Hello Confusion

Bemusement This Way

That would be one of the many signs directing you to stop at Confusion Hill, a long established roadside attraction in Northern California. Opened in 1949, this place has even achieved a "California Point of Historical Interest"for its longevity and quirky nature.

One of Confusion Hill's clam to fame is "The World's Largest Freestanding Chainsaw Carving", pictured above.

There is a 1.5 mile narrow gauge railroad that weaves in and out of the many redwoods and a "gravity" house which would probably be familiar to those of us who used to visit Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County, California..."Watch water run uphill"... you get the idea.

They have their own version of the Shoe House and many wooden sculptures including the cougar threatening an eagle perched above. 

For years what most of us paid attention to as we passed this area along Hwy 101 was the unpredictable hill above the road. You always wanted to check the road condition as the Confusion Hill Slide, as it was known, could spew rock down its face and shut the road. Today, with two new bridges, the highway twice leaps over a big bend in the Eel River to avoid the slide area. The benign looking face of rock at the far left of the image is left to crumble on its own.

The new bypass initially played havoc with attendance at Confusion Hill as traffic no longer drove past the attraction. Then noted TV travel videographer Huell Houser did a show on the place and that ended up helping them.

As I was walking away the spell of Confusion Hill befuddled me as I witnessed a caravan of virtually identical trucks passing over one of the new bridges. How do it know???