Rockefeller Forest is the largest remaining stand of old-growth coast redwoods on the planet, and it lies just west of the Avenue of the Giants along Bull Creek. The Mattole Road branches off the avenue near Dyerville and runs into it, and within a few hundred metres you are surrounded by trees so large and so close together that the forest feels like a vast, dim hall. The ground is covered with ferns and sorrel, and the silence is profound.
The forest takes its name from John D. Rockefeller Jr., who donated money in the 1930s to buy the Bull Creek flats from the Pacific Lumber Company and save them from logging. Without that gift the forest would almost certainly have been cut down, as so many others were. Today it is part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and it contains some of the tallest trees in the world.
Founders Grove, near the junction with the avenue, is dedicated to the founders of the Save the Redwoods League. A short loop trail leads past the Founders Tree, a giant over 100 metres tall, and the Dyerville Giant, which fell in 1991. When it came down, people living nearby reported hearing a crash like a train wreck. Now it lies on the forest floor, its massive trunk and roots exposed, slowly returning to the soil.
The riding here is slow and quiet, with narrow, winding roads through the forest. The Mattole Road continues west beyond Bull Creek, climbing over the mountains to the remote Lost Coast near Honeydew and Petrolia, a challenging ride on a narrow, steep and often broken road with few services. It is not for the faint-hearted, but it is one of the wildest roads in California.
There are no services in Rockefeller Forest or at Founders Grove, just parking areas and trails. Fuel and food are available in towns along the avenue and at the ends of it, in Garberville to the south and Fortuna to the north. The forest is damp and cool even in summer, so bring a jacket. Come early, when the light is soft and the fog drifts among the trunks.