We don’t generally like to cover the same ground twice but we took almost the same drive today as we did yesterday. We left our campground in Hiouchi and headed east on CA-199 a few miles up the gorgeous Smith River. The river has cut an amazing rock gorge and the walls look like places to be skinned, squished and smashed should you fall and get introduced to the jagged shoreline formations. The river water is emerald green and the rocks on the bottoms of the deeper pools can be easily seen through the crystal-clear water.
A few miles up 199 we turned left into Jedediah Smith Redwoods and started our second journey in two days down Howland Hill. After crossing two bridges, the road, now gravel, heads into a truly remarkable stand of old-growth Redwoods. Our first destination was the Stout Grove, which we thought might be a good name because all the trees around here are quite stout but we found out, by reading a sign, that it was actually named after a guy named Stout who was fundamentally responsible for keeping this part of the world out of the hands of the voracious lumbermen.
We parked our truck and took a stroll down an incline and onto a quite level loop path through some of the largest living things on earth. Huge burls and weird growths growing from the trees and stumps have fanciful shapes, some of them surprisingly phallus-like. Other looked like gargoyles, monster lizards and enormous versions of Kirk Douglas’s chin. Gigantic windfalls crisscross the ground but the trail winds through and offers superb views of these Big Hombres. Windfall rootwads have ripped big holes from the forest floor that one passerby stated was about the size of the crater left when a high-explosive 155mm artillery round arrives. We spotted many trees with butts greater than 15 feet in diameter and a couple around 20 feet. Their height seems to be in the 300’+ range. There are amazing life forms here.
After our Stout Grove stroll, we intended to head a bit further up the road to the Nickerson Ranch Trail but there was a pretty substantial problem only about 100′ down the trail. A massive windfall tree had selfishly dead-centered a bridge along the path, causing complete demolition and no way to get across Mill Creek. We drove on.
We emerged from the Hill where the Redwoods crap out near Brookings. Repeating the same drive two days in a row is rare for us but we will gladly take Howland Hill Road every time we need to go toward Crescent City.
A bit of advice for fellow travelers: The liquor store where Howland Hill intersects US-101 is a gyp.
We shot some pix. Click here