Vanessa and her family were the most incredible hosts I could have dreamed of. She has two of the cutest kids, who found crystals around the property and gave them to us upon arrival, and a kind husband who was hard at work improving their land, but still stopped by to greet us.

The cabin sits among giant redwood trees, and you can hear the rush of a creek just a few feet down. The space is simple and small, but clean and cute on the inside, which is exactly what we were looking for: still feels like camping, but with a little extra comfort. However, the cabin is entirely off-grid (no electricity) but they’ve wired some battery powered lights so you will at least have light and running water. Speaking of water, there is an awesome shower house a two minute walk from the cabin, and there is also an outdoor kitchen space with a sink (overlooking the most beautiful view!!). In addition, the kitchen offers a propane grill and burner along with a few spices, pots and pans, and dish ware. There’s also a charcoal grill available, which we used to grill several of our veggies down by the campfire. While we were there it was ok to have a small fire, but it depends on weather/season I believe. When fires are allowed, they’ve provided some stumps to sit on and a pretty sizable fire pit. The toilet situation is the best I can imagine for an outdoor toilet. It’s clean, not confusing, doesn’t smell weird, and even has some decor, which somehow helped trick me into not thinking about the fact that I was using an outhouse.

The inside space had two pull out beds (twin) and a pretty cushy leather sofa for sleeping, so it would be the perfect cabin for a small family. She also has plenty of children’s toys and books, space for meditating or playing, and amazing pour over coffee and teas for morning rituals. I’m already missing drinking my morning coffee on the little outdoor table overlooking the redwoods. Sigh.

Lastly, a little trail about 100 ft from the cabin leads down to the beautiful creek and there’s a tiny wood plank bridge you can walk across. The real winner for us was driving about 30 minutes to Yuba River and swimming in the crystal clear river with amazing white granite boulders. On the drive there is Nevada City which looks like a cool old gold miners town and they have AWESOME lunch spots there. I highly recommend. The cabin is SO close, and the river made us wish we stayed three or four more days. We had a blast.

Thanks again to our host Vanessa and her wonderful family! I would 100% recommend their cabin to anyone!

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Auburn State Recreation Area, California

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