Eureka!

There's a lot more Eurekas than I'd have ever guessed. In the US alone, towns or townships in 17 states, plus Eureka Springs, AR. Eureka, IL, is the site of Eureka College, Ronald Reagan's alma mater. Eureka, MO, is home to a Six Flags Theme Park and is next to the now-forgotten Times Beach Superfund site. Eureka, MT, formerly a stop on the Burlington's Empire Builder, until the Flathead Tunnel cut it off. Eureka, NV, "the friendliest town on the loneliest road in America," and (according to Wikipedia), with a population of 650, "by far the larger of the 2 towns in Eureka County."

I should try to design a route from here to Eureka (CA) that connects all of the Eurekas between here and there. I could go just about due west through Eurekas in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Utah, and Nevada, or take a more northerly route through Eureka Twp. Michigan, Eureka Wisconsin, Eureka Twp. Iowa, and Eurekas in South Dakota and Montana.

I could even visit Eureka, Nunavut, the "second-northernmost permanent research community in the world" (Wikipedia) where the highest temperature ever recorded was 68°F, en route to Eureka, California (where the highest temperature ever recorded was 87°F).

All of that is merely to announce that I'm going to post some of the pictures I took on a recent trip to the Redwood Empire. These were taken at a variety of places between Eureka and Crescent City. Today's photo is of a grazing elk in the tidal marshes near Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State and National Park, about 50 miles north of Eureka. (By the way, did you know that you can click on any photo to see a greatly enlarged version?)