Best Campgrounds In Northern California

by Asal Sepassi
(Miami, Florida)

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

A friend of a friend told a friend who told me about this, and as I was meandering up the coast (and then back down). I caught a ride from a Filipino kid named Charlie, who was in a delivery van and so couldn’t stay with me.

Thank goodness for Charlie, otherwise how would I have ever found my favorite campground of all time? First of all, it’s near the most amazing forests in the world. The redwoods are on the border of California and Washington.

They humble you in a way that nothing and nowhere else can. Some of those trees are older than 2000 years and over 300 meters tall.

I had started my trip in search of something far away from the rat race of my day to day life and this campground was the further than I could imagine.

Second, it was cheap. The peaceful nights were more than worth the $2 a night for a walk in close to good trails.

Hiking the trails lead me to discover the variations in growth patterns and burls. (Burls are those growths of trees, some of these were bigger than my head!). There were some educational signs on the solitary trails.

And if all this wasn't enough, there's a goofy little town nearby full of kooks and characters, strange old men with gnarled canes, and the strangeness that nature loving brings. I had myself a cheap lunch there at Burt’s Hamburger Shack (“Best Hamburger in the County!”).