Several weeks ago, when I was in the thick of ICU call and spending 90% of my waking hours (and 5% of my sleeping ones) in the hospital, Ben and I planned a trip to Redwoods National Park for my first post-call golden weekend*. We have a loose goal of making it to every US national park, and Redwoods seemed like the perfect post-ICU getaway.
Redwoods can be tricky to get to-- it's a solid 6 hour drive from SF (7 from south bay), making it hard to do in a weekend. Fortunately, I was post-call Friday, so we were able to head out by 2pm, making it just in time for late dinner. We hiked all day Saturday, most of the day on Sunday, and made it home by midnight Sunday night-- it was a bit of a whirlwind, but absolutely gorgeous and absolutely worth it.
I love this state.
Redwoods can be tricky to get to-- it's a solid 6 hour drive from SF (7 from south bay), making it hard to do in a weekend. Fortunately, I was post-call Friday, so we were able to head out by 2pm, making it just in time for late dinner. We hiked all day Saturday, most of the day on Sunday, and made it home by midnight Sunday night-- it was a bit of a whirlwind, but absolutely gorgeous and absolutely worth it.
I love this state.
where we hiked:
On Saturday, we hiked the Miner's Ridge/James Irvine loop, which is in Prairie Creek State Park (Redwoods National Park is comprised of multiple state parks, something we initially found fairly confusing.) I've seen various distances published online, but for us, this ended up being about a 14 mile loop.
We picked this hike because it took us by the famous Fern Canyon, but the entire trail was fantastic. Giant (GIANT) redwoods, dense ferns, dappled light, and the most glorious fresh, clean air. Everything felt so lush and alive and green. The trail meandered through several habitats, including a mile or so along a completely deserted (minus the seals, of course) beach. It was perfect.
We picked this hike because it took us by the famous Fern Canyon, but the entire trail was fantastic. Giant (GIANT) redwoods, dense ferns, dappled light, and the most glorious fresh, clean air. Everything felt so lush and alive and green. The trail meandered through several habitats, including a mile or so along a completely deserted (minus the seals, of course) beach. It was perfect.
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| the tallest tree in the world is somewhere in this park. national park officials have decided not to let the public know which tree it is. I think that's smart. |
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| happy hiker. |
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| fern canyon-- the highlight of the trail. |
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| wall of ferns. |
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| hiking along the gold coast. |
On Sunday, we slept in a little (YES), ate a late brunch, and hiked the Emerald Ridge/Tall Trees loop. This 6ish mile trail meandered down a hillside to Tall Trees Grove, an old-growth grove selection of (surprise!) very, very tall trees. The undergrowth here was thicker than on on the Miner's Ridge/James Irvine trail, and it was nice to meander through tall ferns and under mossy branches.
The trail continued on to the banks of Redwood Creek, and ultimately crossed the creek 6 times. We didn't bring water shoes (rookie mistake, I know), so there was lots of taking-shoes-on-and-off action, but the water felt cool and refreshing, and walking up a creek flanked by massive trees was pretty awesome.
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| entering tall trees grove |
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| basically an enchanted forest. |
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| trail-side snack |
where we stayed:
Not too exciting here: we stayed in a budget chain hotel in Arcata, CA. If I weren't coming off a month of call, we might have tried camping, but it was great to have a real bed and shower (see also: I'm getting OLD). We also looked into Air BnB options, but they were few and far between, although there were some neat houses that would have worked well with a larger group. Arcata was about a 45 minute drive to the southern portion of the park, which is where we hiked.
Not too exciting here: we stayed in a budget chain hotel in Arcata, CA. If I weren't coming off a month of call, we might have tried camping, but it was great to have a real bed and shower (see also: I'm getting OLD). We also looked into Air BnB options, but they were few and far between, although there were some neat houses that would have worked well with a larger group. Arcata was about a 45 minute drive to the southern portion of the park, which is where we hiked.
what we ate:
Arcata (and neighboring Eurkea) were surprisingly great towns. Both had a laid-back hippie vibe, were very walkable, and felt like outdoorsy college towns. There were several hip coffee shops, funky boutiques, and farm-to-table restaurants.
One of my favorites was wildflower cafe, a super hippie, mostly vegan place. I got vegan, gluten free "eggs florentine", which involved copious amount of potatoes, kale, and tofu all soaked in a cashew "hollidaise" sauce. It didn't taste anything like real eggs florentine, but it was delicious and perfect fuel for a long day of hiking.
On a much less vegan note, I also absolutely loved salt, a modern fish shack where I got caught-that-morning grouper.
Yum.
*Golden Weekend = having Saturday and Sunday off. Yes, this really is rare enough that it gets it's own special name.
One of my favorites was wildflower cafe, a super hippie, mostly vegan place. I got vegan, gluten free "eggs florentine", which involved copious amount of potatoes, kale, and tofu all soaked in a cashew "hollidaise" sauce. It didn't taste anything like real eggs florentine, but it was delicious and perfect fuel for a long day of hiking.
On a much less vegan note, I also absolutely loved salt, a modern fish shack where I got caught-that-morning grouper.
Yum.
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| vegan eggs florentine. |
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| so fresh. so flaky. so glad I'm no longer a vegetarian. |
*Golden Weekend = having Saturday and Sunday off. Yes, this really is rare enough that it gets it's own special name.
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