Lost Rocks to Sonoma County, CA

After a day or so exploring the Northern California coast and the Lost Rocks bouldering beach, we headed south, with the next intended stop of Yosemite. This leg was the first test of our "flexible" travel schedule, as we had the opportunity to go through Sonoma wine country and/or/neither San Francisco proper.

As we drove down the 101 we continued through the Redwoods National Park, with its tallest trees in the world. Pretty awesome. The photos in general didn't come out great because the lighting was really splotchy, but here a couple of them:

We got off the 101 and took the "Avenue of the Giants", which is a stretch of road through some great groves of huge coastal redwoods.

The highlight of which is, of course, driving through a tree. Rob thought it was the best $5 ever spent, while Lorin thought it was just plain stupid.

As we continued on, we noticed more and more vineyards popping up in the dry hillsides around us. Interesting........ When originally scoping this trip, I had seen on the map where Sonoma and Napa were, and they were far enough off 101 not to warrant a specific stop for this trip. What I didn't realize is that we were going right through the Russian River Valley and the Alexander Valley, totally respectable wine regions themselves!!

So we made some last minute adjustments to the schedule and itinerary, and Lorin plugged for a night stop over in wine country. We found the world's best KOA, right in the heart of the RRV, and went wine tasting at Geyser Peak. We had a great time and bought a bottle of sparkling Shiraz... can't wait to try it!!