Sights Along 101 North...

Our first night, after leaving the kiddos in Occidental, was spent at the gateway to the tall trees country, Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area.

This idyllic spot offers camping, picnicking, hiking, fishing, and swimming on the South Fork of the Eel River — part of the third-largest river system in California. Nearly 10 miles of trails weave through steep canyon bluffs, second growth forests, and pockets of old growth redwood and Douglas-fir. The fast-moving river — with its rapids, holes of varying depths, calm and shallow areas, and cobblestone bed — is especially popular with both swimmers and anglers.

Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area began as a 40-acre campground donated to the state in 1922 by the Hickey family to honor Edward Ritter Hickey, a local lumberman’s son who died while caring for victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918. In the late 1950s, descendants of Captain Miles Standish, a Pilgrim who landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, donated more than 500 acres. Save the Redwoods League has made subsequent additions through the years, bringing the park’s current size to more than 1,000 acres.

We arose early to explore the Big Tree Trail.

The Big Tree is the Miles Standish Tree, which is the tallest redwood in the park. At 225-feet tall and 13 feet in diameter, it is easy to spot from a distance (and demands a hug).

Estimated to be more than 1,200 years old, the Miles Standish Tree bears scars from efforts to chop it down (where my finger is pointing) and the effects of a devastating 1947 fire. What a wonderful sight to start our travel through the big trees!

Next we detoured, briefly, to the Avenue of the Giants. These Giant Redwoods were popularized in the 1920s and 1930s, as magazines began to publish stories and pictures. The first year round road through Richardson Grove was completed in 1928. The redwoods quickly became one of California’s first road-trip destinations. Souvenir stands, kitschy tourist attractions, campgrounds, and cabin camps quickly sprang up along the winding two-lane highways through the redwoods.

Because we had done this drive not that long ago, we only made one stop along the Avenue.

F.K. Lane Grove is an easy, fifteen-minute loop trail allowed us to stretch our legs and get a feel for the “magic” of the redwood forest.

This grove of redwoods was set aside in 1928 to honor Franklin K. Lane, the Secretary of the Interior under President Wilson. He was also the first volunteer President of Save-the-Redwoods League.

At the Visitor Center at Humboldt Redwoods State Park, we had the chance to meet Charles Kellogg (October 2, 1868 – September 5, 1949). This talented man (who deserves a much more intense study) was an American vaudeville performer who famously imitated bird songs, and later became a campaigner for the protection of the redwood forests of California.

He constructed this mobile home, called the Travel Log, out of a redwood tree and drove it around the country to raise awareness of the plight of the California forests.

Pat Foster of Hemmings Classic Car Magazine wrote "the vehicle itself was incredible, a monument to man and nature. It consisted of a huge chunk of giant redwood, said to be the single largest piece of hewn timber in the world, hollowed out and mounted on what was then the toughest, most rugged chassis on earth: the Nash Quad." And we got to see it. How very awesome (and somewhat contradictory... sacrifice one for the good of the many... I get it).