Ben A.
Yelp
20 years ago, my bride-to-be and I took a road trip north to the redwoods. We stopped in Orick at a small diner, and enjoyed a quick breakfast while our server gossiped with a few regulars and kept looking out the window at her small-town arch-nemesis who was meandering around the business across the two lane highway.
And I remember that as we drove north out of town, we saw signs for Lady Bird Johnson Grove, and made a shared mental note to check it out someday.....
It took two decades, but we finally made it there-- married, with three kids in tow. The steep road to the grove heads pretty much straight up the mountain, and quickly you find yourself at 1000 ft. of elevation from Orick below (which is well within a tsunami danger zone at just a few feet above sea level.)
The first thing you'll see to signal your arrival is a wooden footbridge traversing the Highway overhead; parking is just past tue bridge on your right.
The grove preserves a few old growth redwoods amidst a sea of second-growth forest. The area is very beautiful and serene: the green of the redwood canopy, and the dense forest beneath of rhododendron, clintonia, ferns, and sorrel. Here and there, various mushrooms and fungi grow. Chipmunks, banana slugs, and salamanders can be found on the forest floor, with various birds singing in the trees.
This is a good place for a peaceful walk on the relatively flat hiking path, or use this as a starting point for one of the connected and more strenuous hikes in the area.
A beautiful place that thankfully will remain preserved for generations.