★★★★

Hendy Woods State Park

and Indian Creek County Park

California > Mendocino/Sonoma region

Big Hendy
Click any photo to enlarge

As Highway 128 winds among the vineyards, sheep ranches, and orchards in the most picturesque part of the Anderson Valley, a dark and remarkably tall stand of redwoods can be seen in the distance, rising high over an apple orchard. This is Hendy Woods, a small park by the Navarro River. With its exceptionally nice alluvial-flat redwood grove and its scenic setting, Hendy Woods is a real pleasure to visit.

Hendy Woods’s main attraction is Big Hendy, an 80-acre lowland redwood grove in a bend of the Navarro River. Big Hendy’s trees are huge and quite spectacular, with the cathedral-like appearance of the best groves, although with an unusually dense understory of tanoak and laurel. Underneath the trees is a remarkably plush groundcover of sorrel and trefoil.

Anderson Valley vineyard

Old-growth redwood trails

★★★★

Big Hendy

Length 1.4 mi · Climbing 20 ft

The centerpiece of Hendy Woods, this walk winds through a maze of trails in a large, spectacular lowland redwood grove.

Hermit Huts and Little Hendy

Length 2.7 mi · Climbing 270 ft

Little Hendy is much smaller and less attractive, but it’s right next to the campground. Outside Little Hendy, this hike mostly runs through rather ordinary-looking woods dominated by small broadleaf trees.

Drive-in campgrounds

★★★

Azalea and Wildcat Campgrounds

$45/night + $8 · Open all year

Hendy Woods' popular and spacious campground is on a wooded rise between the Big and Little Hendy groves.

Indian Creek

County Park

$25/night · Apr–Oct

Just three miles from Hendy Woods, Indian Creek has a small walk-in campground under some old-growth redwoods.

Map of the Hendy Woods area

Big Hendy

Day use area

Near Big Hendy is an attractive day-use area with a few picnic benches, shaded by an oak tree, in a field with views of the oak-dotted hills across the valley. From there you can also walk down to the river, which is actually more popular than the redwood grove.

More information

 


 

© 2006, 2009, 2022 David Baselt