Our final destination on our Spring Break RV Trip was Redwood National Park. I’ve mentioned before that I have a thing for National Parks, and love exploring this gorgeous, untapped beauty with my family. Neither Justin nor I had ever been to Redwood National Park, so this trip was the perfect opportunity.
The drive from Mendocino to Trinidad, a town situated right next to both Redwood State Parks and Redwood National Park, took a little over three hours. It was a gorgeous drive from start to finish, up the untouched jagged California coast. We stopped many times on our journey to get out of the RV and take in the sights up close. Justin was especially enthralled with the scenery, often sticking his head out the window “family dog style,” mouth wide-open, soaking in the sights. Our journey wound through Humboldt County and into the mountains, as we watched both the topography change from coast to mountain and back to coast, and the vegetation from farmland to forest.
As our journey progressed, so too did our learning curve with RV life. We got quicker and more adept at the hooking up and detaching process, Justin became a pro at fire prep and water tank dumping, and I became an incredibly efficient small-space cook and dishwasher, managing all in a sink no bigger than our guest bathroom sink at home. We hit an especially bumpy road on one venture, sending three cabinets worth of water bottles, cooking supplies, and tableware sprawling all over the kids and the floor (luckily, no one was injured). We also experienced a torrential rainstorm one night, with rain pooling on the redwood branches far above and plummeting onto our RV roof below in droplets several times larger than typical raindrops, exploding like gunfire overhead ALL. Night. Long. We didn’t sleep well, if at all, that night. There were others challenges with cooking, bathing, and cleaning, but we worked through them.
Despite the “bumps in the road,” we found more goodness than we could have imagined. We explored the National Park (mostly in the rain) over those few days, climbing into the trunks of giant Redwood trees, sprinting through groves towering above our heads, and spotting deer, elk, and giant banana slugs.
In typical fashion, the kids loved to complain prior to heading out on our journey for the day, but emerged happy and even joyful once on the trail. We love to give Quinn a hard time on our hikes when he gets tired, telling him “you’re in training” (for our big National Park Roadtrip we’re dreaming up for next summer), and hoping to put off the piggy back ride for another few turns of our journey. (Justin’s squarely in Quinn’s pocket though, and can usually only make it a couple minutes before succumbing to his charm and hiking the majority of the time with Quinn on his shoulders, his back, or in his arms.)
The kids also loved giving me a hard time for my love for hiking, jesting with an impersonation of me skipping along the trail, arms flailing, gleefully shrieking, “Let’s go hiking! Let’s go hiking!” I loved catching my kids, two at a time, arms around each other as they took in the beauty around them while in conversation. I loved waking up to the four of them, snuggled together in the loft above the cab, whispering with their headlamps on. I loved snuggling with them by the hot campfire. I loved doing puzzles while listening to the rain fall outside. I loved talking to Justin and laughing with him at all the fun, crazy, and ridiculous moments of our journey. And I loved really being with my family, fresh air giving us life, and beauty opening our eyes.
There’s a good amount of craziness living in a 25-foot RV for a week with a family of six. That cannot be denied. But for sure there is so much more goodness in the adventure, and the goodness easily trumps the crazy. We’re hooked, and I have no doubt we’ll keep coming back to these road trip adventures in the years to come.
