The hook
An old-growth redwood grove that briefly held the world's tallest known tree — reached by a mountain road so out-of-the-way that you'll likely have it entirely to yourself.
01Why it's worth it
This is the anti-Muir Woods, and locals invoke it exactly that way: in threads lamenting Muir's crowds ("gorgeous, primeval nature, juxtaposed with jarringly loud, utterly insensitive city-people"), Montgomery Woods is the counter-prescription. The reserve protects five old-growth groves in a hidden valley on Orr Springs Road between Ukiah and the coast; in the 1990s one of its trees, the Mendocino Tree, was measured as the tallest living thing on Earth (a title since passed to trees in Humboldt — the park, characteristically, never even marked which tree it was, to protect it). The experience is a two-mile loop on a fern-floored valley bottom among trees over 350 feet tall, in a silence the famous groves can't offer. No visitor center, no cell service, vault toilet, maybe three other cars. That's the entire pitch, and for a certain kind of day it's the best one on this map.
02How to experience it
Orr Springs Road west from Ukiah (13 slow, winding miles) or east from Comptche if you're coming from Mendocino — it pairs naturally with a Mendocino overnight. The loop starts uphill from the lot then settles into the groves. Pack water and downshift your expectations of infrastructure to zero; that's the feature. Orr Hot Springs (clothing-optional, book-ahead) is next door if that's your kind of finish.