Hendy Woods State Park

Drive inland a bit from the forever-foggy Mendocino Coast and you’ll find a gentler world: sunny meadows, apple orchards in neat rows, sheep grazing in fields, vineyards catching the afternoon light, and-tucked at the end of a back road-the last stands of virgin redwoods in the Anderson Valley. Hendy Woods feels like a well-kept secret, warmer, drier, and altogether different in spirit than the coastal redwood parks.

The land now comprising the park was first purchased by Joseph Hendy, a San Francisco foundry owner who came north to this valley in the late 1800s. Hendy sold the land to Masonite Corporation, which in turn worked with the Save the Redwoods League to donate 405 acres of prime old-growth to the state in 1958. It was a small but crucial victory: the valley’s groves had been heavily logged, and without this set-aside, the ancient trees would almost certainly have been lost.

Getting to the park is part of the experience. Highway 128 is one of California’s classic backroads, winding from Cloverdale on Highway 101 to the Mendocino Coast. Along the way are drowsy hamlets with names like Yorkville, Boonville, and Philo, places where you can still find roadside farm stands and hear locals speaking “Boontling,” the town’s invented folk dialect. You pass pear orchards, apple dryers, vineyards, and barnyard stock before slipping into the Navarro River canyon and, at last, the shady groves of Hendy Woods.

The Navarro River is a defining presence here. It braids the park, nourishing redwoods along its banks and offering cool retreats for wading and splashing in summer, or canoeing and kayaking when the rains come in winter and spring. The river flats host a mix of wildlife-herons in the shallows, kingfishers flashing blue across the current, deer browsing in the meadows at dusk.

And then, of course, there are the trees. Two old-growth groves-the Big Hendy and Little Hendy-anchor the park. A short wheelchair-accessible trail winds among these gentle giants, making the cathedral-like experience of walking among redwoods available to nearly everyone. Hikers will want to string together loops on the Discovery Trail, then follow paths down to the Navarro for a stroll along the water’s edge.

Hendy Woods has always drawn people looking for refuge-first the Pomo who fished the Navarro and collected acorns under the redwoods, later a few reclusive hermits who lived quietly in the woods in the 1960s and 70s, building makeshift huts and leaving little but stories behind. Visitors today find the same sense of retreat, though the vibe is less countercultural hideout and more family picnic and weekend camping trip. Still, there’s something undeniably restorative about this smaller, quieter redwood park: you feel that you’ve stepped off the main highway and into a pocket world where time slows and shadows lengthen.