Exploring California's Redwood Coast

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A couple of weeks back I took my land cruiser and 6yo up to California's Redwood Coast. The plan was to explore the Redwoods, Smith River NRA, and some of the backroads in Humboldt County that I'd read about in various guide books. Unfortunatley, many of the backroads that I were previously dirt, have been paved (like Bald Hills Drive). We lucked out with some incredible weather and did get to explore some really scenic places, and Smith River NRA is a hidden gem. We'll be heading back in April to do some more exploring on the dirt backroads and trails of Smith River NRA.


I put together a 15 min video of our adventures, there's quite a bit of time spent out of the vehicle since I didn't capture a ton of footage while traveling on dirt. Overlanding the Redwood Coast



Ironically the only Roosevelt Elk herd we encountered was along Hwy 1, and not in Redwood NP and State Parks.



Somewhere near High Gap in Smith River NRA. This photo really doesn't do justic to the view of the Pacific from the Coast Mountains.



Forks of the Smith. See if you can spot us near the rocks in the middle! The anglers were out in force when we went, and a row boat was probably passing by every few minutes.



If you make it to California's far north coast, be sure to check out Howland Hill Drive. I kind of screwed up on this photo by pulling the Lexus 20 feet in front of the Redwood. It's way bigger than it looks (much wider than the Lexus).


We came across this rad Defender with a Westfalia camper.


If you pass by the giant wood carved sculptures of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, there's a whole lot more to be had. This is Trees of Mystery and they have a rad series of rope bridges through the ancient redwood forest. You can also take the Sky Tram for a nice little 10 minute trip through the Redwoods as well. Personally, I thought the sky bridges were a lot cooler and so did my kid.

 

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This photo does a great job of putting into perspective how massive these wood statues really are!

Later that day we explored Coastal Drive, Elk Prairie and Gold Bluffs Beach. It looks like I opted for the video as opposed to still photos for much of this leg of the trip. As I had noted at the top, we didn't encounter any elk at Elk Prairie or Gold Bluff's beach. We ended up camping at Gold Bluff's since there were some available sites, plus we got to take some nice free hot showers!




The view from camp in the morning. Despite the fact that the fog burned off in the evening, everything was incredibly damp in the morning, including the inside of our tent!


The drive out to Gold Bluff's is along a nice dirt road through a series dark pine and Redwood forests.



Next we headed to Bald Hills Drive. The view from the Redwood Creek Overlook as impressive-- yes, that's the Pacific over the ridgeline! From here we headed deep into eastern Humboldt County through the acestral tribal lands of the Yurok and Hoopa.

 

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I was hoping to find some plots of private land to fly the drone near Redwood NP, but that didn't happen. I did find this nice little spot a few miles outside of the park boundary and decided to take advantage of the situation. The Redwood Creek watershed is behind is, in the fog filled canyons.


This section of the route had a lot more pavement than I had hoped for. There was a nice dirt track from Hoopa to hwy 299 towards Blue Lake, then a whole lot of mostly crappy potholed pavement backroads with occasional dirt and gravel after-- really a shame, since the farm land around Blue Lake and Kneeland is incredible!


My copilot and "adventure pal". We ended up having to turn around after reaching a plot of private property that was actively patrolled by the "Iaqua Rod & Gun Club". When you encounter such blatant warnings in pot farm country, you'd best abide! I was hoping to camp out on the Eel River on a spot I'd be eying on Google Earth near Humboldt Redwoods, but a pesky gate thwarted our plans. Since darkness was upon us, we decided to take advantage of one of the many vacant sites near the Humboldt Redwoods Visitor center. Honestly, it's pretty rad camping in the state parks campgrounds in the offseason, as they're only about 25% full.

 

[shortbus4x4]

Did you hike up Fern Canyon at all or was there too much water? I grew up on Berry Summit on 299 10 miles west of Willow Creek and have been all over the area. I went over the Bald Hills right after most of it had been paved probably 15 years ago. My mom still lives up on Berry Summit so I get down there about once a year. On my dad's side my grandparents took there honeymoon in 1947 down the coast and I have the post cards they bought when they did the Trees of Mystery back then. Didn't go this last summer though due to the covid and am hoping to make it down this year. Thank you for posting this up.

 

[Jeep or Tacoma]

Years ago took the kids up there to jedidiah smith gold bluffs. And into fern canyon. They were of the age where everything is fantasy and to them fern canyon was something out of a Star Wars movies they expected Ewoks any second. Great time

 

[OTG_1]

Did you hike up Fern Canyon at all or was there too much water? I grew up on Berry Summit on 299 10 miles west of Willow Creek and have been all over the area. I went over the Bald Hills right after most of it had been paved probably 15 years ago. My mom still lives up on Berry Summit so I get down there about once a year. On my dad's side my grandparents took there honeymoon in 1947 down the coast and I have the post cards they bought when they did the Trees of Mystery back then. Didn't go this last summer though due to the covid and am hoping to make it down this year. Thank you for posting this up.

We did not because we had another 150+ miles of backcountry roads to explore that day and the next. However, we reserved a Sprinter 4x4 and will be heading back in April, and hopefully doing a lot more exploring in the Smith River NRA. Shame they paved so much of Bald Hills-- they did leave about 3-4 miles unpaved, not even sure what the point of that is?!

 

[spressomon]

We were up in the same general area in late October and due to super thick dense wildfire smoke, and the risk of being too close to the wildfires apart of the general Six Rivers NF area, we had to forgo and ended up camping at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in Eureka.

Did you see any of the recent wildfire damage?

 

[OTG_1]

We were up in the same general area in late October and due to super thick dense wildfire smoke, and the risk of being too close to the wildfires apart of the general Six Rivers NF area, we had to forgo and ended up camping at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in Eureka.

Did you see any of the recent wildfire damage?

I don't believe Smith River NRA sustained any major fire damage this past fire season. Ironically, I was in Mendocino NF when the lightning storm hit that ignited the August Complex + a number of other fires across Norcal. We awoke to thunder all around us, and decided it'd be smart to flee the higher elevations and head back to Covelo. Little did we know, this was the beginning of California's most devestating forest fire in recorded history.

I am familiar with some of the other places in Six Rivers, like the Ruth Lake area, which unfortunately did burn during the August Complex. The drive along Horse Ridge is fantastic, but I imagine it's all charred trees now. I'd definitely recommend checking out the Shasta-Trinity Backcountry Discovery Trail which travels through this area, and allows for more connecting trails than Six Rivers. You'll still need to drive some pavement, but the backcountry in the Shasta-T is nothing short of spiritual. I think once we left Ruth Lake last year, we passed a total of 3-4 vehicles the first two days on the trail. This was my first video edit in years, so excuse some of the jankiness:

 

[1leglance]

great pics and write up, very cool to be getting the little man out making memories and have some serious fun.

 

[goldtooth]

We love that area of California and are headed down the the Avenue of the Giants on Valentines day. It is kind of a tradition for my wife and I. We are also going to explore Fern Canyon and hope to snag a campsite on the beach down there.
Howland is always a favorite of ours but it seems to be not so secrete anymore. Pretty busy last time we were there.
Nate