I found out about this redwood grove from Islands- an online “news” magazine site that appeared as a news feed in my google news.

The title of the article, the pictures used, and the description of the grove was extremely misleading. To state that the grove is on par (my paraphrase) with other more famous and legitimate tallest redwood old growth forests is disingenuous.

The grove has signage from one direction and I mention this because we drove from the other direction and the redwood stand is so small, we missed it.

Once we knew where we were, there was one bench, a 40-foot dirt incline to a creek and about 10 redwoods that were maybe 200-250 feet tall. Impressive, but not the 300-350 foot height that the tallest redwoods in the other stands mentioned in the article. (Btw, I’ve been to those forests mentioned in the article and when you’ve seen 350+ foot trees, there is nothing like them- the height is so great it takes your breath away. And having that experience was my motivation to check out this forest).

Other things- There were no trails or other features of the grove, which is understandable because the ten taller trees are in an area had a footprint of about a few acres. By car, you’re in and out in less than a minute.

I took more instructive pics to give a more accurate portrayal of Maillard (pronounced May-ard) grove.

Because we thought we were still not in the right place, we went further back where we saw and sign saying Mailliard ranch. There, we met a Mailliard family member who was kind enough to take time and explain the grove and area. His grandpa donated that grove to the state for public enjoyment. Much of a larger grove area is private.

I am very disappointed at the gross inaccuracy of the article. To me, it sounds like the author (if not a bot) didn’t even visit the area to confirm anything he or she might have seen on the internet.

Quiet and small park on a very quiet dirt road. only amenity is a picnic bench. 3 or 4 spots to pull of the road. most of the park is across the creek and on a steep hillside.

It is a gorgeous lazy Sunday drive to a very small and short section of access to the reserve area. It is the beautiful woods and a small creek with wildlife. But there are no trails or benches or anything at all out there. What I remember thinking as I was taking it in and at first not overly impressed, was that here was a perfect piece of nature the way it was before us humans ever took a step on it….it made me see the jewel it is.