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Redwoods 2026
  • Sara Withrow
  • Sara Withrow

Redwoods 2026

Our road trip for Caleb's birthday. Read more
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  • Trip start
    June 24, 2026
    Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
    112

    Random

    June 24 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Our drive was pretty easy! Two accidents, one was about 8 minutes from our destination. We saw cool bridges and lots of beauty. Added some extra photos from Devil's Kitchen.
    We have not really explored south of Florence, so this is pretty exciting!
    My hair. It's puffy. Windy. As you can see from the last photo. Lol.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Devil's Kitchen

    June 24 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    A nice beach with lots of big rocks for Caleb to climb. The homes around the area were stunning. I could definitely rent a house here and stay for a week.
    As you can see from the pictures, the fog rolled in, which gave this beach a ghostly, mysterious feeling.
    I would love to see this with sun shinning on the water. But I lived it like this as well. That's the best part of the coast, different weather brings out different beauty.
    I will have to upload additional photos in a different footprint, as 25 is the max.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler

    Face Rock

    June 24 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 57 °F

    Our second stop in Bandon, and it was nice for a quick stop. Wouldn't mind walking down the steep stairs to walk around. Maybe tomorrow morning!

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
    1

    Wheelhouse

    June 24 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    We stopped here for dinner, and what a great choice! Delicious for sure. A nice view and excellent conversations. A great way to end our night. Will we go watch the sunset? Maybe. It's another hour from now and we are kind of tired.
    Caleb and I had the salmon sauce with dungeoness crab. Cory had halibut fish and chips.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler

    Coquille Lighthouse

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    Lighthouses are so cool. If you have not learned how life went for lighthouse operators, do it! A cool time in history.

    This lighthouse was decommissioned in the 1930s. You can't go up to the tower, and inside they made a gift shop. If you go, be sure to sign the book because the State Park uses the visitor count from that book to decide if keeping it open is worth it.

    We walked around the jetty and saw a crab, so many pelicans!, seabirds and seagulls. It was peaceful and so cool to watch the birds pig out in schools of fish.

    We also saw wild turkeys too!
    I would camp here for sure.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler

    Arch Rock

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    These next stops are all in the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor. A stunning area of the Oregon coast. Honestly, probably the most beautiful section.
    My photography skills are poor, but I couldn't stop taking pictures.Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Secret Beach

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    A few minutes past Arch Rock is a fun hike to a not so secret beach.
    This beach is only accessible at low tide, and you must shimmy down some steep rocks. Our low tide today was not too low, but enough to access a lot of it!

    There were probably around 20 others exploring the area. A narrow trail in lots of spots, with poison oak.

    Worth it! We want to plan a trip back during one of the negative low tides so we can explore all the caves. This is a must do!    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Natural Bridges

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    This can be accessed from the same parking spot as Secret Beach, but we didn't really know that. So we drove for 8 seconds and pulled into this viewpoint.
    It was supposed to be just a quick stop. However, Caleb and I explored a trail and made it down to the natural bridges. We did not walk on the bridge like a couple people did. But we got right up to it, and honestly, I am perfectly OK with that. No Darwin Awards needed for this family.
    As we tried to decide if we wanted to hike down to the bridge, a woman with her dog and another older woman who may have been her mom, decided to head down. So we followed. Meanwhile, Cory hung out up at the viewing platform.

    We made it to the bridges, and the younger lady climbed down the steep hill with us. We used the giant tree roots to hold on. The views were breathtaking! But we still decided against climbing up to walk on the bridge. There is little margin for errors before plunging to your death into the ocean far below. The only positive is you would most likely crack your head open on a rock on the way down, knocking you out.
    The last two pictures are ones Cory took of us from the viewing platform.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Home base

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    Our cute airbnb for the next 5 nights. We are literally up against Harris State Park. There are tons of trails right at our front door. We will definitely use the sauna. And there was a $15 coffee gift card for a local place, coffee pods available for us, disposal slippers, shampoo and other supplies available. Just thoughtful hosts making our stay more comfortable. Already saw deer as I was sitting on the deck.
    Also, please look at my steps for today. Feeling sore already! We had a lot of elevation changes on our hikes.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
    1

    Harris Beach

    June 25 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    Before dinner we took a quick stroll down to the beach and ended up exploring for a bit.

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Boy Scout Trail

    June 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    This was our first stop today. We left the house around 7:30 this morning after eating a delish breakfast prepared by Cory.
    It was a 58 minute drive, crossing the boarder, going through Crescent City, then turning onto Howland Hill Road. This narrow, mostly one lane, dirtish road is beautiful early in the morning! By mid morning, it's stressful with all the people.
    Our first hike was nothing short of amazing! And tough for Cory and I, as we aren't hikers. Thank goodness I pulled the trigger on hiking poles. Those things are a huge help, and later in the day, on our subsequent hikes, I regretted leaving them in the car.
    The fog and mist made these ancient trees even more magical. Honestly, this was perfect weather.

    It was so peaceful! No modern sounds. No traffic, no airplanes, just nature. I believe we heard elk calls, lots of birds, and Ravens too. We saw snails, squirrels and banana slugs.

    This hike was just shy of 6 miles round trip. It took us 2.5 hours to go to the end of the trail because we were stopping to stare at the trees and take pictures, shed layers as it warmed up, and just enjoyed the journey. It took us an hour to get back to the car.

    Boy Scout Tree (I will caption that photo, and it will be on the second photo dump for this trail) is about 240 feet tall and 23 feet in diameter. It's estimated to be about 2,500 years old! To be honest, all the trees were just as amazing as Boy Scout.

    We went to the end of the trail and saw Fern Falls. It was a cute place to sit and eat a snack and drink some water.

    Jose gave Caleb a disposable camera with the rule that he needs to get pictures of all three of us together. This has been a fun task! Today we met a young woman who solo travels 2 weeks a year. She walked with us a bit. Yesterday we met some people who also were headed to the redwoods and we compared notes. We have had people laugh, and one who jeeded help using this relic of the 1900's. Jose gave Caleb such a thoughtful and creative gift. I can't wait to see these get developed.

    Loved this hike, and glad we got there early. This was the least populated stop of the day. I doubt this trail gets too busy due to the length.
    There will be a Boy Scout #2 post that is just pictures.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler

    Grove of the Titans

    June 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    This was about 0.4 miles further down Howland Hill Road, and as we got closer it was easy to see we would be surrounded by people.
    This 1.8 miles trail took us through the Grove of Titans. It holds some of the largest coastal redwoods on earth, by volume (there are 2 ways to measure a tree: volume and height. You can have a tree that is 700 feet tall but not considered the largest because trees are truly measured by AMOUNT of wood, so diameter is important. ) The trees here range from 1,500 to 2,000 years in age.
    Due to the excessive amount of visitors, a 1,500 foot-long, raised, metal platform was constructed to save the area from human destruction. There are so many signs asking people to stay on the trail. Alas, people just can't be respectful these days.

    We found a platform with views of Mill Creek and sat down to eat our lunch. It was crowded, and Cory's Ring camera alert went off, the one that sounds like a wolf howling. Well, some people thought they really heard a wolf and Caleb totally played along, and we got a big laugh about it later. I thought I was gullible, lol.

    We saw a deer right off the trail. She was not scared of humans in any way. With as many people that are constantly there (around 250,000 per year) I can imagine she is very used to it. A girl's gotta eat.

    This was a neat thing we can check off the list, but I won't go back. Or if I did, it would be super early in the morning. It was as if tourist busses had unloaded. Crazy times.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Stout Grove

    June 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 59 °F

    This was our last stop for the day. A very easy stroll that I made more complex by trying to get to Smith River.
    We did get to the river!

    My knees hurt so bad and we were tired. It felt nice to sit in the misty rain by the river while eating snacks. Caleb waded into the river.

    This is a great loop for families and honestly, was cooler than the Grove of Titans in my opinion.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
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    Random Friday

    June 26 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 57 °F

    We had a jam packed day! Here are some random photos. Our friendly deer greeted us this morning. We went through California customs. We started listening to a book about the redwoods on our journey to learn some fun facts. We got stuck in road construction. We hiked about 10 miles today. I hit 25k steps. We rested. We ate. We saunad. Caleb and Cory walked on the beach. Caleb and I took personality tests.

    We will do it all again tomorrow.

    Today I added maps of our hikes.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler
    11

    Fern Canyon

    June 27 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 55 °F

    This first stop today was a permit required stop. I got the permit in March, and glad I did. 3 weeks ago when I looked, the only permits available were for the last 3 days of August.

    We drove 2 hours from Brookings, leaving at 7 AM, so we could arrive by 9, which was when our permit time was for.

    As we turned off 101 to head to Fern Canyon, the road becomes a single lane gravel road. There are spots that you have to cross that are streams, so high clearance vehicles are the best.

    When we parked there were around 6 other cars in the lot.

    We walked into the canyon and were immediately overcome with awe. Stunning. The vibrant greens, the contrast of the rocks and the water, the ferns growing out of the canyon walls...magical!

    The cliffs are up to 50 feet high, with 5 different species of ferns growing right on them. This is so prehistoric looking that The Lost World, Jurassic Park was filmed here.

    This is a trail loop, however in May the bridge washed out, so you must backtrack. I think we all preferred this, because the scenery looks different going back the way you came. We were happy to have worn our water shoes, as it allowed us to go a bit further down the canyon.

    Pictures will not do this place justice. But I imagine I will still have to do a second post of just pictures. I took a lot.

    Once we went up and back, we took the path for what would have been the end of the loop. This was pretty, but not anything special.

    There is a path to the ocean, which we tried to follow. It took us through the forest where Caleb spotted frogs and a snake, I spotted mosquitos as they sucked me dry, and finally out to a meadow, where we caught a deer by surprise. She had this look like "they must be lost." So we turned around and headed back to what I thought was the correct trail. Nope. It was an animal path.

    Eventually we thought we should head back to the car, and that's when I saw the actual path to the beach. Haha! We grabbed our cooler bag and headed down to Gold Bluff Beach. On my plan, we were going to hop in the car and head back to the day use area to eat. However, the parking lot were we originally were 1 of 6 cars was now packed. It seemed smarter to forego the day use area and just sit on logs and enjoy the beach as we ate.    Read more

  • Sara WithrowRedwoods 2026Traveler

    Big Tree

    June 27 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    This was just a quick stop I had on the itinerary. We skipped Trillium Falls today because we spent 2 hours at the beach and we felt we had achieved enough for the day.

    Big Tree is ADA accessible. It's around 1500 years old and beautiful...as they all are.Read more