Redwoods August 2015

We took a trip to Humboldt Redwoods State Park in August 2015. Here are two maps which show the location and details of the park.    It is 620 miles and we stopped half way overnight.  After passing through the San Francisco bay area on the Richmond/San Rafael bridge we started up highway 101.   It had heavy traffic at 1200 on a Friday.  when we got to Willits, there was a traffic jam that lasted 15 minutes.  Where are all these people going on a workday?  We arrived at the park and got off on the correct off ramp and then the signage was awful.  We eventually found our way to the Baxter Environmental campground 6 miles from highway 101.  The road was narrow and winding.  This was because we were going through a redwood grove and they didn't want to cut down the 250 foot high trees.   We went through a locked gate ( we had obtained the code from the ranger) and parked at the end of the road.  It was a 250 yard walk to the campground.  The toilet and nonpotable water we half way to the campground.   We had to carry our camping gear and it was a pain, but it was isolated and quiet with no neighbors. There was only one other camp site by the parking area. There was a table, bear box, and a fire pit.  The pictures show the camp and the adjacent area.

The next day we visited several redwood groves where the trees were huge.  One tree was 350 feet tall.  Here are a few pictures of the trees.

The last day we drove over the hills to Honeydew, a small town on the Matole river.  Then down  the hill to Lighthouse road, where there was a foggy beach at the end of the road.  South of the road, there is a 24 mile trail through the lost coast, where there is no road. Then we went north through Petrolia where the first oil well was drilled in California. We finished the day with a picnic south of Cape Mendocino.  The road is very hilly so there is little traffic.  At a stop at the top of one of the hills, we could see Eureka about 20 miles away.  Here are some of the pictures.