Elk Prairie Campground, Redwoods National Forest

Since this stop was basically a layover for our drive to Arizona we only spent one full day here. You could easily spend so much more!! 

We woke up to a cool, misty morning so we decided to drive part of Newton B Drewry Scenic Parkway and see what adventures we could find. Even though we had been in the car a long time the day before the boys were in complete awe of the trees as we drove along. We stopped at “Big Tree” and did a short loop hike there to look at things up close. This is an awesome little stop even if you just have a few minutes. The kids loved the sign with the facts and started comparing how many stories high the tree was and what was happening in the world 1500 years ago when this tree sprouted. Very fun! 

Next we swung by the visitor’s center to pick up junior ranger booklets. One great thing about Elk Prairie Campground was that the visitor center was right on the edge so we didn’t have to backtrack or go out of our way to do the Jr. Ranger program. 

For the afternoon we chose to hike Trillium Falls Trail. It had a little bit of everything. The hike was only a couple of miles but by the end the boys were not super engaged by trees any longer! The last quarter of the hike or so is not old growth forest so it looked a lot like a typical Pacific Northwest forest and the whining about being tired and hungry began. 

In hindsight I wish we had done even just part of the Fern Canyon hike. I decided against it because the weather was cool and I thought wet feet would lead to kid drama, but the pictures are so astounding I’m disappointed we didn’t give it a shot. 

By the time we finished our hike it was time to go turn in our Jr. Ranger booklets and get dinner ready. Then we snuggled into our tent to rest up for tomorrow’s drive. 

Highway 101 Oregon and Redwoods National Park

Our family is headed to Arizona this month to watch Brandon compete in a half-Ironman in Tempe. Carole and the three boys decided to road trip their way there, visiting a few national parks along the way. 

Day 1: today we drove from home in Ocean Park, WA to Elk Prairie Campground in Redwoods National Park in Northern California. Since we live right on the coast in southwest Washington state it was easy to jump on Highway 101 and wind our way down the coast all the way to our destination. 

Apple Maps said it would be 9 hours of travel time, and it ended up taking us about 11 hours, but that included a stop for groceries, a wander at Devil’s Punchbowl in Oregon, and many bathroom stops. So many bathroom stops. 

Packing everything for our 3 weeks, including camping for 5 days and Brandon’s triathalon bike meant we were at capacity. My favorite thing about traveling using AirBNB or something similar is laundry facilities! We pack very lightly and do a lot of laundry. 

The drive down 101 has a picture worth taking around every corner, but all those corners aren’t great if you have someone prone to motion sickness. Our 6 year old doesn’t do great with planes, trains or automobiles (not to even mention boats) so this was a challenge and made for a slower trip to take breaks and give him a chance to get a breath of fresh air. 

Checking out the beach at Devil’s Punchbowl in Oregon. 

This is a stop I’ve wanted to check out for years, but I ended up a bit disappointed. The pictures online are obviously either from folks that are willing to go beyond the fence or from low tide views. This was the best we managed to glimpse when we went through. If you want to get the best of this stop I’d definitely check the tides and time it better than we did, but it was still a good leg stretch and we got to watch some surfers catching waves. 

Eleven hours later we made it to our campsite at Elk Prairie Campground near Orick, CA. Our goal was to get there before dark so we could set up camp in daylight and we kind of made that goal. Night was falling fast as we got set up, and we just beat the misty rain. Luckily we had stopped for a bite to eat earlier, so we just tucked into our tent and played card games until we could reasonably fall asleep. Doing this trip when there were longer days would have been great, but since summer is our busy time at work we tend to travel in spring, fall and winter. The advantage is fewer crowds!