Redwood Tour. July/Aug 2022; Fly in Saturday afternoon – Fly out Wednesday afternoon.

To create this itinerary, I read lots of trip reviews on other blogs, so here is my own. I started planning the trip not really understanding the drive time I was committing to. I am glad I went, but during the trip this itinerary felt a little slow for my liking. I noted changes I would have made.

A little about us: Family of four, two kids 5 and 6 years old. It was a goal of mine to drive through a redwood tree (we did all three). My kids and my husband are outdoorsy. My son and I like action packed vacations. I am not against spending the money that needs to be spent to achieve my vacation goals – but I also get a kick out of deal hunting and using reward points.

We flew in and out of Sacramento; we did this because it was the most cost effective combined with manageable times for us. There is a small regional airport near the parks, but it costs a lot more and times are limited. San Francisco would have been a little closer, but not enough to make up for the cost difference at the time.

In hindsight, I would have evaluated the airline costs AND car rental costs to have flown into Rogue Valley International Medford Airport and out of Sacramento, doing a one-way road trip and spending more time in larger towns.

Airline costs:
Two tickets on Delta, $682.20 each
Two tickets with miles, 58,500 miles each + $11.20
Rental car costs:
Redeemed 8,400 points, plus $210.11
This covered full insurance on the vehicle, we brought car seats. We got a Volkswagen Taos which was small enough to make it through all drive-through trees.

General route we followed:

After landing we started heading north towards Eureka. Towns with gas and food were sparse along the route. We stopped in Lucerne at Fosters Freeze, food for four with ice cream was $47. It is worth noting to check the weather in each area you will be. It was 101 degrees in Lucerne – it was 61 at our end destination that night. It was a quick stop, there is a playground across the street, but the equipment was too hot and filled with cobwebs.

At 6pm we made it to our first planned stop – Chandelier Tree in Leggett. It is 315 ft tall, 21 ft in diameter and ~2400 years old. They also had some very large knocked over tree trunks the kids liked climbing on, several Big Foot statues and a gift shop. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the best of the drive-through trees, the tree itself looked healthy and the activities, while limited, were fun for the kids.

Chandelier Tree, 67402 Drive Thru Tree Road, Leggett, CA; Tickets, $15/car. Hours 8:30 – 8:30 pm.

We opted to drive straight from Leggett to Eureka and saved Avenue of the Giants for the return. We got into Eureka at 8pm and had dinner at Jack’s Seafood. The food was good, it was $115.81 which included meals, apps and drinks. We spent the night in Eureka, it was meant as a 10 hour stop so we stayed in the Travelodge. It was priced very high for that brand hotel, but it was one of the lowest cost hotels and it also sold out. We headed out the next morning, after breakfast at Kristina’s Restaurant, which had a local small-town diner feel ($71.69).

Travelodge by Wyndham; 4 4th St Eureka, CA 95501; one night $190.96.

Since we got an early start, we decided to make the drive all the way to Jedediah Smith State Park in Crescent City. My goal was to visit Stout Grove. We parked at the campground. The kids played along the Smith River before we started our trek into the campground to find the footbridge leading to Stout Grove. Along the walk we passed some amazing camp sites nestled in lush greenery with redwoods towering over tents and trucks making it look like a miniature of a real-life setting. There are maps – the footbridge is at the end of the loop between camp site 60 and 76. Look for two white posts that look like boat landing markers (map says “winter boat launch”).

The Stout Grove entrance via the footbridge opens to gigantic downed redwoods that makes for climbing delight. The trails are nice and the ones we took were all flat. Along the path, we came across trees that fell leaving ramps to higher ground and some burned out trees, one of which had a hole at the base making a “hidden cave”. It was beautiful and fun. Bring bug spray. You may want to have water shoes in the car, wading (or swimming) is an option.

Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith State Park. Park at Jedediah Smith Campground and walk in on the footbridge. $8 for parking. Address to campground is 1461 US-199, Crescent City, CA 95531.

For lunch we ate at the Boat House in Crescent City. There was sushi and seafood options. They had some unique ice cream options and the one with popcorn was pretty good (our meals were $139.40). It overlooks the water and has surrounding windows.

After lunch we stopped at Trees of Mystery in Klamath. Part of their attraction is the telling of Paul Bunyan’s story with statues of people and places, this section was run down and you had to listen to the stories, not all the sound boxes worked. They have a skyride we didn’t do. Along the trail there is a section you can walk on a tree top canopy. They had a large gift shop with a small museum. There is not much to do in Klamath so if you are spending lots of time there, this is a stop you need to make. We spent less than an hour – but we skipped the skyride.

Trees of Mystery, 11500 US-101, Klamath, CA; Tickets are $20; 5yrs and under free. Trail hours 9 – 4 pm.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Klamath. It was a clean hotel with comfortable beds and a pool. There was an attached (small) casino and restaurant. I booked this hotel because I had points to use and it looked very near Fern Canyon and central to other parks I was interested in. Only because of location, I wish I had not stayed at this hotel – or only stayed one night. We stayed Sunday and Monday night. There is very little to do in Klamath and on the nights we stayed the casino restaurant was closed. Almost nothing was open after 3 pm.

Holiday Inn Express Klamath; 171 Klamath Blvd, Klamath, CA 95548; two nights; $64 + 70,000 points.

On Monday morning we went to Fern Canyon. The park requires a permit. We got ours months before and they did sell out before we arrived. While the parking lot never seemed full, we did see the park rangers patrolling. On the way in we saw elk. They say your car will need to cross streams, when we were there the streams were nothing more than puddles, maybe it gets deeper certain times of the year.

Fern Canyon was amazing. They filmed some scenes from Jurassic Park 2 there and it lived up to its prehistoric look. You can walk inside of the canyon by crossing logs and footbridges surrounded by walls covered in ferns. Lots of climbing – or wading – required. There is also a trail that runs above the canyon. Fern Canyon was the best hike of the trip. We were there for about three hours.

Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods, access Fern Canyon via Davison Rd. Permitted (get a permit in advance). Bring ID to match permit (nobody checked ours) and $12 cash for the parking fee. Bring water shoes and pants you can role up.

With the lack of food options in Klamath, we drove to Trinidad for lunch. We ate at Seascape, which was mostly sandwiches and fried food ($113.18). Trinidad was a cute little town with small well-kept houses and shops, that town would have been better for a two night stay than Klamath. After Trinidad we went to Tour Thru Tree, our second drive-through tree. This tree also was a nice looking tree, but there was nothing else there to do. Because of the lack of activities, I say it is the 2nd best drive-through tree, but I would not go out of my way to see it.

Klamath Tour Thru Tree, 430 CA-169, Klamath, CA 95548. $5 cash fee.

For dinner we went back to Crescent City. We visited Kidstown park and walked along the Ocean while waiting for a table at Sea Quake Brewing. Sea Quake provided the best meal of the trip, and one of the cheapest ($70.31). We also went to the movie theater which had old style chairs and smelled, but it did give us a kid friendly activity. Crescent City would have also been a better place for a multi night hotel stay – or if you were coming from Oregon, a good overnight stop after Stout Grove and before Fern Canyon.

Tuesday we started our drive back to Sacramento. We took the Avenue of Giants. Coming from the north, off 101 you take exit #674. We stopped at some groves along Avenue of Giants. Enoch Percy French Grove was our favorite (this is shortly after Drury-Chaney Grove, which was the first stop we saw coming from the north). It had lush green foliage, few other people, little but clear trails through the trees and a natural playground of downed and hollowed out redwoods, all right near the road. None of the other stops on the avenue lived up to the hype for us. We stopped to see the Immortal Tree, which is road side and next to a gift shop with bathrooms. We also went to Shrine Drive Thru Tree. This tree looks to be held up artificially and was lacking a “alive” look. They did have some other things to see, like tree houses (just like a walk-in stump but cute carvings on the outside) and a stump they carved a hole in to look like a drive through tree. But even with those items it felt tired and dirty. It was my least favorite drive-through tree stop. Chandelier Tree got our unanimous vote for best drive-through redwood.

Drive the Avenue of Giants, a 31-mile portion of historic Highway 101 (exit 645 to 674, running parallel to modern Highway 101). The Visitor Center address is 17119 Avenue of the Giants, Weott, CA 95571.

Shrine Drive-Thru Tree, 13708 Ave of the Giants, Myers Flat, CA 95554 (along Ave of Giants). Has a per car fee. Hours 6 am – 8 pm.

We were hoping to stop at a brewery in Willits so we stopped for lunch at Szechuan Asian Restaurant before the brewery opened. We over ordered as these dishes are meant to share ($77.10). We didn’t end up going to the brewery – after eating so much, getting to our end destination as fast as possible sounded better.

We made it back to Sacramento in time for dinner and went to Urban Roots Brewery. It has a lot of outdoor seating. I ordered the food for us all ($62.53) and my husband got a flight.

I had planned to stay at another Travelodge in Sacramento – but based on the costs of all the other hotels, it had seemed too cheap to be a good idea (it was $102/night). It had several recent bad reviews for cleanliness and bugs so I switched hotels to the Holiday Inn Express West Sacramento. This hotel was a lot more but came with hot bar breakfast.

Holiday Inn Express West Sacramento- Capitol Area; 2761 Evergreen Ave West Sacramento, CA; one night, $177.89

Wednesday morning we went to Fairytale Town, which is a nursery rhyme themed playground. It had some unique things to see and play on. We weren’t there long enough to catch any of their shows, but they do have some. Fairytale Town is near the zoo and also Funderland which has small carnival rides. After Fairytale Town we returned to the airport. We got to the car rental return a little over two hours before the flight – we didn’t need this much time. Even without TSA pre-check, check in was a breeze and the shopping/dining in the airport is limited.

Trip highlights: Fern Canyon, followed by Stout Grove were the most awe inspiring and both offered fun for active kids. Negatives: Long drives between attractions.

Lots of fun stuff coming up on the calendar – so many options to squeeze in before the State Fair.

We have gone to many since the last blog post, but I want to talk about the Andover Family Fun Fest (July 14, 2018). My daughter wasn’t walking by age one; jokingly we said it was because she was waiting to participate in baby crawl at this event. Well she got to participate in her first “race” and she did well, 2nd place for the 11 – 12 month old babies (it was for babies under 13 months old, not under 1 yr). They did heats for the baby crawl, with the youngest first. It was an unfair advantage – full grown adults lost their minds when this started. Everyone lines the youngest of the crawling babies up, they say ready set go and all the adults start stamping the floor, yelling, shaking treats and toys. Most babies were stunned. By the time the third heat came around the parents were a little less terrifying in their efforts to entice the babies to the other side of the gym mat….that and a few extra months helped the older babies “do better”. It was put on by KinderCare and they gave really nice prizes to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner of each heat. More babies win prizes and more parents got bragging rights, but it was no small contribution on KinderCare’s side. I would guess the toys in the bag my daughter got were valued at $40…we got one of nine prizes.

After the baby crawl, we had snow cones and mini doughnuts. We were some of the first over to the bounce house area. My almost 3 year old had fun one the inflatables. His grandparents bought him an all you can do wristband, he got good use out of it since we were there early and the lines were short, but there were many inflatables reserved only for bigger kids. With little kids, if you do not intend to do a few over and over, tickets might be a better deal.

We stayed to collect candy at the parade. We found a spot near the end of the bounce house section, it wasn’t the end of the parade line, but it was near it. It was a spot not too far from the other festival activities. I was disappointed with the parade. It was very spaced out and my kids collected two Tootsie Rolls. Almost all the participants had run out of candy before the end. I am happy to see they still toss candy, but if that is what you are coming for, try a spot near the start of the parade and expect a longer walk back to the rest of the activities.

When I heard toddler obstacle course I was pumped. Corner set aside for babies? Even better. In my head, I was thinking those inflatable obstacle courses which my son loves. The Toddler Obstacle Course event appears to rotate through various libraries in the area, so I assumed they had bought an inflatable and everyone shared.

I had a lot of assumptions, luckily my son did not.

We went to the Mounds View Library’s obstacle course day. Peering in the door I saw some plastic blocks and some rings on the floor. My husband gave me a disapproving look…I may have shared all my assumptions as fact.

Inside children probably all less than 4 yrs old moved around the room with their parents. There was a tunnel to crawl through, a low balance beam, some plastic cubes to walk on and some rings to toss. I am not sure what an infant corner was supposed to mean, but I saw nothing that would qualify.

Luckily, my son didn’t come with assumptions. He had fun with the tunnel and looked proud of himself for getting across the balance beam. The cube walk was a little to hard for him. Most the kids looked entertained.

I had told my husband we had to arrive right when it opened – I didn’t know why they thought an hour was enough play time for the wonder I had created in my head. In reality, I was encouraging us to move along after 20 minutes. We did make a pit stop to read some books.

While I won’t be going to another Toddle Obstacle Course event (like on May 10 in Blaine), if you are just looking for a place for your 1- 3 yr old to use up some energy it wasn’t a bad event – especially if you already frequent the library that is hosting.

After being disappointed with my first choice, I check my event log for something better. I had never tried a Home Depot event and hadn’t planned to go. I assumed it would be similar to the mall bunnies, only with a free photo. A free photo sounded good at the time.

I got my son pumped up to meet the Easter Bunny – he has been watching Pets and Peter Rabbit so he was excited to see if this was a “bad bad bunny” or a “nice bunny”.

Home Depot did a good job. There was a bunny in front of a green screen and you could pick a background. We arrived an hour before closing and the line was long. While my husband and daughter waited, my son and I did the scavenger hunt which was looking for balloons posted near items in the store (like measuring tape, vegetable seeds…). It gave us something to do while my husband waited in line. The older kids who understood what they were looking for seemed to be having fun. You collected a drawing of an egg at each station and when you had them all you could turn the papers in for an Easter egg with candy and a drawing slip.

The bunny looked rough, but he photographed surprisingly well. The pictures were free and they didn’t encourage (or give the option) to buy more. We put both our kids on the bunny’s lap so they printed us two of the same picture. It turned out pretty nice.

Then we went to get a hot dog and to do the kid’s craft. I know Home Depot does kid’s crafts often but for whatever reason I thought it wouldn’t be very fun for my son. I was wrong. We could pick between many wood crafts – he made a bug house. My son had a lot of fun hammering with daddy.

Home Depot Northtown did a fabulous job with their 100% free kids Easter event and I will be checking more of them out in the future.

We are looking forward to some of the egg hunts coming up over the next couple weekends and there are so many to pick from!

This was the first outing as a family of four.  It was a great local activity.  I don’t think non-Blaine residents would feel out of place either.  It was rescheduled, which actually allowed us to come, but also caused some scheduling problems with some of their vendors.

You picked up a program, on the inside there was a bunch of checkboxes.  Each one was good for a game or an inflatable obstacle run. You could go to any of the activities as many times as you wanted as long as you had open checkboxes.   At first I was worried we would run out of boxes, but with a toddler, we had plenty.  They had elementary school carnival games like fish pond, lollypop pull, ball tossing games.  Everyone got a prize – older kids may or may not like that, but our little one that doesn’t fully understand games yet would have been sad to not get a prize.

They had a ton of inflatables, some for older kids, some for toddlers and some that anyone seemed to be able to go on.  It was a great event and well put together.

Youth Day at Pan-O-Prog was a great find.  It happens on a Friday which might make it hard for some to attend, but it was a very well put together free kids activity.  I drove 45 minutes to get there, and would do it again.

They had the Teddy Bear Band playing for an hour along with a couple kids activities at library booths. They moved into the “Ball Drop”, I have never been to a ball drop, but Lakeville moms were talking about doing this activity since they were little kids.  They broke the groups up by age, then there was designated areas and folks in baskets of trucks tossed ping-pong balls over the crowd.  Kids would collect as many balls as they could and the balls were turned in for nickels or quarters – real money given at a free event.  They did break the 2 – 4 age group into two, but instead of doing it further by age (big difference in the ball catching skills of a 2 and 4 year old) they did it by last name.

They also provided a free hot dog lunch with granola bars, juice and freeze pops. After the ball drop and lunch, they had a puppet show, but instead we played at the park. They also had a police car and kids could “drive” it and turn on the siren.

I would go back – and I would recommend it to folks with small kids.  I think the ball drop ages were from 2 to 13, but the rest of the activities were, in my opinion, tailored to children under 8.

On Sunday, we headed over to Hudson for the Free Minnesota Orchestra concert.  It is one of my husband’s favorite free summer events and he goes each year.  It draws a large crowd, and it is in a nice area to grab a bite to eat or walk around before the evening concert.  If you like orchestra music, it is worth the stop. Bring your own chairs or blankets and bug spray.

Traffic getting to the National Sports Center was pretty bad when we got to the area a half hour before the event, and many of the parking lots looked full, or close to full.  We took a risk and pulled into to the shops just off Davenport St NE and 109^th Ave NE, just turning off 109th took a while, but we hoped we could find a shop parking spot.  The main parking lots (like Target and Tutor Time) were full, but there is a open grass area that people were parking in that was not.  From there it was just a short talk around Tutor Time and we were able to sit on the grass on the non-sports center side of Davenport.  They may have sprayed for bugs, we brought bug spray but didn’t need any.

It worked well, we could see the fireworks just fine and getting out was not too difficult either – I know if was faster than being in the back of one of the National Sports Center parking lots.

The fireworks went about a half hour.  They went pretty steady and had a large amount going off at once about seven minutes in (we actually questioned if it was the grand finale). It was a good place to watch fireworks, and we heard from others that drove into Minneapolis last year that these were just as good with less hassle.

The Blaine Festival is a pretty standard city festival, but still a favorite of mine.  They have special “shows” to watch – like a community dog show/contest, local dance groups, bands or pig races. There are several carnival rides and some food vendors (a somewhat small selection in my opinion).  There are vendors, either for merchandise or information, some have the typical spin wheel games for candy. They also have a petting zoo with your standard animals like goats, sheet, lamas, cows; they had a fox to look at and bunnies to pet. This year kids could take a pony ride for $5.  The weather was not great and crowds were light this year, I think that impacted the food.  All the items we bought seemed to have been sitting under a heat lamp for a while. The park where the event is held has a nice playground for kids and many used it.  The car show was moved this year to an off site location.

My favorite things to see/do have been the dog contest and the petting zoo, although I am sure people with older kids, or who like carnival rides themselves, would find that be an enjoyable aspect. 

My son took a trip to Tater Daze for their opening day.  They had an inflatables area for kids; there was a large slide that was free and some other options for $2.  They advertised Touch-A-Truck, but there was only one fire truck on opening day (Friday). He wasn’t able to sit up front, but could walk around in the back area where crew would be.  He enjoyed the petting zoo. I am not sure we would make a trip in the future if we were busy, but it was good activity when there was nothing else to do on Friday night.

On Sunday, for Father’s Day we went to Stone Arch Bridge Festival.  It is always a fun festival; it has a good mix of art vendors, with food vendors and some music.  They also have “other booths”.  I like to stop at the lottery booth, you can spin the wheel to win prizes, and many of the prizes are lottery tickets.  All three adults in our group won tickets, and one was a $3 winner. They also have a few booths in a row that give out packaged food samples, which we call adult trick or treating. In the park area, there are stages for entertainment, some fun activities and normally a few more samples.  They also have a small car show, which my dad has always enjoyed. It is a event we will continue to attend. 

I love seeing other people’s dogs and so does my son, so I am almost always up for an event tailored to dogs.  The Pet Expo had the added benefit of being tailored to all pets, and I thought it would have more things tailored to my cat-loving self.  I encouraged another family to join us.  My friend asked me if it was just going to be browsing pet products – “I don’t think so”, I said. While browsing booths is always part of events like these, I told her I was going for the pet shows, kid’s zone and free stuff.

I was wrong; it was almost all browsing booths. While it was at the Convention Center, it was not all the large.  We were there for the talent contest, sadly the entries were sparse and the tricks were few.  Not much they could do about it since the entries came people who were there at the time. The stage was small and people stood all around, most of the dogs were afraid of the crowd.   We were also there during a rescue dog parade – which was just calling dogs up on the stage, it was also not the best “show”.

I was embarrassed about the kid’s zone.  My friend has a son that is older than mine.  He wanted to do something “fun” and I told him about the kids zone that we would end with.  I hadn’t been to the kid’s zone when I was telling him about it, but when we made our way to that “area”, it wasn’t an area with kids activities or anything free for them to do. One booth was set up and they did spray tattoos. They were more expensive than we wanted to spend.

The free stuff was not all the abundant either; in fact it was the least amount of samples I have gotten at any pet tailored event I have been to, bigger or smaller. Stone Mountain had some sample bags of food (and some for cats); we got some probiotics, and poop bags. A few booths had wheels the kids could spin – or plinko style games.  We got a couple pieces of candy and an unblow-up balloon. We did buy some pet treats that were cute.

They did have lizards, parrots, and cats that you could look at too.  While I sound down on the event, it was fine place to kill some time, I just wouldn’t have invited others with me if I knew what it was like.  For people not trying to entertain dog loving toddlers or if you didn’t have a dog you wanted to enter in the contest, it probably isn’t the most fun.  The Convention Center did have a craft bar, we stopped there to entertain our husbands.  The kids ran around the vacant couch areas playing with their balloons.

On the way home I convinced my husband to take a “short detour” to Chalkfest.  I knew he would like it, and he did.  The area was very small; we walked the whole section and went to the bathroom in 30 minutes.  We came at the end of the first day, not many designs were complete yet, which is too bad because it stormed the next day.  It was fun to see the talent of the artists.  I would recommend going next year if you are in the area.  It was an interesting stop.