A view of the Smith River at our rental cabin
We were looking for a cabin rental in or near Crescent City for a recent botany trip and Pam found us a lovely place about 10 miles inland from Crescent City off Highway 199, right alongside the Smith River. The main cabin had a large bedroom with a king sized bed; two smaller bunk beds were in a smaller side room. There was another smaller adjacent cabin on the same property fitted out with a double bed and three more bunks. 
The living room of the main cabin also had two sofas so the rental will handle a crowd if necessary. There were two television sets in the main cabin, books and games in cabinet drawers, a well-appointed kitchen stocked with an oven, refrigerator, microwave, and every utensil you would ever need, and a washer and dryer enclosed on a small back porch.
The main porch was open, faced the river, and included a large hot tub and comfortable lounging chairs. Across a small lawn there was a fire pit/barbecue patio set up so you could look directly down onto the river. Floating and fishing equipment and a canoe were also available for use if one desired. In short, this turned out to be a great place to spend a week, which we did.
The basic rental fee is $800/week for the first person, plus $30/night or ($150/ week) for each additional guest. You can contact the owners, Bill and Renee, thru their website at www.ourcabinontheriver.com/ for more information or to book a stay. During salmon and/or steelhead season, this would be an outstanding place to stay for a fishing trip with its two, short trails that lead directly from the property down to the river, both emptying out near large, deep fishing holes.
It wasn’t fishing season while we were there, so our focus was more on botany and hiking many of the nearby trails, including those in nearby Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
The Stout Grove of redwoods in Jedediah Smith State Park
We enjoyed looking around the nearby botanical preserves in the Six Rivers National Forest for rare plants that only occur on serpentine soils, but we also liked hiking along other trails that featured huge redwood groves and clusters of other different plants such as the California pitcher plant (also called the Cobra Lily or Darlingtonia).
Cobra lilies and five-fingered ferns along the Stony Creek Trail
Nearby trails in the Toloway Dunes State Beach Park, just north of Crescent City, were flat and fun to explore, and ended in beautiful secluded beaches with stunning coastal views. Information on trailheads can be found on the web, or at nearby information centers, and we recommend that you do some homework before arriving to help with your itinerary.
A deserted beach looking toward the north at Tolowa Dunes State Park near Crescent City
This section of northern California lies just below the Oregon border and it’s a beautiful and scenic place with a lot of variety to offer visitors. We even took a day off from hiking and went fishing in the ocean, and you can find that post in our last blog under Crescent City Sportfishing (August 8, 2015). This rental proved to be comfortable and well-located for us, and it more than met our needs and expectations. If you’re passing thru this area, and looking for something more than an overnight lodging, we highly recommend this river cabin as a place to stay.