearby were RV camping sites or a couple AirBnBs that did not look hospitable in the slightest. So I had to account for drive time to and from Fort Rock when planning out our days.

First stop was HOLE-IN-THE-GROUND. Yes, that's right. It's literally just a giant hole in the ground; a huge depression, like a large circular basin from a volcanic explosion. Again, I'm a sucker for a random tourist attraction. Honestly, it was quite something to look at. But I would highly suggest you only make a visit during the daylight hours and with a 4-wheel drive vehicle. We nearly got stuck in the sand, because you have to go off-roading to reach this place (and GPS does not keep its connection throughout many pockets of this forested area)! This is not somewhere you want to go alone or without supplies.

Then, it was on to Ivan Beeler's old property in what once was the town of Fremont. The town faded into oblivion as the homesteading years were phased out. But remnants of some of Beeler's structures still exist. Ivan holds significance because he was one of the men who signed as a witness on my great grandfather's homestead patent. And surprisingly I was able to find a photo of him and his family in an old newsletter by the county historical museum:

"Beeler family who homesteaded near Fremont: Oak Beeler with covered wagon. Ivan driving team.", undated photo courtesy of Lake County Museum archives; Marie Lee, "Lake County Tribune published at Fleetwood in 1918"; The Community Breeze (Precision Mail Services, North Lake Communities, Oregon : September 2021).

We traipsed around his lot for a few minutes trying to make sense of what the rotted lumber may have been used for back in the day. More than likely, I think we had stumbled upon a small barn or shed for his farm animals, as there appeared to be a trough of some sort made of cement.

Down the road a bit was Fort Rock. The highway has been built up over the years, so that there are two deep ditches on either side of the road with no turnouts, making it rather impossible to pull off to the side of the road and park in front of what was originally my great grandfather's property. This put a bit of a kink in my plans, as I had expected to have the car nearby filled with water and supplies (and air conditioning) while I was out metal detecting on the land!

We had to pivot a bit. So, my dad and I took the essentials from the car, ready to go exploring out in the midday sun in the high desert. My mom drove the car a mile down the road and parked at the Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum, keeping the A/C all to herself.

I had bought a metal detector for this purpose alone, and had reached out to all of the government entities in the area beforehand to obtain permission. Because the property that my great grandfather owned is now designated as public land (managed by the Bureau of Land Management), I had free rein! There are just state laws that govern what artifacts you can and cannot retrieve upon discovering them; most notably historic fossils are a no-no for stealing. However, what they didn't tell me ahead of time is that the property is lined with barbed wire fencing. That was our first obstacle, having to crawl under that!

I left a bright orange box near the point in the fence that we had entered, as this is vast desert land in which you can easily get disoriented in terms of how far you've walked and in what direction. The land is covered with waist-high sagebrush bushes and no other good distance or place markers to help guide you.

I had studied many maps leading up to this trip of the Foltz property and had a pretty good idea of where the house had stood in relation to the edge of the property line, so I took off in a westerly direction with my metal detector. My dad decided to head east in the opposite direction, so we were spanning the width of the property. What it didn't take long for me to notice was that all of the water bottles were in his backpack! And many times when I'd look in his direction, even knowing the general vicinity of where he should have been standing, I couldn't see him. That just gives you an idea of how easily camouflaged you can become in the desert, even when not trying to blend in.

I had brought bright orange flags on metal poles to stick into the ground for when my metal detector "hit" on something that could help signal me to return to that location to then dig it, but I quickly realized these weren't going to work. I'd never be able to find them amongst the sagebrush once I had walked even just 10 feet away. So again, I had to alter my plan of attack and decide to dig for an object right then and there if I decided the beeping on my metal detector warranted a strong enough signal, rather than marking them to return to the ones that were maybe not so strong. The first "hit" I got, I actually decided to pass on it, but only started kicking myself later for not seeing what it was. I really didn't get as many hits as I thought I was going to, so I may have really missed something of importance! Anyway, I did encounter a few interesting finds:

The first looked to be some sort of bolt, maybe from a trough of sorts. It was about 2 inches below the surface. The second was an old post staple located about 6 inches underground.

And this old tin can was not a metal detector find, but something I spotted on the surface! It definitely looks like someone had used it for target practice, and appears to date back to the mid-1900s, which would place it in the right time period for when the US military used the land for army exercises during World War II.

I also got very distracted by the lizards and ground squirrels living on the property. I was really hoping to spot a jackrabbit that are plentiful in this area, but they were either keeping out of the midday sun, or were too well camouflaged for me to spot them.

We had told my mom to drive back to pick us up (or at least check on us) in an hour's time, given that we were essentially out in the desert with no vehicle in the heat. Eventually, I noticed her driving along the road and honking her horn, but she was still about a 1/2 mile east of us. Even she couldn't see either of us from the road as she was trying to find us again. And that bright orange box near the fence was no use amongst all of the sagebrush!

Dad and I started waving our hands emphatically for her to find us and drive closer. We each made our way back to the fence, and miraculously found the orange box!

Honestly, I would have loved to have stayed out there for at least a couple more hours, but the sun really was brutal, and I had been dying of thirst since all the water was in my dad's knapsack!

Turns out, even without a metal detector, my dad had really hit the jackpot on the east side of the property! He found what must have been the remains of a hearth, aka an old kitchen, or possibly a midden (archaeological term for a trash heap). There were charred bricks and ceramic potsherds! 

I can't guarantee this would have been the remains of his grandfather's kitchen, but I'd say it's more than likely the case. There had only been one other family that owned the land aside from ours. They purchased it from my great grandfather in 1920. It's not confirmed that they lived on the property themselves (as they also owned other properties in Oregon and Washington), but in 1940 they sold it back to the USA, who demolished any buildings left on the land so they could complete their military drills. 

Even if that other family did move onto the property, it's more than likely they would have lived in the same homestead my great grandparents originally built. So the ruins of the hearth would more than likely have belonged to at least one of our two families, if not both.

I now wish I had walked back with him to this area and been able to use my metal detector on it. Perhaps even more finds under the sand and dirt would have made themselves known. But we were beat, and decided it was time to drive to the museum and take a tour!

The Fort Rock Homestead Village Museum is a collection of old homesteads and buildings from the surrounding valley that have been salvaged over the past century. It sits on the corner of what was the Foltzes' next door neighbor's property (yes, if you're doing the math, their next door neighbor to the east was 1 mile down the road from them!). This also explains why Ivan Beeler, who technically lived about 2-3 miles west of the Foltz family in the next town over of Fremont, had been a witness on the patent application, because "neighbors" were really that spread apart. The Foltzes eventually did have 2 closer neighbors to the west and north of them.

Other than the modern museum being within close physical vicinity with my family's history, 3 of its historic buildings also have ties to my great grandparents and their homesteading days in Fort Rock. One of them was the cabin of the Menkenmaier family. They were also witnesses on George Foltz's homestead application! They lived about a mile north of the Foltzes and originally owned the land where Fort Rock Cave sits. That property later came into possession of local rancher Reub Long. 

Fort Rock Cave is where the 9,000 year old sagebrush sandals were discovered by archaeologist Luther Cressman! It was really cool to walk through their home, knowing my great grandparents would have also done so 100 years ago! The museum has the house furnished in period style, but also has old newspaper clippings and family tree info about the Menkenmaiers hanging on the wall.

Another building that relates to my great grandparents at the museum was Dr. Thom's office cabin from the nearby town of Silver Lake. Dr. Thom was one of two local doctors who treated residents of Fort Rock, including my family. Since he would travel and make house calls at Fort Rock, I can't be sure the Foltzes ever walked into his office (though, it's still likely, considering George Foltz would stage horses down in Silver Lake). My great grandmother said Dr. Thom was the one who dressed my grandfather Harry's arm after he fell into their cellar as a toddler.

Finally, the homestead museum also has the old Fort Rock General Store and Post Office building. I don't believe they had to move the store at all to place it in its current location, or, if they did, not by a far distance. It would have originally stood there or nearby that same spot. On the 1910 U.S. census, my great grandfather was listed as a freighter for the merchandise store, and considering the lack of variety in Fort Rock (and the fact it was only 1 mile from his house), I can't help but think this General Store is where he was officially employed, which makes it very significant to our family. Regardless, it's where George and Myrtle certainly would have shopped for their groceries and sent/received their mail from.

To top off this museum stop, I had to find the geocache out front in the parking lot and sign our name, letting everyone know the Foltz family had returned to Fort Rock! 

Then, we drove across the street to "downtown" Fort Rock to eat at the local tavern. The bar was certainly your standard "biker" vibe, but what drew me to it is their outdoorsy and historical decor. They had wooden placards up on the walls with original family names of the Fort Rock homesteaders. 

Foltz was not up there, but I'm not surprised by that, because George and Myrtle didn't stay past a handful of years (like many homesteaders, they fled due to severe drought in the area and poor results from dry farming). There were only 10 or so homesteaders that really stuck it out and made Fort Rock their home for decades. One of which was the Morehouse family, who still have descendants living on the land today.

There was one final stop I originally had planned on for this day, but it would have taken us another 45 minutes to drive there (in the opposite direction of our hotel), and that was to Crack-In-The-Ground. Yes, I had taken us to Hole-In-The-Ground and now I wanted to see the other geological formation that was supposed to be even more interesting. 

But we spoke to some locals at the tavern (including a descendant of the Morehouse clan), and decided against it due to the rough road conditions. Since we had already had trouble in the sand earlier, getting stuck in the desert was not on our list of priorities. My great grandmother had mentioned Crack-In-The-Ground would still hold ice in its crevices even in the summertime, so folks would head there in the summer months to make ice cream! Nowadays with climate changes, you'll no longer find ice there, but word is that walking into its depths still drops about 20 degrees cooler than on surface level.

We were returning to Fort Rock the next day, so we figured this was a good ending to the current day. We drove back to La Pine thoroughly exhausted.

DAY 5

On day five of our trip, we headed back out in the direction of Fort Rock quite early in the morning. I had purchased tickets online in advance for the Fort Rock Cave Tour through the Oregon State Parks service. I had been incredibly lucky they were offering a tour (that hadn't sold out) on the same weekend we'd be there, as their tours are quite limited and only seasonal. Rancher Reub Long and his wife had donated his property (and the cave) to the state back in 1962. It's closed off to the public and only accessible via these privately guided tours.

We were also lucky that only one other family joined us on the tour. We met in front of Fort Rock Natural Landmark with our naturalist Stephanie, who drove us onto the property in a van. She led us up into the cave and told us a sacred story by the local indigenous tribe about the surrounding lands and how they came to be formed. We were politely asked to refrain from taking photographs inside the cave and were told the myth was to only be repeated when visiting Fort Rock Cave. We were asked to not share it beyond that sacred space, which I will absolutely honor. 

She also brought replicas of artifacts originally found in the cave by Cressman and other archaeologists who did research in the area. She mentioned her specialty lay in botany, so she was able to point out and identify many of the different flora growing nearby, and since my specialty laid in genealogy and history of Fort Rock, I shared with our van what I knew about local property owners. I think we all walked away with some newfound knowledge that day!

After the tour, my parents and I strolled about on the inside of the natural monument of Fort Rock. This is another remnant of a historic volcanic explosion where magma has created a half horseshoe-shaped tuff ring. 

Then, we drove "next door" to the Fort Rock Cemetery where rancher Reub Long and many of the original homesteaders are all buried. It was neat to read the tombstones and see so many familiar names from my research on the area. There are no Foltz kin buried here, though.

That completed our Fort Rock adventures! Now, it was time to drive nearly an hour and a half up north to Bend, Oregon. My great grandfather was said to have hauled the very first mill up to Bend. Our reason for going was to head to The High Desert Museum. 

Not only did it have an entire exhibit on Sasquatch (which is very famous in this part of the country), but the real attraction was its outdoor animal exhibits. It had several sea otters that I found to be highly entertaining. We also sat for an animal show featuring an owl, a porcupine, and a beaver.

We definitely worked up an appetite, so it was over to The Original Pine Tavern for lunch. This restaurant was gorgeous. It was overlooking the river, and it had actual pine trees IN the restaurant that they had built around.

Once we arrived back at the hotel, I forced my parents to play a card game version of The Oregon Trail. Because, of course, we had to see who would die of dysentery if we had lived back in George and Myrtle's days. Spoiler alert - it was me!

DAY 6

It was our final morning in La Pine, and the gorgeous weather was starting to take a turn. We had been incredibly lucky, but of course, the one day I had planned for us to drive to Crater Lake, it had a humongous gray cloud hovering just over its tip. Some women staying at the hotel the day previous had seen it in its full glory, and I just knew that we were not going to be so lucky. I had been watching the livecams all week online, and the lake looked a shimmering blue color. But that morning, it was shaping up to be low visibility. That's OK though. It would still be an adventure.

So we drove up the mountain, and once we reached the top, it started raining and snowing. And yes, there was absolutely ZERO visibility of the lake from the observation deck. You wouldn't have even known there was a lake there! But I did see a marmot for the very first time, and that critter was very cute!

I bought my commemorative sweatshirt from the gift shop and we were on our way back down the mountain. We headed in the direction of Grants Pass, Oregon, where I wanted to stop at the Oregon Vortex House of Mystery on the Rogue River. My dad had gone there as a kid, so I wanted to recreate a photo of him in the doorway. 

Plus, I used to love the Haunted Shack at Knott's Berry Farm that acted as a replica (there are several others, too, like Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz and the Mystery Shack in Calico Ghost Town). The Oregon one is thought to be the inspiration for the Disney XD animated series Gravity Falls, and since I work for Disney, of course I had to visit for that reason, too. I won't say I believe the geomagnetic theories surrounding this tourist attraction, but it sure was a workout just to stand upright.

I selected a restaurant for lunch that sat on the Rogue River so we would have a pleasant view. By chance, it turns out it was the exact location where old family reels show my dad and his family taking a speedboat tour of the river! They're still running the tours from there to this day, and we got to watch them come and go as we ate.

Down the river, we checked in to the Weasku Inn. I handpicked this place to stay because of its historical significance. Both Walt Disney and Clark Gable (read all about my family's connection to this famous actor in a previous blog post) used to vacation at this serene retreat. 

We didn't stay in either of the celebrities' rooms, but rented one of the standalone cabins on the river. There was a walking path to head down to the river's edge, and we even saw a deer in the woods from our cabin balcony. 

Plus, they offered us s'mores to roast over the campfire and the inn boasted a great breakfast buffet in the morning. This stay was a little pricier than our previous hotels on the trip, but I'd say very much worth it.

DAY 7

We had seen everything Oregon had to offer us (at least along our path), so it was time to cross the border back into California. I hadn't thought about the fact that we'd have to go through agricultural screening. I'm used to driving through these patrols when returning from Vegas, but this was a first for me in the middle of the green forest. Luckily, I had already thrown out the apple I had been carrying, so we were cleared to pass!

It was time to live out our lives as the Ewoks do on Endor. We took the scenic route to wind up in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park to walk through the Stout Memorial Grove Trail where George Lucas had filmed parts of the Star Wars franchise.

It's not surprising to me they chose these woods to represent the Forest Moon in the movies. It's so overgrown with such massive trees, you really do feel like you're on a different planet. It also had major Jurassic Park vibes.

And speaking of other-worldy things, this neck of the woods is famous for their giant banana slugs! I didn't know what to expect in terms of what they must look like, but when I saw one, I didn't initially believe it was even a slug. I definitely thought it was someone's regurgitated yogurt snack or something! It wasn't until it started to recoil and start moving that I realized what it was. And, yes, they live up to their banana name, I guess!

That wrapped it up for the Grove, but that wasn't the last my parents would see of trees for the day. I had plenty of forest-related adventures in store for us this day. Our next stop was the Trees of Mystery tourist attraction in Klamath. You can't miss this pull off due to the oversized Paul Bunyan statue out front!

There was a lot more to explore here than I thought there would be. It's got acres of hiking trails, tree top canopy bridges, an aerial tramway, and many areas with educational signage about the Redwoods and their preservation.

I thought only Oregon and Washington were wrapped up in the Bigfoot conspiracy theories, but he was also a big deal in these parts of California, too! You could find Sasquatch stickers, magnets, and souvenir toys in every rest stop down the coast.

We exhausted ourselves and headed over to Yurok Tribe country where I had booked our stay for the evening next to their casino. Our room overlooked the Redwood National State Park. This was practically our only choice for accommodations on this part of the coast, and the stay was fine. However, the food options were scarce! The only place open was a dive bar across the street, or you could buy microwavable items from the hotel's gift shop. The restaurant in the casino wasn't open unfortunately, otherwise that would have been the only other option.

The following morning just down the road, I had my parents turn left so we could drive the tourist detour through the Tour Thru Tree! We have old photos from going through this one when we were younger. Nowadays, it's the cheapest one. Can you believe most of them charge about $20-$25 to drive through?? They all used to be free, now they are true tourist traps. This one is technically free, but kindly requests a $5 donation that you drop in the box before heading up the driveway. Beware, some cars inch their way through way too slowly, so you may get the place to yourself, or you may be there for an hour or so.

But the tree touring didn't stop there! Maybe I'm a tree hugger now. I had us drive through the Avenue of the Giants next.

That finally wrapped up tree sights. There was other nature to take in, such as an entire heard of elk.

And some of the beaches up north are black sand beaches, like areas with a lot of volcanic activity usually have. So I made sure to stop at a few overlooks to take in the views. They hit a little different to our SoCal sandy colored strands.

Finally, we had reached the day's end. Our stay for the night would be in Fort Bragg near the sea. We grabbed a seat at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. They had great service and large servings!

DAY 8

Our drive down PCH continued as we weaved in and out of Tsunami Flood Zones and little seaside towns who have definitely seen better days.

We were still surprised to see Amazon and UPS delivery trucks along this route. My guess would be that none are able to receive same-day service.

Muir Beach Overlook was our next sightseeing stop. We got out of the car to stretch our legs, and I walked down one of their trails to admire the nesting birds. There are also remnants of historic WWII base end-stations here where soldiers were in charge of standing guard, looking over the Pacific to warn against enemy invaders.

The forest next door, Muir Woods, is commonly used as a filming location for big name movies like Planet of the Apes and Jurassic Park. From, here it's just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Golden Gate Bridge leading into San Francisco.

We did drive across the bridge into the city. Be warned, it is a toll road. They mailed us a bill about 9-12 months after the fact. It was about $10. Our stay here was definitely the most expensive night on our road trip (by miles). It was about $575 for the night, but we were put up in a huge suite with great views.

We ate dinner downstairs in the hotel bar/restaurant. It was just pizza, but I have to say it was very delicious! This was my first time ever seeing the self-driving Waymo vehicles out and about. There were dozens of them that would pass through the intersection right outside the hotel, and we could watch them just circle the block on repeat.

We got a good night's rest.

DAY 9

Our penultimate day on the road crossed off a bucket list item that I'd been planning on for years! Despite having worked for Disney for over a decade, I had never taken a chance to check out the Walt Disney Family Museum. It was so much larger than I had bargained for!

It was founded by Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and opened in 2009. She also helped conceive the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA. It sits on San Francisco's famed Presidio which used to be old army barracks.

They have one of the original benches that Walt used to sit on near the Griffith Park carousel as he first dreamed up the idea for Disneyland, and you're welcome to take a seat on it!

Their rooms were expansive. I only wish I hadn't spent as much time as I did in the first few rooms, because we were so worn out by the end, not realizing how many rooms there would be! It was never-ending!

This is definitely a museum I'd suggest planning on return trips to explore! I had really underestimated the amount of exhibits they could possibly have. I'm not exaggerating! 

Few know that Lucasfilm's ILM studios are actually located just across the Presidio lawn from the museum. And while it's technically a closed campus, you can seek out permission from security to stop in to the lobby and have a look around (this access had been stripped during COVID-19, but granted again just a short while before our roadtrip, so we got lucky).

They also have a restaurant on campus that is open to the public, but it is a little on the pricier side. We decided to opt for a cheap lunch at McDonald's this day instead!

After leaving San Fran, we had to make a concession and skip a stretch of the 1 highway around Carmel-By-The-Sea. The road had recently been washed out by a landslide following a storm. This is the case along this area of the PCH at many times throughout the year. I was hoping construction would have opened it back up by the time we arrived, but it wasn't meant to be.

So we cut a little inland and avoided a bunch of traffic before arriving at our final stop, Morro Bay.

Unfortunately, getting to this very, very sleepy town after dark is apparently not the smartest idea. I had no idea everything would close down basically after dusk. Our only food option was this burger joint that the lady at the front desk had to call and request stay open late enough for us to swing by!

It was worth it though! They cooked really fast, but the burgers definitely hit the spot. Thank goodness we had a handicap placard for our car, though, because when we returned to the hotel, every other spot was taken, save for that space! We got lucky there. And it was quite a compact lot.

DAY 10

Waking up on our final travel day, our hotel made us omelettes and encouraged us to enjoy the foggy view from their rooftop deck. I kept an eye out for sea otters here, as they are supposed to be plentiful in this region, but sadly, I only spied sea lions.

We drove out to the "rock" which was quite masked by the marine layer that morning, took in the sea breeze, and then finally headed home from our 10-day long adventure! It was quite the journey, and documenting it here was, as well! I hope you enjoyed reading all about our Foltz heritage travels.