Simply driving to the trailheads was an adventure in itself. XXX scenic road is a 10 mile one lane gravel road that winds its way through the giants. We stopped briefly at Stout Grove, for a brief half mile hike looking at some rather stout trees, then continued on to our destination: a trail to Boy Scout Tree. Unfortunately, we got bored with hiking at the 3 mile mark and started jogging—right past the turnoff for Boy Scout Tree. So instead of seeing some amazing tree, we saw a rather underwhelming waterfall. No matter: the hike itself provided many large trees.
The next day we headed down to Gold Bluffs state park, where we found a campsite right on the beach. I would definitely recommend this site, though it can only be reached by a 6 mile gravel road and the first come first serve format, coupled with a layout where half the sites are on the beach and the other half are clustered together in a dust bowl, necessitate an early arrival. We made it there at 1, pitched claimed the site, and drove another 2 miles to Fern Canyon, where we embarked on an 11 mile loop that a park ranger said was her favorite. It was amazing. Perhaps the one thing the pictures fail to pickup is the fire history that is so evident. There were several patches where all the biggest trees (10ft + in diameter) had fire scars, while the surrounding trees were much smaller (2ft and less).
After the night and Gold Bluffs Beach, we headed south the San Francisco, then San Clemente and finally San Diego, all to see friends. Stage 2 of the National Parks will start sometime next week. Specific parks TBD.
Click a picture to see a larger view.
