Northern California Road Trip

I miss writing in here. This blog post will be about the week long northern California road trip P and I went on in July (Oops, I’m behind on my blogging). Before I dive into that, I want to do a quick brief on what has happened these past few months.

I have said this a while back, and I truly mean it this time – the kitchen is almost done. All the cabinets are in; there is still issue with one cabinet. We have the countertop installed, which looks ah-mazing. When I get back from my work trip (will talk more about that later), the backsplash gets installed. I want to spray paint the window black before that happens. The kitchen ceiling isn’t looking as good as I would want it to be, and I’m hoping just one more coat of paint will solve that problem. The lights above the sink and the dining room light needs to be installed. Then that’s it for the kitchen. As for the “main” part of the house, all that needs to be done will be floors and baseboards. This morning, I was clearing space out of my phone and came across a video of the kitchen back in March 8th. Wow – we’ve really come a long way.

I started my new position at the same company on July 18th. I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months. I kid you not – I thought it’s only been 1 month. Although I have more work load and hours are longer, it doesn’t feel like a burden. Days at work goes by so fast. That’s because I truly am loving my new role and what I do. I loved my old position, but this one is more of my identity. I feel happy and accomplished with where I am at, and most importantly – the direction I’m going towards. With that being said, my company (specifically my supervisor) gave me an awesome opportunity for a work travel to Copenhagen, Denmark. As a matter of fact, I’m currently typing this on the airplane.

Now, let’s talk about this wonderful road trip P and I went on. For months, we have been talking about this trip, but we didn’t finalize the dates and itinerary until a few weeks before the trip. We chose July 4th week, because we already have that Monday off and could use less PTO (Paid Time Off).

6 months ago, I had already reserved permits for a backpacking trip to Lake Aloha near Tahoe. I had booked July 8-10th. I thought this trip was perfect timing where we can start driving up north via Highway 1 then loop back around and end at Tahoe for our backpacking trip.

Day 1 – Monday, July 4: We started the trip on Monday and not over the weekend for 2 reasons.

1. I mentioned that we’ve been renovating the kitchen, and the only time we can really do much work is on the weekend. Since we had a backpacking trip the following weekend, that would be two weekends of not working on the house.
2. July 4th weekend will just be too packed everywhere and too hard to find camping spots this last minute anyways. I literally didn’t even look into camp sites until a few days before the trip. I am extremely happy we started and did most of our activities during the week, because it made such a difference.

Day 1 was the longest of them all. We started from our home (Bay Area – Peninsula) and needed to end up at Humboldt Redwoods State Park before dark (preferably by 6pm) so we can make dinner before dark.

This is the itinerary for day 1. I’ll go through each one, as we didn’t get to them all.

Day 1:

Golden Gate Viewpoint

Point Arena Light House; Pack lunch and eat here

Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden

Glass Beach @ Fort Bragg

Drive-Thru Tree Park

Avenue of Giants

Humboldt Redwoods State Park – Camp at Hamilton Environment camp

Dinner at Camp ; steak + green beans + mini potatoes

We had breakfast at home, picked up ice because I had a cooler full of food/drinks, and off we went. I’ve visited the Golden Gate Viewpoint before, but never with P nor has he ever gone there before. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side that day. It was cloudy and misty. And if it’s cloudy, you don’t even see the Golden Gate Bridge. Typing this actually reminded me that I want to plan a “San Francisco Day” with him where we do all the touristy things.

The first stop was Point Arena Light House, which is roughly 4 hours from our place. If you’re doing this trip, I highly recommend adding Point Reyes National Seashore and Bodega Bay. We’ve been there countless times before, and that’s why we went straight to Point Arena. We absolutely enjoyed Point Arena Light House. We are both very into reading facts and knowing history. To visit the light house, it costs $5/pp. If you want to climb up the actual tower, it’s an additional $5/pp. We decided to skip out on the tower, but still wanted to visit the site. It was very cool to see. From the light house, you have 180° of the beautiful ocean and wild flowers.

I imagined we would’ve sat on a bench and enjoyed lunch, but it was way too windy and misty. We sat in the car and ate our lunch. We had an assortment of crackers, charcuterie meat, and cheese. It was quite romantic still as we had a peaceful view of the ocean right in front of us.

Next activity on our list that we didn’t do was the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. For the same reason of being windy and misty, it just wasn’t an ideal to walk around (which takes roughly 1.5 hours total to see everything).

Glass Beach at Fort Bragg was a HUGE disappointment. Probably the biggest disappointment of this trip. Don’t bother visiting or adding this to your list. It is no longer a glass beach. I had to question a few times if we were at the right beach even with a sign clearly saying “Glass Beach” in front of us. From online photos, it should’ve been a beach full of smooth pieces of glass. Unfortunately, I think too many people have been taking home the pieces leaving the beach almost bare. Speaking of that – while walking out, a see a kid with a bucket of glass. *Shake my head*

Another activity we didn’t do was the Drive-Thru Tree Park. There are a few spots like this in California, but the original one is in Leggett, CA. We were literally going to pass by it, but I still decided to not to because the more I thought about it – the more it’s not worth it ($15). P drives a Toyota 4 Runner, and his car would definitely not fit through. I would hate to wait in line to see the tree up close, and make an awkward reverse back out. I even question if my Honda Civic will fit through. This tree was carved out in the 1930s, and I believe the cars were much smaller back then.

We finally arrived to the destination I was the most excited for: Avenue of Giants. Words can’t describe how thrilled I was to finally see it in person. Avenue of Giants is a 31 miles stretch of giant redwood trees (hence the name). I’ll admit, the first ~15 miles, we were not impressed. Maybe because I’m a (born and raised) California girl and have seen giant redwood trees before? P was also not impressed (he relocated to CA ~8 years ago). We finally stopped and did some quick research and found out that there is the “Immortal Tree” and “Founder’s Tree/Grove”. We first stopped at the Founder’s Grove and we were mind-blown. It’s part of the avenue, but you do have to drive down a short cross-section road to get there. Now, the trees behind the actual Avenue of Giants were MUCH bigger and MUCH more impressive. Now that’s what we came here to see. We decided to see the Immortal Tree the next day since it’s on the way out.

Afterwards, we headed to our campsite. We stayed at the Hamilton Environment camp at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I’m so glad I was able to find this campsite because it was the ONLY one available at the park. It was a lovely drive towards the campsite (Mattole Road) and I honestly think it’s even better than the Avenue of Giants. I would try to describe it, but I wouldn’t even be doing it justice.

Here is a video clip of the drive on Mattole Road:

This was the only campsite where we had to do some walking. It was roughly 200 yards away (2 football field size). That seemed like a long walk, and it wouldn’t be too bad… beside the fact that we had a lot of things to carry in. Since it was a full day, I knew we wouldn’t have time to stop and get food. Additionally, I thought we would take advantage that it’s our first night, and we have cooler to keep things cool, we would cook dinner the first night which brought groceries for. But this all means that we will be lugging not only our camping gear, but the food in as well. Shout out to P for making multiple trips to the car and back. I love you, bubz.

That night – we had steak, green beans, and potatoes. TIP: Pre-boil your potatoes so that it cooks faster when you’re camping.

Timing couldn’t have been better. It started to sprinkle right when we were cleaning up to head into the tent for a good night of sleep. Thank you, Universe.

Day 2 – Tuesday, July 5:

The weekend before this trip, P and I went to Walmart to buy a bigger tent and a blow up mattress. Since we were camping near our car throughout this whole trip, it was worth us getting these items for the comfort. Both of us only had backpacking tents and sleeping pads. What a difference it made, because we slept like babies. That was so worth spending $60 to “upgrade” our tent and mattress. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then we packed up and went to check out the Immortal Tree.

The Immortal Tree was very cool to see. The reason for the name is because it has survived lightning, loggers axe, forest fires, and floods.

We thought about if we wanted this trip to be strictly just California or to drive up into Oregon and explore Bend, OR. Unfortunately, Bend isn’t close to the border. It would’ve been an extra few hours and we didn’t think that was worth it. We were off towards to Bailey Cove Campground (don’t come here) at the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Before that, we stopped by numerous of places.

Day 2:

Immortal Tree

Lunch at Sandwichery in Redding, CA

Pick up ice and groceries for dinner tomorrow

Sundial Bridge

Shasta-Trinity National Forest – Camp at Bailey Cove Campground

Dinner at Camp ; sandwiches from Sandwichery

During the drive to the next campground, it was very sad to see all the trees that were burned down during the Carr Fire in 2018. Even though it was years ago, we still have not recovered from that incident. To be honest, I’m not sure if we ever will in our life time. This trip wasn’t only eye-opening for how big California is and all that it has to offer, but also the direction the state is going with global warming.

We stopped by to get lunch and dinner at The Sandwichery. Delicious sandwiches and it supports a local mom and pop shop. Unfortunately, we didn’t take any food photos from here.

Afterwards, we stopped by a Winco to purchase ice and dinner for tomorrow night. The reason why we had to do grocery shopping on Day 2 even though it’s for day 3 is because we had a much busier day on day 3 and I couldn’t find a decent grocery store on the way from day 2 campsite to day 3 campsite. We purchased frozen orange chicken, garlic rice in a box, and snap peas.

After that, we stopped at the Sundial Bridge. I’ve been wanting to come here, and I knew P would love this place. If you’re ever nearby, I suggest stopping by!

We finally arrived at our campsite at Bailey Cove Campground and what a disappointment. I can’t believe they even consider this as a campsite and charge people to camp here! First of all, I’ve read the statement “Due to lower than normal precipitation in 2021/2022 we have been experiencing low lake levels which impacts lake access”, and expected it to have low water level…. What I didn’t anticipate was that there were no water left. The city/county even pulled up all the boat ramps. It was dry for at least a mile.

Keep in mind, this is what I see photos of online:

This is what was there:

Unfortunately, we had arrived early because I had planned that we could do a hike (Bailey Cove Trail) that was along the water and we could swim in the lake. We did start the hike, but it got humid and we didn’t have any water source to clean ourselves so we stopped halfway. We ended up just enjoying drinks and games back at our tent. We also bought extra sandwiches from The Sandwichery and had that for dinner.

Day 3 – Wednesday, July 6: After the huge disappointment at Bailey Cove, we needed a win. And a win is what we got. This is probably my favorite day from this trip.

Castle Crags State Park

McCloud Falls Trails

Burney Falls

Lassen Volcanic National Park – Camp at Summit Lake North

We ate breakfast (eggs and bacon) and headed toward our first stop: Castle Crag State Park.

The Castle Crag State Park isn’t anything too spectacular, beside the fact that it was completely empty and we had the viewpoint all for ourselves. I also wanted to visit this park before it’s too late – It’s been on and off the California state parks removal list.

P and I sat on the bench and enjoyed the view – just us two. I documented that moment, and made a reel on instagram – You can find it here.

Our next stop was McCloud Waterfalls. I knew it wasn’t going to be a disappointment because of all the amazing reviews and my coworker mentioned to me that he had visited there not too long ago. There are three waterfalls – Upper, middle, and lower. You can drive to each individual waterfalls (I believe middle and upper shares the same parking lot as they are very close to each other), or you can do the trail.

The trail starts at the lower and ends at the upper (I suppose you can do the vice-versa as well) and it’s roughly 4 miles RT with 337 ft elevation gain. Not bad at all, and I do think it’s a lovely walk.

The lower fall isn’t much. You can get in and swim and there are a few fishermen. The middle fall is much bigger and a larger area. The ultimate spot. There doesn’t seem to be an access to get into the upper waterfalls. You can see the view from up top though.

I posted an Instagram reel on the McCloud Waterfalls here. Absolutely beautiful. Love that you can get in the water as well. It looks like I’m the only one there, but the water was SO cold and I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to get in it. It was super refreshing for P and I though (we haven’t showered in two days).

We enjoyed our half sandwich and granola bars for lunch. Be aware – the chipmunks are fearless and will dig into your food any chance they get.

After we saw the McCloud Waterfalls, we drove to the famous Burney Falls. What a jaw dropper. It’s an even more beautiful waterfall, but unfortunately – you’re not allowed to get in it. There is an entrance fee ($10 per vehicle), but so worth it. I mean, take a look at these beautiful photos… and the photos aren’t doing it justice.

We then headed to our next campsite (Summit Lake North) at Lassen Volcanic National Park. Lassen is known for their hydrothermal sites and the Manzanita Lake. We stopped by Manzanita Lake just for a bit to check out the scenery then we went to our campsite at the Summit Lake.

It was so peaceful. This campsite was full of retired folks, my kind of crowd. We even met our lovely neighbors who are probably close to 80 years old. They just recently bought a new RV few years ago, but they bought their first one in the 1970s. They were on their way to Oregon and end their trip on a cruise to Alaska. I am inspired that P and I will be enjoying retirement like they are.

For dinner, we made the orange chicken, garlic rice, and snap peas. Yum. Then we went and enjoyed sunset by the lake.

Day 4 – Thursday, July 7th:

Before we head out to our next location, we stopped at the Bumpass Hell Trail and Sulfur Works. It was my first time seeing hydrothermal areas. I do know that Yellowstone National Park is known for that + an abundant of wild animals, and I can’t wait to visit one day!

For lunch, we stopped at Bread & Butter food truck that had a delightful view and food! We bought the bbq pulled pork sandwich and a burger. Delicious – what a hidden gem.

The next day, we had plans to head to Tahoe/Desolation Wilderness for our backpacking trip. With that in mind, I wanted our last car camping night to be a little more relaxing. I happened to come across and booked a hot spring spot that was on the way from Lassen Volcanic National Park to Tahoe.

Although Sierra Hot Springs did have rooms, we opted to set up camping at their huge lot to save $$. This place turned out even better than I thought. It costed $35 to camp there, and $5/PP to use their hot spring pools. WORTH IT. You can set up camp in their woods so you still feel isolated, but you’re also close by to their amenities (bathroom, kitchen, showers, and my favorite – their café).

I was completely mind-blown by what their Philosophy Café had to offer. We had the eggy in the basket, marinated green olives, and the clams puttanesca, which contained smoked trout, spaghetti, asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, olives, and capers. No words – I need to attempt making all of these at home!

There were different areas of hot springs. There was the Temple Dome area which had a sauna, rooftop pool, and an indoor pool. The Phoenix Baths area had individual private tubs. The Meditation pool was outdoors in the woods area. Almost as if you came across a relaxing natural hot springs when you’re out in nature. P and I enjoyed the private tub together first.

Then during sunset, we were both tired and got into our tent. P had to use the restroom and came back in and say we should enjoy the temple hot spring as the sunset was very beautiful. So glad we got out of the sleeping bags to enjoy that. It was definitely a highlight of our last night. We enjoyed the sunset alone (to our surprise) at the meditation pool, then we were joined by two other lovely elder women. Clothing was optional, and it didn’t felt weird at all.

That evening back in our tent, I told P “Let’s skip the backpacking trip. I am way too exhausted to start on a hard hike.” The next day, we packed up and grabbed a cinnamon roll and two lattes at the local café, Smithneck Farms. We love finding local gems where it’s not popular on yelp or anything, and all the people there know each other. We will definitely be coming back to this area. We loved it so much and it was a nice way to end our Northern California Road Trip.

Thank you for reading the very long over-due blog post! If you visit any of these spots, please let me know!! Until next time.