Log Cabin on a Private Creek in the Redwoods

The Creek House is a 1960s log cabin on 200 private acres of redwoods, beside a year-round creek, four miles down a dirt road outside Redwood Valley. It was built by Hazel Putnam: local legend, most feared woman on Reeves Canyon, fish trainer, and Olympic equestrian.

Our family has loved it for the last thirty years: for its warm log walls, its character, the way it gathers family, friends, and community, and the kind of enchanted-forest quiet that is getting hard to find within two and a half hours of the Bay Area.

THE HILLSIDE HOUSE

The Hillside House has three bedrooms and a quality pull-out couch that comfortably sleeps six. An air mattress is available for a seventh guest if needed. Two full bathrooms.
Inside, wood ceilings, log walls, and windows looking straight into the forest give the house the character of a true Northern California cabin. The main living space is open and communal, with a wood stove, comfortable seating, kitchen, and dining table. It tends to become the center of the house: card games after dark, laptops and coffee in the morning, and long dinners listening to the creek below. A second wood stove is in the loft bedroom.

There is no air conditioning, but the house sits low in the canyon beneath the redwoods, where summer temperatures are noticeably cooler than in town, even in August.

The kitchen is set up for cooking. Bring groceries with you on the way in; Ukiah is a 30-minute drive.

The other half of the house is a separate unit with its own entrance and private veranda, so other guests may be nearby.

LIVING OFF-GRID

The Creek House is completely off-grid, makes its own electricity, and maintains its own water system. Solar panels charge a large battery system, with a propane generator providing backup power when needed.
There is no cell service, so turn on your wifi calling if you have that option. We don't have a landline.

Most of the time, the system works quietly in the background. Lights, the refrigerator, Wi-Fi, device chargers, and laptops can all be used normally. High-draw appliances with heating elements, including hair dryers and space heaters, cannot be used here, so please leave those at home.

When the batteries get low, the generator is designed to start automatically and recharge them. Occasionally, we still have power outages. If that happens, we provide battery-operated lights and will turn on the generator, but there may be a delay.

Our water comes from a surface spring and is not filtered. We drink it ourselves, but we do not vouch for it as potable drinking water. Please bring water bottles with you or boil the spring water before drinking.

You don't need to know anything about off-grid living to stay here. We simply ask guests to be thoughtful about electricity and understand that, occasionally, living somewhere that makes its own power works a little differently from living on the grid.

GETTING HERE

Two and a half to three hours from San Francisco, about the same from Sacramento, thirty minutes from Ukiah. Bring groceries with you when you arrive.
Reeves Canyon Road is a narrow dirt road that has to accommodate two-way traffic. Please take it slowly, with a maximum speed of 15 mph. Plan to arrive in daylight hours to get your bearings.

THE LAND

Two hundred acres of redwood forest with Mill Creek running year-round directly below the house. In late spring, summer, and fall it is a swimming creek, with clear pools deep enough to float in and a cold plunge. In deep winter it runs high and loud and you can hear it from every room.

Cross the log bridge and you are in the pasture where Hazel kept her horses and built a small open-air kitchen under the redwoods. Cook dinner out there, eat it by the creek.
This is wild land, remote and rugged: expect uneven ground, leaves, insects, wildlife, and the rhythms of an ancient forest. You are free to explore all 200 acres, but please watch out for ticks.

Please, no smoking inside or outside. It's a fire hazard.