Leaving the dairy we passed by grazing cattle and stopped to witness, roadside, the birth of a calf. It was touching and memorable to see that calf stand for the first time.

Heading into Ferndale there are plenty of dairy farms and cows along the roads. The town itself was built in the mid eighteen hundreds and is known today for its beautiful Victorian houses, many of which are bed and breakfasts. Multi-colored and in perfect shape the residences and the charming stores on Main Street make browsing irresistible. Famous for its Christmas celebrations,  and it’s annual race of eccentric hand made vehicles dubbed the Kinetic Race, the town is also on the national historic register. You’ll love the old fashioned mercantile with penny candy; a small ice cream shop that serves enormous cones, and the beautifully kept gardens around town. There are two museums: antiques and memorabilia at the Ferndale Museum; vehicles from races past at the Kinetic Race Museum, a small but absolutely cool collection if anyone in your family is interested in cars, kitsch, or alternative energy. You can stay over at any of several lovely bed and breakfasts, we took a look inside The Victorian Inn, which had large, comfortable rooms filled with warmly appointed antiques. There are full house rentals available, too.

Just past Main Street a sign points the way to the little known Mattole Road, and another to Centerville Beach County Park. The latter is a narrow dead-end trip that is well worth seeing – the road literally ends at the edge of a cliff with the ocean below. Not a place for the kids to run around, it’s a beautiful sight and a great photograph. You can take a side road to actually reach the beach, which is flat and wide, nine miles backing up onto farming land; windy, excellent for bird watching; sometimes home to harbor seals and tundra swans in the late winter and spring months.

A great drive with great views, Mattole Road

After a long leg stretching on the sand, turn back toward town and pick up Mattole Road. It’s a beautiful drive that your family will enjoy. While not nearly as curvy as parts of Highway 1 near San Francisco, there are plenty of turns – if you have a child prone to car sickness you may want to keep the Saltines handy. Our kids did fine, and using Highway 1 as a comparison, that stretch was troublesome.

Mattole Road gives you many picture taking opportunities on an easy, beautiful, deserted half day drive that will circle you south east toward the redwood groves at the Avenue of the Giants.

Along the way you’ll climb over two thousand feet in elevation to take in absolutely deserted, wind whipped coastal views, green pastureland, and what remains of the ruins of the Cape Mendocino Lighthouse. A gravel path can take you toward the foundation. There’s a road pull out with a plaque that describes the lighthouse’s history; when it fell apart it was transported to the town of Shelter Cove near by in miles but a half day’s drive away, most easily accessed from the 101 at Garberville.

As the road dips down along the coast, you’ll pass through curvy, deserted landscapes – except for cows. Many cows. Much fun to be had watching them peacefully roaming the open pastures. Do be careful driving though – like the proverbial chicken, they do cross the road here.

You’ll veer away from the coast at Petrolia. California’s first oil wells were drilled here in the mid eighteen hundreds. With oil production a now distant memory, drive on about twenty pastoral miles across the Eel River and the tiny towns of Bull Creek and Honeydew. The latter has a general store where you can pick up waters and soda, and a picturesque church on a hill. After this you’ll climb another pass and descend into the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. More beautiful trees, more peaceful groves.

We descended into Garberville from here, a cross roads town known mostly for one elegant, English style hotel the Benbow Hotel, which opened in 1926 and is still a popular resort today. The decor is Tudor, the afternoon tea is a pleasure – and a family can share the cucumber sandwiches, scones, and petit fours — all delicious, elegant and wonderfully child size treats. Built  above the banks of the Eel River, it’s a beautiful spot, with spacious rooms, many with patios. There are also cottages available, with full kitchens. You’ll enjoy strolling with the kids through their ample lawns and terraced patio. Redwoods and tall oaks grow along the lawn, and the gardens are lovely; connected with easy to follow, stroller-friendly walkways.

Windy, but great views and a great drive near Ferndale, CA

Garberville is also an excellent jumping off spot for a visit to Shelter Cove, which in turn is the place to stay before setting out on a Lost Coast, uninhabited, off -road wilderness adventure. The lure of this adventure is exciting, particularly once you see the vast, untamed, virtually untouched shore line heading in both directions from Shelter Cove. However, that type of adventure is probably not the excursion you want to take with small children in tow. Instead, enjoy Shelter Cove itself, and the views of that untrammeled coast surrounding it. We’ll tell you more about Shelter Cove’s natural wonder and small town pleasure in an upcoming story that continues our coastal and tree lined adventures.

Now, let’s head farther north, clinging to Highway 1 through the picturesque town of Westport, and now a tiny spot with a lovely soft white sand beach for running, wave chasing, and shell gathering. Further up the coast there’s even smaller Rockport, and it’s just about here that you’ll swing away from the coast to Leggett and highway 101. Along with the sea view, you’ll find green pastures dotted with cattle and horses, little traffic, and an easy drive. This is the part where we rolled down the windows, and to quote Bruce Springsteen ‘let the wind blow back’ our hair. 

But the coastal route ends unless you have a four wheel drive vehicle; and so we moved inland. Leggett marks the beginning of the beautiful redwood forests in this part of the state, and you can spend a day or a week exploring the beautiful trees and the incredibly enjoyable, old-fashioned tourist attractions along the way. 

There are plenty of places to stay in this area, from motels to classically lovely Victorian bed and breakfasts. We stayed at our farthest north point for this part of the trip, in Fortuna, at a modern and spacious Best Western, the Riverwalk. Nice touches: a full, hot breakfast buffet and a very relaxing indoor pool. 

But this trip is all about the drive and not the destination. 

Exploring the great trees near Avenue of the Giants

Twenty miles north of the Leggett junction with Highway 1 you’ll find the Avenue of the Giants. You can get off Highway 101 and enter the actual redwood tree groves at any time – there are plenty of off ramps every few miles. Some stops are touristy but fun, others simply beautiful as you roam back and forth across the banks of the Eel River. A caveat on the touristy end of things: we loved all the stops, but the treatment of trees as commercial properties rather than a pristine natural research may make you draw in your breath. They are used as houses, drive through attractions, and gift shops. Fortunately, preservation is key in the park lands surrounding Highway 101 as some of these beautiful trees are over two thousand years old. 

Between the tiny communities of Phillipsville and Miranda you’ll find the kitschy Chimney Tree Coffee Shop with a door way carved right into the side of an enormous redwood tree. Enter the shop through the tree itself. The kids felt this was like something out of a fairy tale. 

The Shrine Drive Thru Tree is – just that. Plus gift shop. If you have a large SUV, you won’t want to attempt the drive through. It makes a great picture though. 

You’ll leave the kitsch behind at Humboldt Redwoods State Park near Weott. Here you’ll find luxurious groves of redwood trees. The visitors center nearby offers information about the various groves and the trees themselves. Also near Weott, you’ll find that the Northwestern Pacific Railroad runs picturesquely along the river. Train watching and river bed rock tossing is a nice occupation while sharing a roadside lunch. 

We were always looking up at the giant trees near Avenue of the Giants

Want to see a champion? The Dyerville Giant & the Founders Tree are the Giants for you. The Dyerville Giant was named “Champion” Coast Redwood – until it fell in 1991. This giant redwood is impressive even lying down – it was once over 370 feet tall and has a weight of a million pounds. Our kids loved how it dwarfed them. 

Time for more tourist stops. The Eternal Tree House is another massive redwood tree that’s hollow inside. It has regular doors and even windows carved into the tree. Enter though a small museum with miniature models; pass through to a gift shop with some fun souvenirs inside. 

Next up: Confusion Hill – one of those spots where ‘gravity does not apply.’ Crooked houses and balls that roll backwards, rope swings that swing down instead of up. We love this sort of attraction, and have been to many of them across the west. This may not be the most prime example, with some of the structures seeming a bit run down, but it’s still a lot of fun. 

Avenue of the Giants Redwood Trees

We also enjoyed the Log House which adjoins another gift store. Surprisingly, the gift stores are filled with unusual craft-oriented wood items, and it doesn’t get tedious wandering through them. It can get costly though – our kids wanted hand made wooden toys and wooden magnets and wooden carvings… this stop also has a small cafe with truly wonderful fruit, chocolate, and coffee smoothies and good enough sandwiches. The log house next door is horizontal, and is kind of like a trailer home carved out of a giant tree. It was like a wooden doll house inside, and the kids really loved exploring this one. 

It’s a great pleasure though to get off the main road and into the forest again for a few quiet meanders in the living woods. We took our time and many photographs under the giant trees, enjoying the quiet, the enormous yet welcoming branches, and the feeling that we were in untouched nature although we were just a few miles from the main tourist thoroughfare. 

Back on 101 again, despite our ecological lectures about the sanctity of big trees, one of the hits of this trip was the Pacific Lumber Company at Scotia. Scotia itself is an old company town with an interesting, old fashioned hotel replete with front porch and rocking chairs and a lace curtained dining room. At the lumber company there’s a logging museum with fascinating historical photos,  artifacts, and logging machinery. But the main event here is the free self-guided tours. Ear plugs and hard hats provided as you walk through the operation – perfectly safe on easy to follow marked pathways. The kids were absorbed by the workings of the mill; outside the mill is a demonstration forest – the Pacific Lumber Company is dedicated to replanting, which made us all feel greener.

Point Reyes National Seashore Pacific Ocean

Instead we headed for Tomales Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore just about 1 hour north of San Francisco. We rented a small cabin near the town of Point Reyes Station, and enjoyed a quiet night near the marsh lands and oyster farms that dot the area. The marshes look quite different from the bovine inhabited rolling pasture lands we’d been seeing; swampy and shifting from dense and grassy to damp enclaves of sand and tidal waters. We had a taste of the oyster crop from these marshes at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company where you buy your oysters, and grill them, fresh from the bay. The kids stayed at the community picnic table area while I tackled the grilling; possibly not the simplest operation but a delicious treat. In the small town of Inverness we enjoyed browsing shops which offered ice cream, yarn, and fishing gear along with paintings and pottery. 

Then it was on to the main attraction, the Point Reyes National Sea Shore. Our goal was the lighthouse at the farthest tip of the park, but we made several stops enroute while driving  over Inverness Ridge and through the meadow land. We swung out to the elephant Seal Overlook near Chimney rock, and took an easy eighth of a mile walk to Kule Loklo. A path from the visitor center takes you to a  replica of a Coast Miwok Indian Village with interpretive signs describing the culture, history, and buildings. An equally easy, brief, and pleasant walk was Woodpecker Trail. The short loop trail led us through forest and meadow, signs described plants and the birds and animals we might have seen, but didn’t sight this trip.The favorite short trail: the earthquake Trail. Less than half a mile, this paved loop circles the San Andreas Fault; the geology is fascinating.  

View from lighthouse, Point Reyes, CA

After these side trips, we headed for the lighthouse, stationed at the end of the sprawling, marsh grass and sea view lined road at the Point Reyes Headlands. The Lighthouse Visitor Center is open Thursday through Monday, and has displays of shipwrecks and whaling. The kids enjoyed the touch table, with items from whale bones and baleen to shells, marine fossils, bird feathers, and drift wood. It was a good background to touring the  lighthouse itself, which is a stroller accessible, easy, paved walk from the parking lot. But here’s the hard part. Once you have the lighthouse in view, you must traverse three hundred and eight steps to the lighthouse. And its sometimes a windy climb. We made it easily on the downward trip; but carrying your toddler is advised.There are view points along the way with benches to rest on; the hardest part is the return trip. The up close and personal lighthouse view at the bottom is lovely; but do make sure that you’re in shape to carry the kids on the return journey. Even older kids tend to ask for a lift on the upward climb. It’s great exercise, and made it a no-brainer for me once in San Francisco and considering a massive hot fudge sundae at Ghiradellis: I’d already worked off those calories.  

Before we left the park area we made one last stop at  the Pierce Point Ranch and Tule Elk Reserve. Structures and posted signs told us the history of dairy ranching in the park. A short walk led us right into the preserve to a viewing location where we easily spotted some of the over four hundred free roaming tule elk. These magnificent creatures were amazing to watch and the kids spent a long time observing them. 

Heading into San Francisco, be warned that Highway 1 gets an exceptionally corkscrew layout; if your kids are prone to being carsick you may want to head onto 101 instead. 

Point Reyes Lighthouse

However, if you head into the big city, it would be a shame to miss a stop in Marin County at the John Muir Woods, for another look at the magnificent redwoods that rise along the coast and inland along the Avenue of the Giants in northern California. Proclaimed a national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt, the woods are aptly named for the conservationist who loved them. Muir Woods is a shady sanctuary with paved trails, fallen logs for even the littlest traveler to enjoy scrambling through, and plenty of natural beauty. There are six miles of level, paved trails in these woods. Half hour, hour, and ninety minute loop trails all which offer great views of the trees. Ferns and mosses are everywhere, and the kids also saw a bumper crop of banana slugs. These harmless big yellow creatures clung to bark and leaves and lay on the ground. No, we did not take one home as a pet, despite much pleading. We also saw several beautiful blue Steller’s Jays and wrens in the park. Although this is a popular, close to the city attraction, Muir Woods was a restful stop, and the crowds were not daunting.   

Driving to the Point Reyes Headlands - wild flowers en route

Nearby you’ll find sweeping coastal views at Muir Beach, a part of the coast where Redwood Creek reaches the sea. Marsh land, a lagoon and bluffs with great views mark the overlook area.Driving into San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge was our final stop. At the overlook on the Marin County side of the bridge, San Francisco was awash in the last of the afternoon’s golden sunlight, clouds of fog sailing in. We were able to point out many of the city’s landmarks while boats slipped across the bay. The bridge itself was the cause of great excitement, picking up that last sunset glow before the city end disappeared into a cloud of fog.We saved exploring more beaches – Ocean Beach with its barking seals and the grassy shoreline visible from Chrissy Field for a more clement weather and morning.

Sheltering the harbor is Trinidad Head, a rocky promontory that guards and protects the town harbor and old fashioned fishing pier. An easy, hour long trail loops around the head itself offers great views; but you can also have a wonderful view from the porch of your bed and breakfast or the small waterfront cafe on the pier. 

Trinidad is the kind of place where you can do nothing at all and enjoy it tremendously. Many people don’t even know it’s there until they’re driving by on Highway 101 going toward the coastal redwoods, the college community of Arcata, or en route to San Francisco. We planned our stop here, but we didn’t plan on loving it so much that we extended our stay – which we did. 

The Memorial Lighthouse in Trinidad stands at the head of a wonderful beach trail.

The town welcomes tourists but has no tourist-attraction sensibility; people wave at you on the street; children are doted upon in the restaurants and many of the bed and breakfasts. Start your exploration of Trinidad with a look at the Memorial Lighthouse which honors lost sea travelers. There’s a beautiful bell here, too. Steps – steep but quite doable with a small child either in arms or walking and holding your hand – lead down to Old Home Beach. Here are pebbles for hours of sorting, tide pools, and two small creeks perfect for wading and splashing. You’re on the Axel Lindgren Memorial Trail which offers hard packed sand for beach walking, and shelter from the sea winds by rocks and cliffs. The waves are generally quite cold, and more appropriate for wading than swimming; waters here are very shallow and protected with small waves. You’ll find pelicans, harbor seals, cormorants and oyster-catcher birds, too. Bring a bucket and a shovel and just dig for your own oysters. Whether you find any or not, it’s an incredibly peaceful and scenic way to spend a morning. 

If you keep walking you’ll find He-Woli beach, with even more pebbles, and views of sea stacks – those big rock formations that pop up in northern coastal California and coastal Oregon. Some of these rocks are an impressive ten stories tall. They’re also a designated part of the California Coastal National Monument, made up of small islands, rocks, reefs and cliffs along over a thousand miles of California coastline. Sea coves and small caves are sprinkled throughout this area, and are great fun to explore. 

Just outside of town at Trinidad State Beach you can explore some incredible tide pools. A ranger here pointed out barnacles, star fish, purple and green anemones, and a thick cluster of other sea life. You’ll want to take binoculars for a good view of one of the state’s biggest colonies of Common murres – you’ll find almost sixty thousand birds nest on several of the larger rock formations in spring and summer. We thought it was interesting to learn that these birds actually spend most of their lives on the open ocean and only come to the rocks to nest. 

Foggy, fun afternoon spent watching the birds and rocks in Trinidad.

When you’ve worked up an appetite from your beach walks, head on down to the Catch Cafe on the pier or the Beachcomber – pretty much the only venues in town – for wonderfully fresh fish, chowders, sandwiches, and soups. While you’re on the pier, you may see fishermen coming in with your lunch – we viewed large hauls of salmon and crab. After lunch, we took a stroll through town, with its Cape Cod and Victorian style houses, rose gardens, and bluff side views of the beach and the sea stacks. 

You can also take a short drive out of town to Patrick’s Point State Park. Lots of trails, grassy meadows and the beach of course – all of it easy to access and easy to walk on for even the smallest explorer. The park has beautiful forest land with redwood trees, tall pines, and spruce; in the spring and early summer wild flowers fill the meadows. Again, a simple pleasure – walking among the flowers can fill a morning or afternoon. Along with pebbles and shells you can find bits of sea smoothed agate rock along the shoreline here. It’s a serene setting, interrupted only by the barking of sea lions lounging on the rocks and the calls of many sea birds joining their human counterparts fishing off the coast. Whale watching is prime in the spring and fall; and the point offers beautiful sunsets too. 

Also in the park is a recreation of a Native American Yurok Village called Sumeg that includes traditional shelters, a sweat lodge, a dance house and redwood canoes which were used by the Yurok for travel and fishing. And next to the village there’s a plant garden with native plantings used for food, medicine and ceremony. Tribe members often come to the village offering dance or musical performances or docent led walks. While we were there we saw a basket making demonstration. 

Another wonderful spot are the redwood groves near Orick, about a half hour north of Trinidad. Highway 101 is called the Redwood Highway for a reason…and old growth forests such as the Lady Bird Johnson Grove are a wonderful trip in themselves. But before I take you on an exploration of big trees and beautiful forest, you need a place to base your explorations. 

One of the pleasures of Trinidad is the availability of its very family friendly Bed and Breakfasts, rental homes, and a few small motels; we chose the Trinidad Bay Bed & Breakfast Inn to house us. A Cod style home with fantastic views of ocean and garden, each is large enough to accommodate a family of four. The Trinity Alps room has a kitchenette and is separate from the rest of the house, making it an ideal family choice. The breakfasts are awesome, with home made entrees like french toast and cheese omelets. The owners tell great stories about Trinidad and even offered the kids a chance to explore the Volunteer Fire Station. The owners also offer you breakfast service in your room, an indulgence we loved. 

Trinidad California is a small town with simple pleasures that resonated with our family in a really big way. Now about those big trees…in the next blog.