Day 2 - Sept 4, 2019 Last updated: 9/6/19 3:00pm PT
Today we visited Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in California. This has got to be one of my favorite places on the planet. The first time we were here was in 2007, and it hasn’t lost any of the magic for me in 2019. These trees are amazing. The oldest trees are 2000 years old, but we are more likely to see trees 500-1000 years old. What were you doing 1000 years ago? Typical trees are 300 feet tall and 16-20 feet in diameter. This grove has a short easy trail with a good group of old large trees. There are other trails in other parts of the park, but they don’t impress as much. This grove is almost all redwoods, where the other parts of the park have more of a mixture of tree types.
When we came in 2007 to Stout Grove, we walked across a seasonal bridge from the campground along the Smith River. The campground, having easy access to the main highway, made this an easy visit. This time, we were late by a day, the seasonal bridge had been removed. We had to drive the long way to the grove’s entrance on a one lane, two-way, gravel road, about an additional 20 minute drive. The park ranger said it was the old stagecoach road. If you come from Crescent City the gravel part is about 8 miles. If you go around and come from the east, the gravel part is only about 2 miles. We came from the east. It’s more miles from Crescent City, but most of it is on a smooth highway doing 55-65 mph.
In the first picture, Denise is standing in front of the nearest tree.
After this, we drove south on Highway 101 to other parts of the redwoods park to see more tall trees.
We spent the night in Crescent City. Last time we were here in ’07, we had a bad experience. Bad hotel, bad food. This time the hotel was decent as was the food.
Here’s us at the Pacific Ocean in Crescent City.
