Richardson Grove SP

This is a first time campground for us, which is always fun. We’ve passed by this park a bunch of times on the way to Humboldt Redwoods Burlington campground, or heading south to Standish Hickey. It’s just a little farther north from Standish Hickey, but could make a decent stopping point if I’ve just driven over the super twisty part of highway 1 heading north and didn’t want to push through to get to Burlington. There are some downsides though, like it’s not quite as pretty as Burlington, and is farther from the Avenue of the Giants, where there is a lot to do. It would have gotten bonus points if it had good cell service, or a dump, but on balance, I think we prefer the majestic beauty of Burlington if we have the choice. Still, it’s a nice woodsy campground with a nice trail up Durphy Creek for Richard’s morning routine.

There is always a lot of construction on highways 101 and 1, which is a good thing because it means California is trying to fix its roads, but you can pretty much count on some stretch of highway being one lane with a light or a flagger letting cars through by alternating one direction at a time. There’s a big lane closure just to the north of the park, but it is open and the entry road is clear. The thought of biking crossed our minds, but you’d not only have to ride 101 in a narrow, blind corner part, but also have to go through the closure.

With plenty of time left after getting in our site, we walked down to the river to see what’s what. There were lots of people floating or splashing around, and for the first time this whole trip, besides one day in Jasper, it was actually hot. Not like hot hot, but somewhere in the 80s warm/hotish. That is one of the many things that worked super well this summer: we totally avoided summer heat. The downside is that after a week or so with no hookups to run our little electric space heater, everything was starting to feel moist. This was a great stay to air things out get rid of some of the dampness. I even left the back window open, despite the warnings of a bear in the campground. I was willing to take the risk of a curry hunting intruder going through our pantry for the sake of saving the towels from getting mildewy.

The visitor center was closed at the time, but open the next day. It’s a historic lodge that was built in the late 1920s and it has lots of interesting informational displays about the local wildlife, redwood trees, native inhabitants, and park history. It also has an inviting poster in the window noting that July is National Ice Cream Month and they do have an ice cream coffin with individual Haagen Dazs bars.

There is a short interpretive trail through the old growth redwoods with one of them named the “Bat Tree.” Apparently, a colony of Yuma Myotis bats have taken up residence inside the fire hollowed tree. A ranger informed us that the bats have moved on to another hollowed out tree and that she has heard them in there. We did find the tree and listened hard, but 101 runs right next to the trail and there was no way we were going to hear them. We did however spy a couple of frogs down by the river. We missed the excitement when a rattlesnake was hanging out in the parking lot, eating moles and scaring dogs. No bears, no mountain lions, no bats, but yes frogs and a few mosquitoes.

Because it was finally hot, I got to pull out the grill and made a steak with toasted crouton panzanella salad. Pairing that with a blended margarita is one of my favorite camping activities. We discussed options for things to do the next day, which obviously included a mission to Il Forno Bakery in Garberville where they sell freshly made doughnuts until they run out. We missed them last time we came through, so this was job #1. After that, we decided to drive up to Burlington where we could launch our bikes and ride Mattole Road.

All missions were achieved with no hiccups. We split a couple of fresh doughnuts and drove to the parking area at Humboldt Redwoods Visitor Center plenty early so we could get a parking spot. And can you guess who we saw riding south as we were driving north on the Avenue of the Giants? Flavia and James! I don’t know if they know who we are without the trailer, but we waved furiously as we passed them. I would have honked or something but I didn’t want to swerve in the excitement and kill them. That would be in very bad form.

When you start from Burlington Visitor Center, or from the campground next door, you get to ride about five miles on the Avenue of the Giants road before taking a left and turning up Mattole Road. This is one of our favorite rides and it never gets old. The surface is nicely paved right now, but it’s a narrow one lane curvy road with huge trees pushing so far into the passageway, I wondered if Dory would fit. Luckily, besides going to the Albee Campground the road doesn’t lead anywhere most people want to go, so there is very little traffic. Past the campground, it looks like the road takes a terrifying switchbacky steep route that eventually lands on the Lost Coast. I don’t think we’d even want to bike that, let alone drive it. But the ten mile ride through the deep dark redwood forest is one of the best anywhere in the world.

There are a couple of stops you can make along the way to see named groves of trees. The first is the Rockefeller Grove and the next is called the “Big Trees” loop. It’s funny to me, in the context of being surrounded by nothing but big trees, that they specifically name some of them “Big Tree” or “Tall Tree.” I mean, they’re all pretty big and tall. But I guess there are a couple who won the championship at being just a little bit bigger or taller than the others. I wonder if they are resented by the other trees, or if they have imposter syndrome. We did do the loop trail and we did note that, yes, there are some very big trees in there.

We rode up to Albee Campground and got some good information from the ranger there. She recommended the Homestead and Bull Creek trails very highly, so we did a 2.7 mile loop that I would also tell others is definitely worth doing. The Homestead trail is entirely through huge redwood groves. It’s shady and cool, with the occasional banana slug. The Bull Creek trail is just on the edge of the redwoods only party, so it has some oaks and bay trees mixed in, letting in a little more light, and as a result, a little more warmth. It’s striking how cool the temperatures are when you’re in a dense redwood forest.

We had a little lunch back at the campground and rode our way back to the car. While still on Mattole Road, we were passed by two huge logging trucks and that was a sight to see. While I wasn’t even sure how a tiny trailer might get past some of the tighter spots, the trucks made it through just fine. We got out of the way and they waved us a thank you. Later we saw them stopped to tighten everything down before getting on 101 and we asked them if that was scary driving. They said yes it was, but only because they were worried about colliding with other cars. They are right at home with switchbacks and deathy drop-off edges; it’s us flat landers going too fast around blind curves they’re scared of squishing.

Before settling in for the day, we made a curiosity stop at the Legend of Bigfoot. This is a conspicuous tourist trap just before you get to Richardson Grove. It is what you’d think it is. Anything you can imagine with themes of trees, Bigfoot, or whimsical garden ornaments is being sold there. We were tempted by folding knives with redwood handles. You see, we often need to cut doughnuts, or pizza, or croissants in half, and a little serrated travel knife would certainly come in handy. We resisted temptation and did not get any of the ones with “Richard” on them. Then it was back to Dory for a blue apron spicy chicken with snow peas, bell pepper, and golden raisin rice. Oh, I also did run down to the visitor center when it was open and I did get an ice cream bar. Richard completed a five mile hike in an hour and a half. One of us is going to be sad when we finally do get back on that scale.

Total miles from Sue-Meg: 104.3, 16.7 mpg, 4 hours 6 min. Site 25 no hookups. Hardly any solar. No dump. Water spigots. Tight campground loop road. No cell really for Verizon, spotty cell for ATT. Nice visitor center, no wifi, but ice cream coffin. Great trail from campground for Richard up Durphy Creek. He notes that is it better going counter clockwise because the grade is better.