Having friends in Seattle made the California-Oregon border a convenient halfway point from San Francisco for a long weekend escape for some overlanding in the Land Rover. A little research on Overland Trail Guides, brought us to the Siskiyou Sasquatch Trail.
We picked this trail for its location, being midway between Seattle and San Francisco, and for its mostly “beginner” overland trail rating. We’re new to overlanding, and didn’t want to start out with anything too difficult. Also, we wanted to prioritize camping and hanging out with our Seattle friends over testing our new Land Rover Defender’s off-road capabilities. We’ll save the latter for another trip.
We spent the day driving up and “working” from the car. Cell coverage is dicey in some sections, but overall manageable as you cruise through the small Northern California towns dotting Highway 101. Fun fact: from the SF Bay Area on up, we call it just “101”, whereas our neighbors to the south, in LA, call it “THE 101”. It’s easy to tell where someone is from just from that, but I digress…
We met our Seattle friends in Brookings, OR and spent the night at a no frills motel. Not the swankiest hotel we’ve ever stayed at, but good enough. We had dinner at an excellent Thai restaurant 10 min from town, followed by a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard at the local DQ. Oh, and after having watched the Golden State Warriors for almost every postseason game, we got a chance to see the Warriors pull off the 2022 NBA Championship, as the final game against the Celtics was on in the restaurant. Go Warriors!.
Breakfast in the morning was at Fely’s, a great hole in the wall diner, located just before the start of the trail. We made friends with the cooks in the back, from the Philippines and Indonesia. It was one of those restaurants where you just wish they’d offer menu items from their native country, cuz you know it will be oh so good, but you also know there wouldn’t be enough business for them in a small town like Brookings. Still, the American food was just fine before our journey. What any of this has to do with the overland part of the trip is anyone’s guess. 🙂
Our trail started out super easy, even paved for a while, then turned to a dirt road winding through the serene Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in the southern border of the Pacific Northwest. It was a beautiful drive. Amazingly, we came across a bear within the first half hour, just sitting there on the side of the road. It climbed up a tree as soon as we approached, but we were still close enough to get a great view and some photos.
The trail meandered for several miles, with stunning views on all sides. The weather was cool and crisp, with a touch of mist. From an elevation as high as a few thousand feet, we could see campgrounds down along the Chetco river below. They looked crowded, which was not exactly a good sign. We were prepared to keep going if they were too crowded, but agreed to at least check them out first. We had read that there were various places to camp along the 200-plus mile journey, if one aspired to drive that far, but our plan had been more to hang out together and camp rather than look at each other’s cars while driving all day. If we found a place that seemed nice, we’d stay. Otherwise, we’d either keep driving, or spend the first night wherever if we got sick of driving.
A while down the trail, it turned paved again, which was a little disappointing. We didn’t realize it would be just as easy for a passenger car to take a shortcut from town along a paved road as our over-prepared 4WD rigs on the dirt road. Sigh. But it was still a beautiful ride, and we were glad we did it. The road transitioned back to dirt further up ahead, but we decided to stop and camp. It took maybe 3 hours to get there, with a few stops along the way.
The Miller Bar Campground was the first we came to. We spied a public toilet (bonus!) and a rock covered “bar” along the banks of the Chetco river. The rocks were the size of baseballs/softballs. We spotted a few campers with some sketchy looking gear, like trash from actually living there—against the rules—but we were able to find a nice spot that was relatively secluded, with the river only 10 feet away on one side, and some vegetation on another. We used our 2 vehicles to create 2 more sides and ended up with a nice private spot.
Miller Bar wasn’t too crowded when we first arrived, around noon on a Friday, but soon filled up. We set up our tents to hold the spot and then went for a drive to the other campgrounds, Nook Bar and Redwood Bar, to see if we could do better. It turned out they were even more crowded, and filled with RVs—not our thing at all—so that made us happy with our first choice. Even so, next time around, I would opt to keep going and take the risk of finding something less crowded further ahead.
Back at the campsite, it was good to catch up with our friends and compare camping tips and equipment. They liked our Gazelle tent and Snow Peak Takibi Fire & Grill. We liked their Eureka Plus Camping Stove, Cooler Shock Ice Packs, Solar Shower, His ‘n Hers Urinals, CLAM shelter, and Jackery Power Station.
Other than hanging out at camp and walking around Miller Bar, our main adventure was to drive about 30 min to where the road became dirt again. We just parked the car on a wide spot along the road and hiked for a bit. There was no one else there anywhere—gorgeous walk along the road. Other than just hiking on the road itself, there were no places to hike nearby—no trailheads that we could find.
We also had a bit of fun doing some gratuitous off-roading in the Land Rover. A few muddy ravines with a foot or so of water, and aggressive berms to challenge the Defender’s approach and departure angles, was just the thing. Our friends thought we were a little crazy.
We spent a total of 2 nights camping. We headed back to Fely’s the final morning for one last breakfast together, then made our goodbyes. Our friends texted later that night that they made it all the way to Seattle in time to make it onto the last ferry to their home on Orcas Island! That’s an achievement!
Meanwhile, we took our time driving up and down Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor before heading south, which was well worth the time. We stopped at a few of the many coastal access points, and even found one where we could hike all the way down to the beach along an impossible to find “hidden” trail. So good.
On our way back to SF, we encountered one of those 1-lane sections where a traffic light regulates which side gets to go next. The lights on those things are usually several minutes long – long enough to turn off your engine, and even get out of your car. Instead of waiting in line, we did a quick U-turn, and headed back to where we had seen an area along the highway where you could park on the shoulder in front of the Damnation Creek trailhead in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, near Klamath, California.
We almost didn’t make that U-turn, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. The trail leads all the way to the ocean, with spectacular, majestic redwoods along the entire route. You are in an actual enchanted, emerald green forest. The descent to the ocean is significant, but it’s so beautiful that you can’t help but keep going down, down, down, even though you know you’ll eventually have to come back up, up, up.
There is a sign warning you that access to the beach is closed due to a bridge being out. Perhaps due to the bridge warning or perhaps due to the length and elevation cost of the trail, the number of people we saw along the way kept decreasing, to the point that we were alone.
When we got to the bridge, we saw that it was indeed closed, but the creek that it crosses was dry, and it was easy to just bypass the bridge and walk across the creek. Five minutes after that, and we were at the water’s edge. It would have sucked to have come that far, be that close, and not be able to see the Ocean. But it all worked out. Magical hike.
The rest of the trip back was largely uneventful. However, along Highway 101, we kept encountering opportunities to take a detour along the Avenue of the Giants. At first I thought this was some kind of tourist trap, so avoided it, but then it kept paralleling the highway for miles. It went on for a long time. The view along that stretch of 101 was scenic enough as it was, but it looked like the really good stuff was along AotG. We never ended up hopping on. I think that was a mistake. Next time.
Coda
We did this four-day trip mid-June, a month before the McKinney Fire burned thousands of acres not far from where we camped along the Chetco River. In these perilous times of climate change, it makes us even more thankful to be able to see these natural wonders while they’re still there.
Additional Information
- Camping on the Chetco river bars are first come, first served. There is a fee, but it wasn’t clear how well it’s enforced. We ran into a ranger who told us not to worry about it given that the National Forest staff hadn’t been out yet to clean the facilities (we were there right at the start of the summer season).
- Redwood, and its close relative the giant sequoia, is one of the most majestic trees you will ever find. The southwest corner of Oregon, near the Chetco River where we camped, is the northernmost point that you will find a redwood tree. Once you cross into California you’ll soon enter the Redwood National and State Parks, a string of protected forests along the California coast, home to nature’s tallest trees. It’s definitely worth driving through, and time permitting, hiking a trail or two.