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Is there a particular site that is most beautiful over all the others???
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When traveling north of Orick get off of the new 101 and follow the old US 101, now called the Newton B. Dury Scenic Byway. The new 101 was built to keep the big trucks out of the tall trees. The new 101 is steep and not very interesting. The Newton B. Dury will bring you through some of the most impressive redwood groves including the "THE BIG TREE" in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
My favorite winter redwood campground is Elk Prairie Campground located on the Newton B. Dury Scenic Parkway in Prairie Creek. Besides the huge trees, the Roosevelt Elk should be out in the prairie adjacent to the campground. You should be able to observe the social behavior of the young bulls as they try to steal the harems away from the old bulls. Usually by this time of year the old bulls are tired of trying to maintain their herim and the younger boys sometimes take control. Ask the ranger at the small ranger station in the Elk Prairie Campground to see the 120 sixth-grader tree. The hollow, but still living redwood can hold 120 students inside it. Elk Prairie Campground was the shoot location of most of Spielberg’s film The Lost World", the sequel to Jurassic Park.
Unhook your FGRV at Elk Prairie Campground and take a day trip up to Howland Hill Road near Hiouchi. The little dirt road through the tall trees was once a stage line between the gold fields near Grants Pass and the port of Crescent City. The one-way road begins just east of the town of Hiouchi near Jed Smith State Park. Along Howland Hill Road stop at Stout Grove. Spielberg’s shot the chase scene from "The Return of the Jedi" in a private redwood grove just north of Hiouchi.
As always, the rangers know all the good spots. So stop in at the ranger stations in Orick and Crescent City. A fellow FGRVer, Susan Davis, (Bullards Beach 2007,
Trillium 13 foot) is a ranger at the Crescent City visitor center.