Most states do not have border checkpoints, but California is known for its massive agricultural output and so they check for plants, fruits, veggies at the border to safeguard their agriculture.
Yep, I would regularly drive from Arizona into California. The "inspection" was to slow, roll down the window and tell them where I came from. Sometimes I'd actually have to stop before they told me to have a nice day. Recently I drove from Arizona to Montana (through Utah and Idaho) and there mandatory inspection stations for vehicles towing boats. Nasty water critters sometime ride along I guess, not having a boat I just drove on down the road.
A quote I heard. “Brits think 100 miles is a long way and Americans think 100 years is a long time.” You can drive for 12 hours at 70 miles an hour in California and Texas and still be in the same state.
Very true , I hear when Americans visit the UK they can't get there head around the dates some of our buildings were built . 1080 my local church it's been around that long and my local pub has been around since the 1500s . 😊 .
@@kate2create738 we have Roman walls and villas here that old . I think the natural terrain in the US is stunning but you don't have the ancient buildings all over your country . Never seen a 1000 Yr old castle or cathedral in the US . We visit the US for the experience , sun . people come to the UK for the experience the history and old buildings . Its all good were just different and that's OK.
Old park ranger joke about bears -- "If a bear is startled by a hiker appearing without warning, the bear might charge. Hikers can wear small bells, which allows bears to hear them coming from a distance. Visitors can also carry pepper spray. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear’s sensitive nose and it will run away. Hikers should keep an eye out for fresh bear droppings so they know if bears are in the area. Here's how to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings -- Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper."
@@Murderbits Right, so many things surprise me.. about things they don't have or never heard of. I'm thinking it's on tv they've got to have it too.. Not that big of a world
There are some very beautiful scenery in the UK. Well jell every time I see my cousins postings. Must say I miss them all. No extended family here. Mom had 9 siblings in Sleaford Dad had 4 siblings in Glasgow. Thank God for FB.
A bear bell is only for bear aversion; ie: makes constant noise to deter bears from coming near you or interacting with you. If a bear is already approaching you or trying to interact with you, a bear bell won't do jack sh!t. Bear spray is what you'd use in case of a bear attack. That being said, bear bells DO work in that they tend to keep the bears away from you while you are hiking. (I'm a CA native, and I have 30+ years of backpacking and wilderness exploration experience here.)
This. They're actually kind of skittish and usually want nothing to do with people unless you get between a mom and her cubs. Making noise to let them know you're coming scares them off.
1. The smoke smell is from the fires between Oregon and California border last fall. 2. Bugs are worse in the South. 3. Border crossing is checking for agriculture. 4. Bear bell? Ahahahahahaha... dude! Hahahahahaha.... 🤦🏽♀️get a bear spray if you hiking. 5. The chipmunk obsession is hilarious. 6. There are bears, mountain lions, and wolves. 7. There's the state park and federal park. 8. The water off the west coast is COLD. The wonderful unique thing underwater is the kelp forest. 9. Texas is the other state that will take hours to drive through. 10. The vastness of the US is why some citizens have never been overseas as we have so many places to visit in our country.
#10 - Yep! I mean, why do I need to travel to another country when I can travel 3000 miles and still be in the same country, but with a vastly different environment?
He said he was in Oregon BUT do you realize that it’s about an 10 to 12 hour drive to drive from northern California to Southern California. Each state has different laws, California does not allow fruits/veggies to cross due to insects transportation. I always carry “bear spray” but a bear will hear you coming and hide or leave The last “grizly bear” in California was seen in San Mateo in Southern California near San Clemente.
California has a large citrus and almond nut industry which can be seriously impacted by evasive insects... While the Great Plains may be the wheat belt, and the Midwest may be the corn belt, California is the produce belt, from iceberg lettuce to strawberries to almonds orchards to vineyard grapes. While much of California's citrus orchards have been decimated by urban growth, much still remains...
I actually didn't know this. Live in Florida and didn't realize that Cali had boarder stoppings like this from other states. Interesting! Make sense though.
That's not entirely true. At its widest point, CA is about 300 miles wide. You're going from farthest point west to farthest point east, which is a diagonal.
California is a huge farming state and regulates insects, produce, and plants coming in so diseases and genetics don't infect their crops. One bad strain or foreign seed could wipe out crops or take over. A bee transfers pollen from the foreign plant and fundamentally alters the food crop forever. That's what they guard for at the California interstate borders.
We go from Phoenix to Ivine AZ quite a lot to visit grandkids.. and yes we have to drive thru a border crosding.. never been stopped, but they can stop you.. and they can ask questions like that.. Signage tells you that the bugs are forbidden because of the crops.
Y’all blew my mind … I live in Minnesota but every October or November move down to North Carolina & I’ve never heard of any of the states having boarder crossings … I mean from Ohio to Pennsylvania you pay a certain amount but that’s to drive on the turnpike… I’ve never seen a single boarder crossing ever
@@GSXRarbor I'm a Minnesota transplant to NC and have not yet come across any on that trip either. However, I have when visiting Florida. It is clearly marked on signs at the border.
I'm a truck driver in the states, what the uk dude didn't tell you is how curvy those mountain roads between crescent city and redding are. It is constant and draining especially in an oversized vehicle. It is literally 5+hrs of mountain driving which is extremely exhausting if you aren't used to it which is the main reason he looks completely exhausted. Also crescent city is where they filmed starwars episode 6. I like to call it the ewok city.
@@bobbie4904 All of California sucks. I'm moving back east. Also, I don't live in California. I live in Nevada, and it is way too close to that hellhole.
My dad never refueled without washing the windshield (unless the washing fluid was frozen). When the bugs were especially bad, he'd pull in to wash windows even when he didn't need gas.
I haven't seen one with actual liquid in it since pre-pandemic. Haven't seen one that isn't just water in 10 years. Luckily all the bugs in southeast Michigan are dead so our cars no longer look like this in the spring and summer.
The Redwoods are the tallest trees in the world (380 ft / 116 m). Also in California, the Sequoias are the largest trees in the world by volume (52.5k cubic feet / 1.5k cubic meters). The widest trees in the world are the Baobab in South Africa (up to 168 ft / 51 m)
No, bears roam wherever they want to… they will cross the road and cause traffic jams. They wander into campgrounds and rip open trailers to get to the refrigerators. They know no boundaries. You just don’t want to come upon them unexpectedly on a trail. If they hear you coming (as with a bell or noisemaker) they will leave the area.
The bell isn't really to make a charging bear run away. Youare supposed to wear it on your belt or something, so that it jingles while you walk. Most bears actively avoid humans, and it's supposed to alert the bears that a human is near-by. He's using it wrong and could get himself hurt if he tries to use it as a defense. It's meant to alert bears to your location so they can avoid you completely. Not to be used as a deterrent like bear spray.
I wore big jingle bells on my shoes when we were at Yellowstone back in the 70's they said the same thing, that it would chase the bears away, but we had a park ranger tell us that we were actually ringing a dinner bell because it was early in the season, just waking up from hibernation, very hungry. Too funny. There was a bear attack in the park but it was at a campsite, and they had cleaned and cooked fish and left a mess instead of cleaning everything up before going to bed, they were in a tent as well.
@@leeadams776 Yeah, the bells thing only works on black bears (which is all California has had in a century) Yellowstone has grizzlies... they don't give a fuck.
The bears in the California are black bears and there are lots of them even close to the mountains in urban areas, but they are not normally aggressive unless maybe with cubs. It’s the brown bears of the Rockies, Montana and Alaska that are deadly. No bell is going to stop a Grizzly, but this guy was in very very little jeopardy. Black bears smell food and you need to keep your food secure. A bear will rip you’re car apart for the food inside.
That is a produce check point. California grows a massive amount of food and they don’t want someone bringing in any non indigenous critters that could threaten the crops.
I lived there in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s and remember the Mediterranean fruit fly invasion. You’d cut open a head of lettuce and there’d be hundreds on the inside. 🤢 Caused quite an issue there.
I have a black bear that visits my property every fall looking for a little bit of food before he hibernates, the first year he came he destroyed my yard, the next year I was prepared for him and now it's a peaceful situation, he sits right outside of my bedroom window eating sunflower seeds for hours and I sit in my bedroom watching him, it's awesome! Also I am the first place he visits when he wakes up in the Spring for a filling of sunflower seeds, then he stays out in the woods the whole summer and doesn't bother me or the other wildlife around here, I find it to be a good relationship. Great reaction to the Redwoods, but those aren't even the biggest ones!
California native here… the most interesting part about the redwoods is the lack of sound! The massive trees and density soak up all the sounds so you can only hear what is right next to you and it feels like you’re in a dream! It’s another special part of the experience you can’t understand on camera. The coast up north is cold and rocky … you need to drive 2 hours south of SF before you find warm sandy beaches like you see in the movies
Yeah I’ve been to bodega… but it’s cold and mostly dangerous for casual swimming and sunbathing… my point is the iconic CA beaches he is thinking of from movies are in SoCal it’s not really until pismo and south that you get warmer water and popular sandy beaches with people wearing swimsuits… up north it’s surfers in wetsuits and old people wearing 6 jackets getting there feet wet
@@StardustMonkey I have actually burned my feet at the point. It’s not always cold over there. We go and play on the beach, swim, and walk the jetty. We loved to go fishing out there. Wrights beach is a good one for camping and playing. Goat rock and Jenner. They are different thank down south or east coast beaches. It’s not all tropical like Hawaii or anything. We also would go to Healdsburg at the railroad tracks there’s a beach. I love the hidden gems like the creek by the airport. There was a small beach and a huge rock with a super deep pool. We would go and check that place first. In there you could forget where you were. My dad did all the concrete work at Lake Sonoma and up on Mt Diablo. When I lived in Antioch we would go to a little island where the two rivers met up. We would swim and fish. So beautiful in there. We loved it out there.
Monterey here. We're two hours south of SF, and the beach is cold and windy. Windbreakers, puff jackets, and sweats advised. Sure, pack a pair of shorts. You could get lucky!
When you get miles deep into a thick redwood forest, sounds stop because the thick, soft bark on the trees absorb sound. It is so quiet that you start hearing your own heartbeat. The pure silence can be disconcerting.
California is so beautiful... u can be at the beach, in the snow, and then the desert all in a day. Truly it's spectacular. Born and raised in Cali and to me it's normal. So glad to see a fresh and appreciative perspective. Thanks for visiting!!!
Spent a lot of time on those roads. The redwoods don't just LOOK amazing.... They SMELL amazing. One of a kind smell.. almost like a pleasant soap smell. Pungent in a clean way. It's very unique ... Can't describe it. Worth going to see.
If you ever visit grand canyon national Park try smelling the ponderosa's there, definitely not as majestic, but they smell like vanilla or Carmel, sometimes chocolate, couldn't wrap my head around it. Also unfortunately ponderosa's in Washington State don't.
I purchased some plants for my back yard from out of state just last month. I received a phone call from my local Agriculture Department about my order. I was told to notify them when the package arrived. To leave it in the box outside and they would come inspect the plants. This is because the plants were grown in a state that has the Japanese Beetle and they need to make sure my plants were not infected.
As a Californian, I'm very pleased you were able to be introduced to our true beauty. If you ever make it here "on holiday" you must spend part of your time visiting California's natural beauty. A few facts: 1) the redwoods shown in this video are the tallest in the world. 2) the sequoias found in the Sierra Nevada mountains (Central CA) are the largest trees in the world. 3) the bristlecone pines (also found in central CA) are the oldest trees in the world. The distance between San Diego, CA in the south and Crescent City, CA in the north is approx 860 miles, or a 14 hour drive. Our beaches in southern CA are sandy. The farther north you go the more rocky they become. And not good for swimming like they are in the south. But they are beautiful! Black bears are found throughout CA with the exception of the deserts. Though black bear attacks have happened, it is extremely rare! They typically avoid people unless they think there's food available. I've been a hiker/backpacker/camper for over 50 years and have encountered bears dozens of times. They've always tried to keep their distance. The fellow in the video mentioned being in Crescent City. Perhaps of interest to you, in March of 1964, Crescent City experienced a tsunami that killed 12 people as a result of a large earthquake that occurred in Alaska.
Wow, thanks for all this fascinating information. I am 64. The red wood forest is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life. It's at the top of my list to go see again.
you should have discussed mountain lions as well...... they are more of a danger to humans than bears (except at certain famous California campgrounds/parks where the bears are a real nuisance problem!)
Back in the 1800's, the loggers cut down the biggest ones. Some were so big, people actually would make a house out of the stump. In Sequoia National Forest, some of the trees are 1000's of years old. Look up a picture of the tree called General Sherman.
While visiting the General Sherman Tree I noticed a hiker had discarded dirty clothes and worn out shoes in a trashcan. The wind was bad that year and a branch from the General Sherman blew down earlier. The broken branch was bigger than most trees. My friend and I retrieved the old clothes, filled them full of grass, and placed them as if a hiker had been smashed. Being 50 year old adult kids, we sat down near by to see if others reacted. It was hilarious.
Californians are so used to the beauty here, we forget the excitement and inspiration one draws from the experience. It's wonderful to see Brits enjoy it. My hope is that many more Brits decide to share the state with us. We look forward to meeting you.
Totally agree! I'm a Northern California native and never realized that our Redwoods were so extraordinary to other people! Nice to see things from someone else's perspective.
Bruh, the redwoods are incredible but the giant sequoias are mind blowing. The border inspection is strictly looking for exotic pests that could threated California's 60 Billion dollar a year agricultural business. Think about that staggering number. 60 Billion dollars in ag business alone!!! The California agricultural business is larger than the GDP of 111 nations. When I was a kid, we used to drive from San Diego to Santa Fe, NM (every summer) and it was about 14 hours of driving but with stops for gas/food/restroom, it took 18-20 hours.
We went and saw the Sequoias on a whim a couple years ago when we were in Fresno, and I'm glad we did. The General Sherman is insane, and I also ran into some baby bears playing in a field. Luckily everyone actually had enough sense to keep their distance. The drive up to the General Sherman is was so beautiful, but there was an unfortunate amount of fire damage.
The reason those trees were spikey looking is, as the tree grows, it's own upper canopy blocks out sunlight from the lower branches, so it allows the lower leaves to die and fall off.
@@jherriff He "literally said" "Jurassic Park" as well. Both things were said. BOTH. How many people need to be wrong in a fucking comments section, christ.
The redwoods are huge and gorgeous, but the giant sequoia trees are even bigger! They live in Central California in Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park (my favorite place on earth). I have 2 redwood trees in my backyard in Southern California that I planted 20 years ago. They are approximately 30 and 40 feet tall now and provide a lot of shade and beauty.
The Oregon redwoods are smaller than their California counterparts, but Oregon does have 300 foot tall Douglas fir trees. One Douglas fir tree in Washington state was 465 feet tall when it was felled. The tallest tree ever recorded, of any variety. The Sequoias are tall with wide bases. The largest, named General Sherman, is 275 (84m) feet tall, with a 102 foot (31m) circumference. The Redwoods are taller, but with narrower bases. The tallest is 379.9 (115m) feet with a 37 foot (11.5m) circumference. The tallest Douglas Fir tree, the Brummet Fir in Coos County Oregon, is 327 feet (99.76m) tall with a circumference of 36 feet (11m) All big trees...
In 2009 my kids and I visited Yosemite National Park in California. The trees are so big it would take ten people holding hands to circle the circumference of one of those sequoia trees. Yosemite is a spectacular place to visit, and I highly recommend it be on your bucket list!
I have been a truck driver in America now just over 11 years going through all 48 lower states plus parts of Canada and have driven enough miles to have circled the globe almost 73 times. I promise you’ll love your road trips here there is just so much to see. Keep up the content.
Hey, thank you for your service! Truck drivers deserve way more love (and honestly, way better pay) than they actually get. Society would come to a grinding halt without y'all.
I was born and raised in Oregon and it seems that most Brits don't know much about this gorgeous State. They seem to gravitate to Florida, California and Texas. Check out the great Pacific Northwest!!!
I agree. As someone who lives in the Midwest. Washington and Oregon and Hawaii are three of my favorite places in the US. I have yet to experience the north east yet. So the jury is still out
The agricultural border check is to make sure no one is bringing fruit or vegetables into the state. California has a large agricultural industry that it wants to protect and there can be small bugs or bacteria that can be on fruit and vegetables from other parts of the country or world that you don’t find in California.
California is one of the most agricultural places in the world. There have been times in California's history when bugs have caused huge damage. Even Californians''s sometimes don't understand why there is strict border control... But the main reason is to not mess up the ecosystem.
I live in California. My longest drive, while never leaving California, was 11 hours. I actually work in Willow Creek. Kind of cool to see somebody come here and actually appreciate the Redwoods.
From Wikipedia: "The tallest tree in the UK is a non-native Douglas fir in Scotland with a height of 66.4 meters- significantly taller than the UK's tallest native tree- a 45 meter tall European Beech growing at the River Derwent in Derbyshire." and "Hyperion is a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in California that is the world's tallest known living tree, measuring 115.92 m (380.3 ft)."
The Douglas Fir was probably collected by David Douglas, the Scottish botanist who discovered the tree when he was in the Pacific Northwest (and is probably on the road into Balmoral with many other non-native specimens). He misnamed it a fir, which it's not.
Yes there are bears in the redwoods and all over California. The bell is actually for making noise so you don't startle a bear. If he/she hears it, it will most likely take off. Unless it's a momma with cubs, that's a different story.
Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are the world's largest trees, with trunks that can reach over 300 feet in height and 30 feet in diameter. They are also known as giant redwoods or Sierra redwoods. Giant sequoias are native to a 60-mile band of mixed conifer forest on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. They have red or orange bark with black fire-charred spots, and their bark can be up to 18 inches thick. This thickness and fibrous texture protects the trees from significant damage. Giant sequoias are also adapted to periodic fire. Many giant sequoias are between 250 and 300 feet tall, with the tallest reaching about 325 feet. Many of these trees have diameters in excess of 30 feet near the ground, with a corresponding circumference of over 94 feet.
I live in Minnesota, it's beautiful here but no trees that large. Bears- there must be a larger population of them in recent years. A few years back, I was driving a county road, saw a black shape on the road. At first, I thought it was a dog. As I came closer, it just sat in the road, I could tell it was a young bear. Just chillin. It did get up & run away. At my mom's home, bears just walk thru the yard & will tear down the bird feeders. Have to take them in at night. I saw a grown bear walk thru in daytime. This is 1/2 mile from a major road in an agricultural area, 3 miles from a town. Never saw bears when I was growing up there & I'm 68. So, in that time, 50 years or so, the land has been encroached upon. Animals have less space. There are many large farmlands which have turned into neighborhoods of houses. On the northeast, Minnesota borders Lake Superior which is very huge and beautiful with miles of rocky coastline. Also tons of other, smaller lakes surrounded by mixed forested areas.
I have lived in Northern California all my life and it is one of the best places to live. I can do a day drive to the forests, Bay Area, beaches, small towns, ghost towns, snow in the winter, and more. Best place to grow up.
@@janfitzgerald3615I also live in a small rural town, across from a state park/national forest at the base of two mountains. We have a female who has a collar on with a tracker. Every other year she has cubs. We also have trees behind my house. So in the fall once the cubs can roam around fairly well, she will come over and eat apples out of our tree. Her and the cubs climb up and sit and eat. I just have to be super careful not to spook her. Watch my dogs and kids like a hawk! We get all kinds of wildlife. Even got a peacock from the zoo once roosting on our grill of all places.
@@maryjane4432 we have quite the collection of wildlife. In addition to the black bear we have deer, coyotes, bobcats and cougars. One neighbor and her husband were walking along the trail through the development, heard a noise, looked up and there was a cougar up in the tree. It didn’t seem all that interested in them though.
Lmao, that whole bear bell thing got me. They arent used to scare bears away, at least if you ran into them. Theyre meant to create constant sound so if there is any wildlife they can hear you before you see them and they go another way.
Haha...that was hilarious to me too! My husband hunts the mountains here in Wyoming and he has all the bells and whistles. (excuse the pun) Thank you for explaining that to Lewis. That was great for an evening laugh...lol.
I live in California and my husband and I travel all over the state. From the North, Cresent City to San Diego in the south will take you over 14 hours and is over 800 miles. We have a beautiful coast line, grand forrests, and everything in between. California is massive.
Fun fact: the UK actually DOES have sequoia trees like the redwood forests. They imported a bunch and now have about 500,000 of them! They won’t be like the ones in California because they aren’t as old, but give em time, who knows?
Some of those sequoias in NoCal are thousands of years old, it's quite awe-inspiring to hike or drive through. I'm blessed to have been there several times, it truly is otherworldly. Plus, for Star Wars geeks like myself, this is also the on-location filming site of the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi. Imagine Ewoks and speederbike chases.
The redwoods and the sitka spruce grow to over 200ft y'all and live as long as they are tall. There are acutely a few trees in Rockefeller forest that you can literally drive-through. Epic.
California is the most diverse and beautiful state. The trees he thought were so massive were not even close to the biggest. The oldest and biggest are the Sequoia Redwoods, they are still living and date back to before the birth of Christ. Those are the true giants. Where Shaun is in this video is Northern California along the coast and then he moved inland to stop in Redding for the night. Truly the most beautiful part of California in my opinion. What you see on tv is mostly Southern California with the beaches and LA, but Northern California is still very wild and pristine.
Completely agree. He didn't show the roads THRU the living trees. I chuckle every time people are terrified of big predator animals that most Americans have never seen. Then they act like the huge herbivores (Buffalo, Elk, Moose, etc) are so docile when they maim and kill more people then the predators do.
@@happyscubadiverinca6856 - That's what I was going to bring up when he was talking about driving "through" the trees. I was laughing to myself thinking about how they can actually do that. Lewis should Google the history of redwood logging to get a better prospective on how big those trees really get (got 😥).
I grew up there in crescent city most my life, when he says is smells like fire, it's because there was a huge fire near there the year before. The year after he filmed this, fire took over much of that area. If you look in the background of the border station, you can see how close the fire got to them. Also used to seel fruit across the street from there. Also, fun fact, they filmed a star wars movie in those woods.
I live in the redwood forest on the central coast of California. We have huge redwoods in our yard. What I love is that a 10 minute drive gets me to the coast. We do have mountain lions, but there are no bears anymore. The grizzlies have been wiped out. The beaches in are Northern California can be rocky. The beaches on the central coast are sandy.
The smell of fire is pretty common in CA. They get fires every summer. The reason it's called The Golden State is because all the fields and hillside grasslands turn golden during the dry season (summer) As for Bears, I seem to recall something around 30,000 wild black bear in Northern CA.
22:02 The California coastline is 840 miles (1,352 km) long, so you're going to get great diversity of beaches and cliffs along its length. Northern CA and southern CA are almost two completely different states.
Some of the redwoods are THOUSANDS of years old. You will never know the true feeling of peace and patience that you can communing with these trees. Don't hurry away. Give yourself time with these beings. I feel they are the Ents, the tree shepherds, and worthy of the utmost respect and love
I love taking people around California who've never been. I live up north now, not far from the trees. The northern part of California is just amazing!
You are really going to love California! The redwoods are beautiful, Big Sur, Monterey and the aquarium, Yosemite, Santa Cruz beach and boardwalk! I live in the Central Valley and all of the above are within 4 hours drive from my home🌊🐠🏕
There's a tree in the red woods they cut a hole thru and you can drive your car thru it. Then the Sequoia woods in CA in incredible. There are cool camp sites you can go to where you hike into the woods a bit then set everything up. It had a big waterfall and 3 separate like little lakes that you could swim in and jump off the waterfall. Saw 2 black bears while I was there. Sequoia's are worth checking out
3 Things First, bears go wherever they want. They'll go into your trash cans if you don't have special bear-proof lids. Second, there are no border stations between most states, but because every state has its own laws, states with tighter enforcement of laws may do something like you saw in the video to protect local agriculture. Third, I drove for three days (8 hour hotel stays, restroom breaks, and meals aside) when I moved from Melbourne, Florida to Williston, North Dakota. Driving may take longer, but the USA is vast and diverse. I'm sure you'd love an Amercan cross-country road trip. You'd definitely find things you never expected and won't find in most tour books.
Nailed it on the bears! My mom had a cub on her front deck, and her neighbor had an adult black trying to get into her kitchen window after cooking bacon.
I live in Redding, with Mount Shasta overlooking the valley even bigger than the mountain ranges surrounding us, with national parks in every direction it is a wonderful place to live
First of all, it does take 10-12 hours to drive from one end of California to the other. He just happened to be on the North end. Second, he didn't even show some of the largest trees in the Redwood forest. Some are so big, they actually had one that you could drive your car through!
Only if you drive straight through and peeing in a bottle, no stopping for food, gas, or sleep. Realistically, it takes two days. More if you want to pull over and see anything. Be kind to foreigners and let them know that time frame is if you never get out of the car and stretch. These people aren't interested in bragging about how fast they went. So, be kind and be honest.
I did a 7,000 mile road trip over the course of about a month! I went west from New Jersey on the northern route, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Then on to Minnesota, where we saw a Buffalo herd at Blue Mounds, and visited the Pipestone Nat'l Monument, where all the Native Americans got the special red stone to carve their pipes from. Then we went through South Dakota and saw the Pine Ridge Reservation and the Badlands, where we experienced 3-INCH hailstones during a giant storm in June!!😳 We also went through the Black Hills of South Dakota to see the Old-West town of Deadwood, and Mt. Rushmore. Then onto Wyoming, where we saw the amazing Devil's Tower (as in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Then drove on a road so beautiful - it LITERALLY took my breath away!!😍 It was Scenic Byway 14-A through the Little Bighorn Mountains, which runs through gorgeous meadows of wildflowers and meandering rivulets at a whopping 9,000 feet elevation! The ancient, Native American Medicine Wheel National Historic Site is also on that road. It was truly magnificent! Here is a great video of a motorcycle ride on the entire Scenic Byway: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NPj7rGEbRfQ.html ☺ Then we headed further west to the always incredible Yellowstone Nat'l Park, and camped on the beautiful Shoshone River - where a bear visited our wilderness campsite in the middle of the night!😨 Then south through the stunning Grand Teton Mountains. We saw Pronghorn Antelopes and Prairie Dogs and Buffalo all along the way. Wyoming is truly spectacular!! Then we went through Utah and swam in the Great Salt Lake before heading to the unbelievable sights of eastern Utah's landscape of red rocks. We went to all the National Parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Newspaper Rock, Natural Bridges and Canyonlands. Then we drove to the 4-Corners area, and saw the ancient native American ruins of Mesa Verde, and we even went to the border of Arizona and saw the iconic Monument Valley - where all the classic cowboy movies are filmed!😲 Then we went to the awe-inspiring Bryce Canyon and Zion Nat'l Park. Then we drove through Las Vegas, Nevada and through the Mojave Desert and Joshua Trees to San Diego, California. Then drove up the entire west coast, from Los Angeles to Big Sur. Then through the Redwood Forests and Mount Shasta. Then continued north to Oregon, where the snow-capped Cascade Mountains begin. We saw the picturesque, sharply pointed Mt. Hood from the cool, hip, quirky city of Portland. Then crossed the mighty Columbia River to see Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State (which erupted violently in 1980). Our trip ended in the gorgeous city of Seattle, with its spectacular views of Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, and the Olympic Mountains. It was over 7,000 miles of driving, and the muscles in my right leg (gas pedal foot) were never the same, but it was definitely the trip of a lifetime!!! This country has SO many beautiful things to see! I really hope you get to make your trip to America, Lewis!!!😊
I grew up around Pipestone. I use to go to pow-wows during the summer whenever the Sioux Nation would have them. I grew up in the middle of the upper and lower Sioux reservation.. such an experience. I love the prairie of Minnesota. You can smell the weather changing. Growing up there is like nothing else I have experience ever. From the stars at night to the warm breeze on your face to the chill of the winter air. I miss the prairie..
Lewis, agriculturally. California is a monster so they are very cautious about pests and parasites that could impact the billions of $ industry. What Scotty and his wife went through was an agricultural inspection station. They dont “ask for papers” and usually just waive you through. . . I dig your show!
Bears are not looking for people, they prefer to avoid humans. The bell is not a natural sound of the forest, so animals would avoid the noise. It is more of a help keeping the bears away in the first place, rather than scaring it once it sees you.
Not a biologist but lived in the pacific northwest and alaska most of my life... bear bells is another way to spot a tourist, we'd also sand down gnarled branched and stain em so the look nice then sell em as cougar sticks, so they can walk around smacking sticks in the forest feeling safe and smart.
Most bear attacks, or any animal attacks, are when the bear is surprised by your presence. More often then not, but not always of course, making a lot of noise will cause most animals to steer clear of you. Grizzlies however...
@@Peregrine369 people mistakenly think,we are the top of the food chain. Crocs, mountain lions, momma black bear.. and grizz , polar bears ol yeah ummm you are on the menu. Then herbivors moose, bison also not user friendly 😅
Here's a long drive story. It's November, winter, in 1981. I lived in northern Alberta. However, that wasn't going to keep me from going to the Queen concert, in Montreal on my birthday. (8th row, center floor). 4 days to get there after splitting the driving between 2 of us. Yep! 8000km or 5000 miles return to see Freddie. It was worth every mile for the wonderful memories I have!
Love your spontaneous reactions. i live outside of Pittsburgh PA and I have never been to CA... I am both awed by and proud of our country, and I appreciate it more watching your reactions. Hope you get to cross the pond soon!
I've made that drive so many times. Stopping at Lake Shasta is always my favorite. Many of the beaches towards Oregon are rocky. The further South you go in California the more "beachy" they get.
Ha! I did Richmond, VA to Corpus Christi - Incidentally its 1531 miles. According to google now, it says its a 22 hour drive, but mine took 25 hours with traffic, crashes and weather. I also drove back 4 days later, as I was off for a week to go back home. Crazy how our story is similar.
Some states are prone to trafficking or illegal produce. Certain fruits and vegetables are prohibited to go across some state lines without permits etc. Most attacks occur when a bear is startled. Making noise let's them know you're there and they run off. The other time you may be attacked is when momma bear is looking out for her cubs. Momma bears can be dangerous.
The last 10 days of 2022 I drove from St Augustine, Florida to Spokane, Washington ST: 3280 miles otherwise metric over 5000 kilometers! Longest segment was around 800 miles in one day when I was in the desert and the Rocky Mountains which had great emptinesses.
The scenes on Endor in Return of the Jedi were filmed in the Redwoods! And no, the pictures/videos do not do those trees justice! It's one of the coolest experiences to get to walk through the Redwood forest. So beautiful! I feel very lucky to have grown up nearby, going to Crater Lake, and the Redwoods, the Pacific Coast...love it!
Just a fun fact..... Pause the video at 21:52 and the rocks you see in the ocean is where they filmed the final scene in the movie called "the goonies"...
If you look at a map of the US as a whole. The amount he just traveled is a drop in a bucket. The US is really massive. This is why we love our country. It may not be perfect but it is perfect enough for me.❤
The Redwoods are bucket list worthy!!! We were in a camper van and the trees are wider than the van was long. Bears are scavengers- just don’t get between a mom and her cub. Highway 1/101 is amazing also. 💜
It's about a 12 hour drive from the Mexican border to the Oregon border, so you can spend half a day driving and still be in the same state. Same with Texas.
Watching you and your excitement of America, my home, puts a smile on my face. Northern California is beautiful and that's it. I'm from Washington State, I lived 30 miles from Mt. Rainier. Look it up as well as the Olympic forest. Beautiful.Take Care
States that have lots of agriculture, like California, do have inspections for people coming from other states to make sure not too many seeds, foreign plants, or edible items come inbound to risk contamination of the soil, air or water with plant diseases. It's a biosecurity measure.
In 1961 my dad took us via Rt 66 from Chicago to Cali. We wrnt to Sequoia national Park. To this day I remember the 300ft trees with such huge trunks and even the pieces of bark were huge, like a small trees themselves. This experience should be on everyone's bucket list. Northern half of CA is the only place on earth these trees grow. How awesome.😊
CA's Redwood Forest is one of the most beautiful, incredible places I've ever been. The sights, the smells, just everything about the Redwood Forest is amazing and I don't use those words lightly. If you ever get the chance to come, Lawrence, you should make some time, a couple days at least to visit the Redwood Forest. You can get some very comfortable lodgings there and see it at night, too. In Spring and Summer it smells so good and the whole ambience changes. Those trees are 1000s of years old (some of them). Anyway, the mistake I think the guy in the video made was not staying the night in the forest at a lodge. It's incredible. Be well.
Took me 4 days to drive from California to NJ. 12 hours a day driving, not including breaks. This was over 20 years ago - in a 20 yo car with no AC in the summer!
@@LiveFreeOrDieDH I mean if you're going to do that, I would suggest Amtrak, and get a room on the train, that way you have access to three square meals a day, made by a chef aboard the train, and you also have the sight seer lounge, with swivel chairs that point outward! 🙂 And it sounds quicker than the drive you took; Amtrak is 3 days 17 hours from NJ to CA 🙂
I would suggest flying, it's only five hours. If you insist on traveling over land, Amtrak is far more comfortable. 🙂 Amtrak from LA to New Jersey is 3 days 17 hours so it would have been faster AND more comfortable. Although still not nearly as fast as a five hour flight. 🙂
Amtrak's and planes are all good if your a tourist or on holiday. Sometimes our vehicles need to come with us so we have to drive days and that's nothing compared to actual truck drivers that drive for a living
I used to live near the Oregon border in Cali. My parents lived in the middle near San Francisco which was an almost 6 hour drive away. When we drive to San Diego, that was another 9 hours on top of the 6 and that is without rush hour traffic in either the Bay Area or Los Angeles which can add hours to your trip. California is big folks.
Lived in San Diego and made the 9(ish) hour drive to San Francisco a few times. Also did 8.5 - 9 hours from Sant Rosa (north of San Francisco) to Eugene Oregon.
It's an 18 hour drive from Washington State Seattle area, to the Los Angeles area in California. The longest drive I've ever done was over 3,000 miles or over 4800 kilometers from WA State, to Oklahoma State for a holiday to see my family. 4 days there, 4 days home. Brutal, but we made it fun.
There’s essentially 3 zones in CA, northern which has the trees and what not, central which is mostly farming, and southern which is mostly desert. Then you get more detailed and in SoCal you can go to the beach in the morning, drive a couple hours to the snow in the mountains, and drive a couple more hours to the desert for camping.
You must have missed ''all'' the mountain ranges in Southern, CA. I live in San Diego. You get much more south you are in Mexico. I live in a beach town, I can be on the beach in the morning and take a drive east and I can be in the mountains in an hour. On a nice fall day, in the winter snow or a beautiful spring or summer day. Or, I can be be in the sand dunes in two hours. Life is good!
@@nunya_beeswacks7262 Wow, how the heck did I miss that. I know I have been telling my son I need new glasses & that my eyesight is getting worse but I didn't realize it was getting that bad. I'd like to think it was just an oversight though! Thanks for pointing it out. And, you were so on point! Birds of a feather....lol Take care.
Most gas stations have window cleaning tools much like you see for office buildings. But because of "bugs" it's two-sided. One side is a scrubber that you wet with window cleaner (provided by the station in a bucket where the tool is) to clean/scrub the bugs off, the other side is a squeegee to remove the cleaner and bugs. You can also get your own bug tool at many stores that have auto stuff and a spray bottle for cleaner. This railroad crossing is out in a very rural area. In cities and more populated areas, yes, there are signals at crossings. The "border checks" really only happen in California and Florida because of the produce/fruits produced in those states. It's to safeguard the agriculture in those states. Back when I was a teen (68 now) at a county fair on display was a "camping trailer", what you would call a caravan, that was a hollowed out trunk of a redwood. All the tables, chairs, counters, bedframes were made from the wood of the redwood used to make that thing. I'm 6 feet tall, I had plenty of headroom. For the most part, bears do not want to interact with people. The bear bell gives off extra noise that the bear will generally shy away from. No, it won't stop the bear if it decides to attack, it's meant to give warning that you are coming so it can leave. You would generally strap this to your ankle.
Love seeing this episode! I've been on the Redwood Hwy many times. I live in the SW corner of Oregon, about 45 minutes north of Crescent City. Seeing the redwood forest is always thrilling, even for folks who've lived here their whole lives.
My mom was adamant about her children seeing our Nation. It instilled in me a love of nature. We have been to all of these places and traveled up through Oregon and Washington. We were not wealthy so we stayed in some ripe hotels at times. I complained all the time as a kid, but I am so grateful now. The United States is so rich in natural surroundings and each area has its own beauty. I truly hope you get to visit and enjoy what our Nation has to offer tourists.
my mom was afraid to even leave the part of town we lived in. You're lucky. I'm an adult now and love to travel and see the country. maybe one day see the rest of the world.
Some of those trees were growing 2,000 years ago. The General Sherman redwood is 84 meters tall, 30 meters in diameter. I drove from Alaska, through Canada, to Michigan. Took a week, and it was unforgettable. Over 4,000 miles and oh the wildlife, mountains and cities I saw.
FYI, my husband and I would drive from Glendale,AZ to Nashville, Tennessee to visit family in the summer. Miles 1,643.9 roughly (we took turns driving) with only stopping for gasoline, bathroom breaks and eating it would take us approximately 30 to 35 hours depending if we hit a lot of traffic. I am glad that now I fly instead of driving.
