Wildcat Campground at Hendy Woods State Park

This post features a campground instead of a hike. We went to Hendy Woods to go tent camping with my three-year old daughter for the first time ever! It was great to be camping here again, where I went with my mother back in 2016.

This was my daughter's second time to camp, but last time we stayed in tent cabins. She was very excited finally to sleep in a tent in the woods. We practiced in the backyard ahead of time to prepare her for it, which was a good idea. It still got pretty cold at night, so we may rethink sleeping bags for the time being (she is good at wiggling out of them, but not so good at getting back into them). It can get quite cold here at night, even in the summer when it is so pleasant during the day.

In terms of camping during COVID-19: we were surprised to see that so many people who had reservations did not come to the park. We brought our own toilet system to avoid going to the shared public restroom because we were worried about that being a site of potential infection if the campground was packed. The campground, however, was far from packed. None of the campsites neighboring ours had any campers in them. We did choose to camp on a Monday evening, which may have had something to do with that, but everywhere around us were signs indicating that the sites had been reserved and that no one showed up to claim their reservations. Because of the pandemic, the state park is not allowing walk-ins; perhaps that is one reason why the campground felt so empty. It may also be that some of these reservations were made 6 months ago and that the folks who had them did not feel safe going so they just let their reservations go without cancelling them.

It actually made for a very appropriate activity during this pandemic. It's a good idea to check the park's website or read the state's page on camping during Covid-19 before you make your reservations.

Good information to know:

• This campground is lovely; it is in a mixed forest with second-growth redwoods, madrones, Douglas firs, oaks, and even some bay laurels.
  
• Several trails connect the campgrounds to other features of the park such as the two groves of old growth redwoods and access points to the Navaro River. 
  
• Each site is well situated and most of the poison oak has been removed (we only saw some near the water spigot). We felt comfortable letting our three-year old wander around the campsite while we were setting up.
  
• There were some yellow jackets in the campground, and they tended to come out when we were eating meat. They weren't bad at other times. They were not aggressive, but you should be aware if you have someone with allergies in your group.
  
• We did not use it this trip, but there is a coin-operated shower with hot water.
  
• You can get pretty good cell phone reception if that is something that you are looking for.  We tend to let our daughter watch a short video after she completes her nighttime routine, so it was nice to still have that incentive in the woods.

We learned a lot on this trip about camping with a toddler. We will be back camping again, and we hope that it will go even smoother next time!