Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area

The Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area offers camping, picnicking, hiking, fishing, and swimming on the South Fork of the Eel River, part of the third-largest river system in California. Nearly ten miles of trails weave through steep canyon bluffs, second-growth forests, and pockets of old-growth redwood and Douglas fir. The fast-moving river, with its rapids, swimming holes of varying depths, calm shallow areas, and cobblestone beds, is especially popular with both swimmers and anglers. Park visitors enjoy warm summer temperatures. The park is famous for the tall redwood, the Miles Standish Tree, at 225 feet tall and 13 feet in diameter, which is easy to spot from a distance. Estimated to be more than 1,200 years old, the Miles Standish Tree bears scars from efforts to chop it down and the effects of the 1947 fire.