Shasta to the Redwoods

We left Paula and Drew’s around 11am yesterday morning. Last night they cooked us a wonderful steak and potato dinner. After our goodbyes, we drove 45 minutes south to Redding. We found a grocery store and picked up some food. Chris and I are pretty minimalist when it comes to camping these days. We have all the fancy gear (from my REI days) but lately, we’ve been into packing as lightly as possible. This means no stove or cooking equipment. I know, it sounds boring but we like it that way. Especially when you factor in all the stuff we have to take for Owen and the dogs. Anyway after picking up food items, we started west on Highway 299. The drive is fun and curvy; someone with motion sickness would definitely have problems. We checked out a couple of campgrounds along the way but decided that we’d continue on toward the coast.

We pulled into the Redwood National Forest around 5pm and found a campground. They wanted 35 bucks a night, which we thought was outrageous. So we backtracked a few miles to Gold Bluffs Beach. We had to take a six mile journey up and down a dirt forest road, which was an adventure! The six miles took us about a half hour. We reached the campground and discovered the drive was definitely worth it. We were greeted by a huge bull elk right outside my window. The campground was small and primitive, and there were a handful of people there. The sites were really close to the beach. We set up our camp and Chris took the dogs to run along the surf. Ate a quick dinner and settled in for the night. Owen fussed only a little bit, and then realized that the tent is a pretty cool place to be! We snuggled up and slept well.

We woke up around 8am and broke camp. We drove a couple more miles north to Fern Canyon, but there was some light rain so we decided against a hike. We took the forest road back down to the highway to head north into the Redwoods. We chatted with a ranger who suggested we venture off of 101 and take the scenic byway instead. I’m so glad he suggested that. The drive was amazing with hardly any other vehicles.

After stopping for a picnic lunch outside Crescent City, we found Humboldt Drive (another route the ranger suggested). It eventually took us on an unpaved road through another redwood forest. We stopped at the Stout Groves trailhead and took a hike through the woods. Owen actually hiked most of the trail on his own. The trees and plant life (especially all the ferns) were amazing.

We had planned to camp at Jedediah Smith state park. It was nice, but they also wanted $35. For a tent site? Sure, we have the means to do that, but we thought that price was ridiculous. So we headed a little ways north to Oregon, picked up a wonderful state park guide, and settled in at Harris Beach (near Brookings, OR) for $13. We set up our camp, ran out to the beach to take some sunset pictures, and headed into town for a few more groceries. We were craving some warm food and settled on mac-n-cheese and onion rings from the Fred Meyer deli! Made our way back to Harris Beach for a campfire, and settled in for the night.

(Side note: upon returning home, I found out why CA charges so much for camping. It’s because of major budget cuts to the park system.)