There are countless little roadside parking lots along US-101 and the Avenue of the Giants where you can get out and stretch your legs in a little redwood grove that’s dedicated to a person, usually a man, who died in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.

You could spend allll day hopping between them alone. Some don’t even have names, and good luck finding anything official-seeming on the internet about them.

We grabbed a parking spot and walked behind the gate to explore.

This grove is named after John B. Dewitt, who was the executive director of the Save-the-Redwoods League for 30 years. This grove used to be part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park, then separated off and officially became a part of Redwood National Park, which John spent his career advocating for the expansion of.

He passed away in 1996 at the age of 59. So he’d been the director since he was only 29. What a cool guy.

Look how smol we look in comparison to them… crazy.

The evidence of all the wildfires is always so crazy to see too. Imagine this entire forest being on fire.

By now, it was 9:30AM and I was getting antsy for what I thought would probably end up being my favorite part of the trip: a very, very long drive along the rural Californian coast to see *the* Black Sand Beach. Yeeeessss

More about the John B. Dewitt Redwoods State Natural Reserve:
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22274

And about John B. Dewitt himself:
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/John-Belton-Dewitt-3127355.php
https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/OBITUARY-John-Belton-Dewitt-2968521.php