Although there was certainly more we could have checked out on our trip down the coast we finished our southbound run at a pace that would allow us to make our way back northbound with a couple stops in national parks on our way home. After a quick stop in Cambria we made our dash towards the Sierra and the foothills of Sequoia National Park. We made it in enough time to secure a campsite at Potwisha. Even though it was the middle of Thanksgiving week it was pretty busy and camp filled up later that night. We had enough time to get to the top of Morro Rock just in time for sunset.
We spent a fair bit of time on the Lost Coast and enjoyed it immensely. After leaving Usal we hit highway 1 and the North Coast and found it packed with just as many curves and spectacular views as we had been enjoying, the big change was we were back on pavement.
We enjoyed a quiet night at Needle Rock. After sitting around the fire and watching falling stars we called it a night and somewhere between then and the morning a rainstorm passed. If it needs to rain, night is the perfect time, but I did get to wondering about the steep narrow windy road on the way out. Before departing we checked out some of the history stored in the visitors museum. It was quite amazing to see the amount of development from over a hundred years ago in what now appears to be nearly untouched wilderness. Before too long we packed up and headed south and were able to get out of the steep section without issue. We were told that Usal road going south was closed for the season. As we understood it Usal Road is even more interesting than some of the other roads we had already traversed and considering the rain we didn’t even check, we just headed inland to highway 101 and south to Leggett where we took highway 1 to the south end of Usal road. Luckily we had stopped for fuel in Leggett and the attendant described the turnoff from highway 1 to Usal. We never did see the ‘tiny’ sign he described but the rest of his information was enough to find the road with just barely missing it on our first pass. From there we made our way north on Usal road for the few miles the road was open to Usal campground.
