After spending our early morning in Fort Bragg, we continued up US-1 until it met back up with US-101 and gradually turned into the Avenue of Giants.

This road trip was inspired by Ike saying that he wished there could be a trip where we’d see Redwoods and the Grand Canyon, both for the first time, on the same trip. You know what they say, your wish is my command… so anyway, we were really looking forward to this day.

Richardson Grove State Park

This was the first redwood grove we came across. It was super early and they were just opening the visitor’s center. We explored a short trail next to the parking lot where charred redwoods surrounded us.

We meandered down to a pebble beach nearby and admired the mountainous river view while also being really surprised at the amount of haze from the nearby wildfires.

The rangers at the visitor center were really friendly, and they explained that the charred trees were from hundreds of years ago when indigenous people conducted an intentional, routine, burn – and that it wasn’t from any recent fires like we thought.

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Twenty-ish minutes down the road from Richardson Grove, there’s a pull-off for a small parking lot for the Founders Grove within the Humboldt Redwoods. “Humboldt” is such an iconic California thing in my mind, so I was excited for this one.

We spent the most time here out of anywhere, and it was definitely the most crowded.

The Founder’s tree is here, which was pretty cool.

The texture of the trees is surprisingly soft and the bark is so colorful when you look up close.

There are also plenty of trees that you can climb on, under, and inside of.

It started to rain more than a drizzle, so we headed out and sought refuge at this gem & mineral shop we randomly drove by on the highway.

Chapman’s Gem & Mineral Shop

If you are interested at all in fossils, rocks, gemstones, or anything adjacent to that, you’ll think this is an awesome place.

We were in there alone other than the employees. They were super friendly and left us alone to explore. There was so much to look at.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park

Grizzly Creek is 35 minutes away from the Humboldt Redwoods and this was the cutest stop of all. The park ranger here was so sweet and we spent some time chatting with him.

We walked the short loop around the park through the redwood forest and, again, were totally alone. Redwood forests are so serene. The air is so refreshing, the atmosphere is quiet, and the ground is so soft. I can’t wait to travel back to this area.

We then basically had no plan other than to drive as far as we could toward Lassen Volcanic National Park before it got dark.

We ended up sleeping along the side of the road in a National Forest and had the prettiest sunset.

We slept surprisingly well in the van and were undisturbed, except for an official-looking SUV who drove alongside us for a brief second and shined their light. When I peeked under our window cover and they saw me, they drove away.

Earlier that evening, a huge fire fighting entourage passed us and so we wondered if the SUV may have just been checking on us as part of that.

And in case you’re like me and wonder what this driving day mostly looked like:

Founders Grove @ Humboldt Redwoods via All Trails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/founders-grove-nature-trail

Cheatham Grove @ Grizzly Creek Redwoods via All Trails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/cheatham-grove-trail

Richardson Grove interpretative trail via All Trails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/richardson-grove-interpretive-trail

Chapman’s Gem & Mineral Shop via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/p/Chapmans-Gem-Mineral-Shop-Museum-100064106017200/