We woke up super early in the morning after spending the night at Lone Pine Motel, a cute little independently owned spot in Garberville, California that’s AAA road-trip certified and you can tell has been hosting people since like the 1970’s. These end up being some of my favorite spots ever.

We were originally gonna find somewhere to park and sleep in the van, but the weather the night before was no bueno and a hot shower was calling our names.

Don’t underestimate that retro shower. It was so good.

The Frank & Bess Smithe Grove was half-an-hour-ish from Garberville and the first “official” redwood stop of our journey. I tried to do research about Frank and Bess to figure out something about who they were, but I came up totally empty handed – even the little AI-assistant on Google (ugh) couldn’t find anything. I’m so curious now.

There’s a small parking lot for a few cars, a small grove of giant trees, and path down to the beautiful green-mirrored Eel River.

Imagine how serene paddle boarding here would be. Sigh.

We read that this area used to house Lane’s Redwood Flat, a redwoods-themed camp resort with a restaurant, gift shop, etc. It opened in 1925 and closed in 1955, I think something to do with a fire breaking out?

One of these walk-through trees used to be the entrance to the gift shop. It’s really the only evidence left that something else used to be here.

We arrived here around 7:30AM, had it allll to ourselves, and were out before 8AM. Super sleepy but super ready to be surrounded by redwoods for the next week.

Frank & Bess Smithe Grove trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/frank-and-bess-smithe-grove

More about the Smithe Redwoods State Natural Reserve:
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=427