Camping at Hendy Woods

Camping at Hendy Woods (9/98)

Speaking of brewpubs, we just spent a delightful long weekend camping at Hendy Woods State Park, which is approximately 10 miles from Boonville, where the Anderson Valley Brewing Company. resides. We both give the brewery big points as a place to sit and drink a beer or two and maybe eat some food, even while giving the beer pretty low points (and the best ones are not available in bottles... coincidence?). Sit outdoors, beside the tall building, in a very nice beer garden with dappled sunlight in the afternoon, play horseshoes or just sit and get drunk and laugh at the people who order wine. Service was great, and prices were reasonable. Taster set with 8 5-oz glasses of different beers came in under $10, on a nice circular placemat which had little circles for the taster glasses with detailed descriptions of each of the beers written within. Their underused mascot is the fabled "beer" - a cross between a bear and a deer - a bear with antlers, actually. The seasonal (duh!) Octoberfest offering was my favorite, the wheat beer coming in second. Terrie liked those and the Porter, and I have to admit it’s pretty nice, especially cooked with little breakfast steaks for an hour or more over a campfire with garlic, green onions, and red peppers <g>.

Also very pretty country, and oddly enough, while it apparently rained down here in Petaluma all weekend, we had beautiful weather all the way thru. Redwoods and Navarro River are wonderful. Campsites spacious and homey, with choices of sunny or shady ones, a larger campground open only during the weekend, so the longer-term campers (us) don’t have to mix with the weekenders. Nice hiking trails, most under two miles, through magnificent redwood groves and along the river.

Nothing more threatening than chipmunks and blue jays, which provided hours of entertainment, and fellow campers who could not camp without music but only had one tape - the best of the Police. Fairly short and very scenic drive to the coast at Pt. Arena, or to a REAL brewery at Hopland.

On the minus side, if you want to have meat for dinner, buy it in Cloverdale. Buy good dry almond firewood in town, NOT the soggy, smoky, virtually unlightable variety from the campground "hosts," who are always "closed" anyway, sitting outside their trailer pigging out and watching TV.

Click some pix below!