Yizhen and I decided to go camping this weekend Wednesday or Thursday, but we didn’t start looking for a destination till Friday. All of the desirable campgrounds in the area seemed to be booked, so we headed to the only place I knew we could for sure go: Mendocino National Forest.

It was great. We drove up the 101 through Ukiah this time, instead of through Upper Lake, as we were headed to a slightly different area of the forest than I had been to before. Instead of the Snow Mountain Wilderness, we wanted to check out Pillsbury Lake. Once we got closer, we ended up driving along the Eel River and found an area to camp there. This was probably better than a campground with other people, but I was curious to see what those campgrounds are like since they are so far from civilization.

If you’d like to see where we camped, check out this Google Earth file.

Route to Yizhen and my camping spot along the Eel River in Mendocino Forest

Exploring near the Eel River in Mendocino Forest with Yizhen

Exploring near the Eel River in Mendocino Forest with Yizhen

We found a zipline, but I am not sure what the purpose is out here

Exploring near the Eel River in Mendocino Forest with Yizhen

Exploring near the Eel River in Mendocino Forest with Yizhen

Exploring near the Eel River in Mendocino Forest with Yizhen

Time to purify some water!

Yizhen and my little campsite next to the Eel River in the Mendocino Forest

Old road on an old riverbed

Not very advanced roads

Mendocino Forest