Gold Bluffs Beach and Campground in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is a remote beach in northern…read moreHumboldt County. I personally love how secluded this beach is that stretches out for miles. This beach is great for walking along the shoreline and/or enjoying a picnic at. In order to get here you will have to drive on a somewhat twisty road for about 6 miles. It is right next to Fern Canyon so I love visiting both at the same time due to the close proximity to one another. There are unique hikes in Fern Canyon due to the fern-covered walls you can walk through. This is such a beautiful area. I have not used the campground and only visited the beach so I can't speak to the campground aspect of this area. It is very peaceful and serene and a place where you can often spot elk.

Gold Bluffs Beach extends for 10 miles along the Humboldt County coast in Prairie Creek Redwoods…read moreState Park. It requires a day use permit to enter because of the volume of visitors that come here. Mostly because popular Fern Canyon is next to it. Gold Bluffs has a campground with 26 sites. Permits are not required if you have camping reservations. To reach Gold Bluffs Beach, you have to drive on a 6 mile windy dirt road called Davison Rd that you can access near the Elk Meadow picnic area. Trailers are not allowed on Davison Road. Visitors will need to pay the day-use fee, or show their federal pass or CA state park passes at the Gold Bluffs Beach entrance station. You can also hike the 11-mile James Irvine loop trail from Prairie Creek Visitor Center. No permit is required if you are hiking. Gold Bluffs Beach was named after a gold discovery in the 1850's that attracted some interest by miners. If you are going to come here, make sure you check out nearby Fern Canyon. It is a must-see! The 1,200 mile California Coastal Trail runs through Gold Bluffs. After hiking Fern Canyon, I walked over to the coast of Gold Bluff to walk in the water and soak in the sun.

Humboldt Lagoons State Park is on the Redwood Coast between Orick and Trinidad. There are three…read morelagoons - Big Lagoon, Stone Lagoon, and Freshwater Lagoon. These lagoons are a collection of landlocked waters right on the coast but protected from the Pacific Ocean. You can rent kayaks and paddleboards at Stone Lagoon Visitor Center. I stopped by Stone Lagoon to rest after a long day of driving to chill and relax.

We had such an amazing time at the state park. Great scenery with rock formations. The…read morewashed up driftwood was good. We had such a great time looking for agate and different types of rocks. Great stop.

Fantastic!! If you are in Crescent City and want to do some adventuring I'd highly recommend this…read moregroup! Adam, the owner, is great! And he brings his dog along. He gets everything arranged, gets you fitted with the right bike, and sends you out with a guide to get you through the forest on bikes. The guide we had today was Josh and he was very good! ( after biking he added his sweet dog, Annie, to the group for the rafting section!) along our biking he told us some fun facts about the Redwood Trees and some exotic plants! Our biking section of the day was GREAT! It is actually a perfect ride you start on pavement and then you end up on a gravel road with some uphills and some downhill but nothing super steep allowing you to take in the scenery. Can the forest be any more beautiful!! The trees are enormous!! Some have been burned, some struck by lighting, some both!! But they are still standing! After biking we drove to the Smith river where they laid out a great lunch! After lunch we geared up for river rafting down the Smith River, the only un-dammed river in California! It is spectacularly clear! Since we were here in June, the river was not super deep, but we did have some fun rapids and some really nice open spaces that were very mellow, allowing you to take in the scenery! For those more daring there is a stop where you can jump off rocks into the water. The rafting portion lasted about 2 to 3 hours. Our entire day started at 9:30 and we were done around 4 PM. I thought it was a fantastic way to spend the day! I highly recommend them.

Amazing trip with the most fabulous guides - knowledgeable and fun - what a wonderful family trip…read morethat I recommend you do with Redwood - great kayaking, great lunch, great guides - best experience in northern California! They even helped my hubbie with the bum arm! Go - do not wait!!!

Beautiful campground with lots of wildlife. Being able to camp amongst redwoods and amazing views…read more Close to the beach and the national park too.

Love, love, love everything about this place. Love a campground that still enforces rules that…read moremake it peaceful and clean for all. Noise and habitat destruction are not tolerated, sooooooo if you have a big group with kids you want to turn loose to run amuck on bikes and scooters or you want to be up past 10 pm or have music playing this isn't the place for that so don't get bent if you get talked to by staff. It really is a fantastic and beautiful park with wild elk roaming all over and a public beach across the highway!

This was the perfect place to stay in the Redwoods! The cabin had everything we needed - TV with…read morestreaming service, microwave, coffee, a few dishes, a washer and dryer, and even an electric vehicle plug in right outside our door! (Unit 9B). It was so close to a really beautiful hike among the Redwoods on the Trillium Falls trail and we got to see Elk in the field on the way. Would definitely recommend!

Outstanding cabins within walking distance of Trillium Falls. It's a little remote and service is…read morespotty, but the cabins have wi-fi. The cabins themselves are wonderful and have everything you'll need from dishes to linens. I would definitely recommend staying here if you have a large family and want to see the Redwoods.

The "Skunk Cabbage section" of COASTAL TRAIL starts at the edge of Route 101, and follows along…read morenear Skunk Cabbage Creek, and brings you to the beach at the Pacific Ocean. This trail is also called, "Skunk Cabbage Trail." The one way distance from Route 101 to the beach is about two and a half miles. According to Google maps, Skunk Cabbage Creek disappears at the half-way point to the Pacific Ocean. The trail keeps a distance of about 50 feet from the creek. It is possible to walk from the trail to the creek to get closer to the huge number of colorful skunk cabbages growing near the creek, but you might need to push yourself through a blanket of small plants and small bushes. Only a few skunk cabbages grow next to the trail (we saw about 20 of them), and some of these have big holes in the leaves and look deteriorated. MAGICAL THINGS TO SEE. As shown by my photographs, the magical things to see along the Skunk Cabbage Trail include the abundant ferns blanketing the landscape, green-colored lichens hanging from branches of nearby trees and, of course, the redwood trees. One of the redwood trees by the trail has a monsterously huge bizarre-looking burl. I decided to post only one photo of this burl because it is ugly looking. Another magical thing are the shelf fungi. We saw two trees with shelf funguses growing from them, and the shelf funguses looked like pancakes with a brown upper side and a white bottom side. Shelf funguses having a brown upper face and a white lower face include, Ganoderma applanatum, Ganoderma sessile, and some species of Trametes versicolor. SKUNK CABBAGE (Symplocarpus foetidus). This plant has large leaves (50-135 centimeters long and 30-80 centimeters wide). The flowers are produced in a spadix. The skunk cabbage produces heat. The goal of the plant is to use the heat to melt snow, and ensure its survival in the winter. The temperature of the flowers can be about 20 degrees centigrade higher than the surrounding air. Skunk cabbages have a stinky odor that attracts insects that help pollinate the plant. Skunk cabbages have a hood, which is a modified leaf called a "spathe." The spathe wraps itself around a space that encloses a sphere of flowers called a "spadix." See, 1-page article on skunk cabbage published by California Native Plant Society (Calscape). See also, Skunk Cabbage by Craig Holdrege (9 pages) published in Fall 2000 in the newsletter, "In Context." MY PHOTOS. My photos show the parking lot where the trailhead is located, a huge sign at the edge of the parking lot, where the sign explains things about Skunk Cabbage Trail. My photos show shelf fungi growing on a tree next to the trail. My photos also show thick bushy lichens hanging from small trees, a few skunk cabbages, and a photo of me wearing a Cal Berkeley hat and a Cal Oski bear T-shirt. Other photos show a view of a huge ugly burl that grows on a redwood tree, and two photos 5 redwood trees growing in a tight bunch. One photo shows the area near the ground, where the 5 trees are bunched together. Another photo shows a higher area, where the 5 trees are separated from each other. ATTRACTIONS TO THE SOUTH ALONG ROUTE 101. We hiked to the half-way point along the Skunk Cabbage section, and then turned back. The town of Orick is a one minute drive south from the trailhead. Bald Hills Road is even closer. Bald Hills Road takes you to the east, and to the trailhead for Lady Bird Grove Trail. Both of these trails include some gentle up-and-down sections, and wooden footbridges crossing over tiny creeks. Trinidad is 17 miles south of Orick (see, my YELP review of Trinidad Head in Trinidad). Holiday Inn at McKinleyville is about six miles south of Trinidad. We stayed at this Holiday Inn. This Holiday Inn is elegant and very clean, and I felt like a king during our stay here.