Anyone that knows my family knows we love travelling to the weird, creepy and haunted places in America. At least once a year we try and squeeze a trip in to some haunted destination. This year we decided to go all touristy and head down to check out Alcatraz island. Staying with the creepy theme we secured our tickets to a night tour of the prison. Now that we had the destination, we planned the route, packed up the Durango and hit the road.
Day one was just pavement pounding to Medford Oregon. For this trip we decided to forgo the motel and camp....well, sort of. We hit up the KOA's with cabins. Searching the area for stuff to do we found a place called "The Oregon Vortex." So the next morning we got up and hit the road to check the place out. Some say it's haunted but there's nothing really spooky about it just a bunch of optical illusions and strange balance tricks. But I just noticed that all the pictures I took of the place did not transfer to my laptop. All the other pics before and after the Oregon Vortex did. Strange coincidence?
Day three we decided to deviate from the straight I5 run and head over to the coast, through the redwoods and down Hwy 1. The Jedadiah Smith memorial highway is a fantastic road trip. It meanders through the redwoods and rain forest. Just like the moon of Endor. I had the kids on the look out for the Ewoks. Of course we made the stop at "The Trees of Mystery" tourist trap on the way out to the coast.
Walking around this place definitely makes you feel small. mixed in with all the normal size firs and spruces, there are huge specimens of Costal redwoods pushing 300 feet. Along the trail there are some weird features and wood carvings. It was a great place to stop and let the kids stretch their legs.
We eventually made it out of the forest and hit the road again headed towards Hwy 1. The begining of the 1 iwould be a blast to drive if you have a motorcycle or canyon carving sports car but in an Electric power steering equipped huge crossover, it was pretty crazy at times. After several miles of insane switchbacks and lots of swooping curves, we made it to the coast.
The mission for the day was to make it to Ft. Bragg to check out the famed glass beach. Years ago the beach at Ft. Bragg was used as a garbage dump and over time the ocean has slowly polished the garbage and turned the plastic and glass into cool little jewels.
We got there just in time to catch an amazing sunset.
Now that we were in Ft. Bragg after dark, we made the decision to just grab a motel for the night vs. pushing on to the next KOA. Well apparently Ft. Bragg is a popular place during CA's spring break and most of the motels were booked for the week. We ended up grabbing the last room at the Murder....I mean Motel 6. This turned out to be the scariest place we visited on the entire trip. This place was straight out of the serial killer handbook. Police sirens, neighbors yelling and strange folks walking around. Needless to say we got an early start the next morning.
This morning started with a stop in the Russian Gultch state park to check out the Devils punch bowl.
Russian Gultch is a fantastic state park and has everything including the quintisential vagabond CA surfer dude living in a van.
Next stop Petaluma with a jaunt through the CA wine country. Stay tuned for part two....
Very cool. We hit the coast pretty much every year. Lots of good memories from similar trips.
Benny, thanks for sharing the write up and photos.
Benny - great trip report. Not sure I'll ever do Alcatraz at night, but that Russian Gulch State Park looks like its worth a stop.
I got sick in the Winchester house once...but it did get me a private tour as the guy was leading me out 😂
Part two:
We made it through the wine country fairly quickly. There was lots of evidence of fires but the area is very green and seems to be bouncing back quite nicely. Once we got to Petaluma we checked into our fancy digs for the nest 3 days. The KOA in Petaluma is one of the nicer campgrounds I've stayed at. We rented one of the park models cabins that are way nicer than anything I've ever glamped in. Kitchen and bathroom with a shower. It was cheaper to rentthis cabin for 3 days than an area motel.
The next morning we made our way to San Jose to check out the supposedly haunted Winchester house.
The Winchester House was the home of Sara Winchester. She was the Heir to the Wichester Arms fortune and was very into the spiritual world, occult and ghosts. She visited a medium that told he to never stop building her house. If she did stop, she would be haunted by all the spirits of the people killed by Winchester rifles. The house is huge and very maze like inside. Stairs to nowhere, doors that open to nothing, rooms inside of rooms and all kinds of twists and turns. Unfortunatly, no photos or videos are allowed of the inside. We splurged and got the extended tour that took us into the attics and the basement. No ghosts but there is a very heavy feeling when walking into certain rooms. The oddest thing that I witnessed was when walking by one window, I just had the urge to stand in it and look out. I joked with one of the guys on the tour with us that I should stand here until someone out in the yard takes a picture. We both chuckled and moved on, Later, on the more indepth tour, the guide told me that thats the window where some of the most famous ghost pictures were taken.
If you are ever down in San Jose, definitely check out the Winchester House. One of these days we plan on returning to do a night time candle light tour...
Thursday, we got to sleep in as our plans for the night trip to Alcatraz. It was perfect because we got to skip the awesome San Fran morning traffic. The good weather had finally subsided and we were stuck with the normal WA. gray drizzle...which turned out to be a blessing as it kept the crowds down.
After a short day wandering around fisherman's wharf and doin all the touristy stuff, we hopped on the last boat to the island..
There is something really ominous about this place. I'm not sure if its just from all the stories and lore but it did feel like the actual building is watching you. The normal tour is great but it's just set up to herd the crowds through. The real "fun" happened after the sun went down and we were allowed to just wander the island.
Working in a Jail, I thought some of our cells were small. Nope, the cells on Alcatraz are tiny. Just 5'x9'x7'..
Exploring the island and some of the outer buildings was a blast. I was having so much fun pretending sneak around without getting caught that I forgot to tak pictures. Then the clouds really opened up and it began to pour. Thats when the lonely feeling really set in. One could only imagine having to stay on this hunk of rock. Cold, miserable and stuck in a box is no way to go through life.
After a few hours of exploring, we were now soaking wet and the kids were ready to get on the last boat to the mainland. It was pushing 10pm but I could've stayed a few more hours to really check it out.
To me Alcatraz gives off a very intense vibe. The whole time I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched. The creepiest part were the noises. I would constantly hear a little swoosh, gasp or little clicks causing me to turn and look. Not saying it's ghosts and probably just echos from all the folks there but I did hear alot when I was off by myself. That along with the sound of the rain made for an impressive visit.
Maybe the only ghost picture of the whole trip!
Friday morning had us headed home in a literal downpour. The bay area was set to get 4-6" of rain that day so we were glad to get the heck out of Dodge. Rain in CA has the same effect on drivers as .5" of snow in Seattle. Everyone was driving 35 on the freeway with wipers at full speed and here comes this family from WA. just passing everyone at 65....that is until we hit Grants Pass, OR. A semi carrying crushed cars had tipped over and caught fire causing the complete closure of NB I5 for hours. We got lucky as we were just about to hit the backup, we found a reststop. 3.5 hours later traffic began to creep again. we were about 10 miles from the accident scene.
All in all this was a fantastic road trip and I'm blessed to have kids that don't mind being in the car for long hours. We are slowly marking off destinations on our haunted bucket list and Alcatraz is one of the top 10 creepiest places I've visited. If you get a chance to check it out at night......do it!
Awesome write up, Benny! I grew up in South Bay Area and my family and I used to drive all over those parts! Beautiful country.