After so many days of hiding behind my keyboard inside our RV, tagging up text, marking up code, and whatever else I need to do to keep my half of our marketing business going, I needed to get outside.
Stout Grove Trailhead is located inside Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park, just outside of Crescent City, CA. It’s been described as a breathtaking wonder of skyscraping Redwoods laden with moss and ferns. It was actually Sash that recommended we go there.
So we hopped on our motorcycles and headed over.
The ride along CA 199 is quite a thrilling ride for its twisting asphalt meandering between hulking tree trunks that effectively block out the sun. The route, however, also took us along a bumpy, dusty, dirt road for another 10 miles until we reached the trailhead.
We were advised to bring mosquito repellent, but somehow, we left it behind.
Sure enough, just a few hundred feet along the trail, were inundated by swarms of blood-thirty needle-nosers. Each time I stopped to take a photo, there were all over me. The best I could do was keep walking briskly just to prevent 99% of them from landing on me.
Strangely, mosquitoes are not at all interested in Sash. It’s always me they’re after.
Stout Grove Trail is indeed a beautiful place to get lost in. Once fully basked in the darkness of Redwood canopy, there’s an eerie still. You could hear a twig creak hundreds of feet away. At any moment, you expect to find a deer, a bear, (or even Sasquatch) peeking its head from behind a trunk.
Instead, you mostly find other people.
It’s a popular place for tourists.
The trail itself is a loop that runs about half-mile total. There are other trails that shoot of it, and in fact Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park is filled with trails that go everywhere. If you wanted to, you could spend days, weeks, exploring them all (provided you have enough mosquito repellent).
Make sure to bring bottled water and snacks because there are no vendors. There is a restroom at the trailhead and a small parking lot.
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