Trees Down and Asphalt Buckled: Mattole Road ‘Still Not Passable’

Video by Caleb Sponholtz

On January 17, California State Parks closed Mattole Road in Humboldt Redwoods State Park after multiple trees fell and the asphalt buckled for a half mile stretch about one and a half miles west of Hwy 101.

According to John Miller, District Maintenance Chief for the North Coast Redwoods District State Parks, the road “is still not passable.”

Tree down, buckled asphalt Mattole Road

Asphalt is buckled near a downed tree on the Mattole Road. [Photo by Caleb Sponholtz]

A lot of damage has been done, he told us. “The road no longer lines up,” he explained. Any fix, he believes, is going to have to leave “a jog in the road.”

And, any fix, will take some time to complete. “We’ll have quite a bit of clean up to do,” Miller explained. “There’s crevices in the road–some of them you can’t see the bottom of…To repair all that is going to take a lot of work.”

Mattole Road Debris

Debris covers the roadway. [Photo by Caleb Sponholtz]

Miller said that he estimates that about a 100 acre land mass is affected.  The toe of the slide, he told us, is “curling up on the bedrock of Bull Creek–where there was a flat beach, [the soil] is now 15 feet up.”

But he is hopeful that the land has stabilized. “We haven’t seen any movement on it in the last few days,” he told us Friday night. “This weekend we’re supposed to have some rain.” The rain, he explained, could cause the ground to move again, but, if it doesn’t move, that’s a good sign.

Mattole Road buckled asphalt

Multiple sections have seriously buckled asphalt. [Photo by Caleb Sponholtz]

Several engineers and experts have been looking at the situation. Miller is hopeful that early this coming week there will be a “preliminary plan on something we can move forward with.”

Miller told us that currently engineers are trying to come up with “a short term plan” that can allow travel until, hopefully, a long term fix can be implemented.

Mattole road tree down

Large broken trees crumple on the ground. [Photo by Caleb Sponholtz]

Meanwhile, he acknowledged that this is a struggle for local residents. “Their access has really changed to services,” he said. And, he pointed out, if there is an emergency, response times have grown–in some cases by well over an hour.

“It is not fun at all,” he sympathized.

Mattole road tree and debris

Trees crisscross the Mattole Road.[Photo by Caleb Sponholtz]

Hopefully, early next week, he said, a plan will be put forward that can provide a start to reopening the road. But, even after the plan is mapped out, the serious damage could take awhile to deal with, and at this point, he doesn’t have a simple answer to when the road will reopen.

Earlier:

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25 Comments
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Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
1 year ago

Someone like Billy Etter would have it passable already.

Canyon oak
Guest
Canyon oak
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

That’s what I was thinking too.
In the old days, with the old ways

Observer
Guest
Observer
1 year ago
Reply to  Canyon oak

Yes the old ways. Those ways also punched roads through landslides, skidded down creeks and filled in the rivers.

Crap
Guest
Crap
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

Amen

People rely way to much on the government to save them. It would have been cleared by the locals back in the day. These.days any little problem and people wring their hands and panic hoping someone rescues them.

時代劇
Guest
時代劇
1 year ago
Reply to  Crap

Only a fool rushes in. A wise man waits for a contract.

Vermin Supreme
Guest
Vermin Supreme
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

Or Zack. RIP. He had a D9 sitting at his place….

Guess
Guest
Guess
1 year ago
Reply to  Vermin Supreme

I miss Zack ☹️ he was a good friend in school

farfromputin
Guest
farfromputin
1 year ago

Beautiful video. Thank you!

Bozo
Guest
Bozo
1 year ago

Landslides… it is just a part of an ongoing natural process in this geographic area.

Dig out under the road for 50 yards upstream and downstream, lay heavy rock down with good drainage. Road might be good then for awhile. Sooner or later the upstream drainage will move downward again.

Long term repair is going to be difficult with the Park Service in charge.

Guest
Guest
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Bozo

Yes. The list of what they can do is short. The list of what they want to do is shorter.

Jason
Guest
Jason
1 year ago

That’s nothing a chain saw and an asphalt grinder can’t fix. Git er done!

HumboldtianD
Member
Humboldtian
1 year ago

Parks isn’t taking this seriously enough. The County or Caltrans would have it passable to traffic.

Guest
Guest
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Humboldtian

That is what happens when the value of parks for people conflicts with the value of parks without people. These days people are more of an undesirable nuisance whose impact on nature is to be minimized. Are there even any benches for people to sit and contemplate nature in the spark?

trout fisher
Guest
trout fisher
1 year ago
Reply to  Guest

What are you talking about, have you ever been there…..Humboldt Redwood State Park has tons of benches and picnic tables, and almost 200 miles of well maintained hiking, biking, and horse trails, Three drive in campgrounds, a campground just for people with horses, three ecological hike in camps, and three back country backpacking campsites. Plus a plethora of well utilized swimming holes in summer. And popular campfire talks and ranger led hikes all summer. Try visiting it and going for a hike. It’s a gem.

Angela Robinson
Member
Angela Robinson
1 year ago
Reply to  trout fisher

Some years ago, my parents and I were driving north from Eureka. Dad hadn’t seen the redwoods for years. On a whim, as we came up on the turn-off at Bald Hills Road, I said “Let’s go to Lady Bird Johnson grove”…I grew up with redwoods (the city park in Eureka) right across the street and as a teenager/young adult up the Van Duzen, Eel, etc. So I was kind of blase about it.
The LBJ grove is amazing, well maintained and easy to walk for people in their late 70s. It impressed the heck out of me. My dad absolutely loved it.

My niece came out year before last and wanted to drive down to see the redwoods. She had wanted to go to LBJ grove, because that’s where her grandpa had had such a great time. Sadly, what with the fires and Last Chance Grade we instead stopped at Crescent City, and went to the groves there in the Jedediah Smith state park. Also super awesome, maybe a bit dustier due to the drought, but cool nonetheless.

Last edited 1 year ago
HumboldtianD
Member
Humboldtian
1 year ago

All those places are not near the Mattole Rd. Parks needs to get the road open ASAP. Essential traffic and emergency services depend on it.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
1 year ago

That Redwoods Park up by Orick is really beautiful.
Jedediah Smith redwoods are awesome, walked there many times.
The Redwoods not too far east of Brookings really were badly damaged in the Chetco Bar fire.

Guest
Guest
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  trout fisher

Having spent days and weeks at Rockefeller Forest and Bull Creek, only in campgrounds do I remember picnic tables. Along the rivers or the trails, I can remember thinking in so many places that I wish there was a bench to sit and look at the rivers especially as I got older. Now that I am thinking on it, I vaguely have a remembrance of one at some overlook but I could be confusing it with another park.

You are talking to someone who helped build those trails and maintain those campgrounds. And I have seen the locations for the public become more and more concentrated. As a matter of policy. Lots of trails rewilded and more remote campsites abandoned. Now it is not unusual for these camp grounds to be full and reservations needed. But if you really explore, you’ll find the remnants of decaying facilities no longer available all over.

trout fisher
Guest
trout fisher
1 year ago

Dang, my favorite hikes are all on the other side of that slide. What a bummer. Hope they put a temporary rd in quick.

Al L Ivesmatr
Guest
Al L Ivesmatr
1 year ago

Must be a Slow moving but still unpredictable news day. Good suggestion about taking personal reponsibility from some of the commentators but the world has changed for the worse. Unfortunately if the old timers cleared the path nowadays, a State Park policeman would be taking the guy to the old time, Wild West, three cell, heavy bar jail in Garberville.

時代劇
Guest
時代劇
1 year ago
Reply to  Al L Ivesmatr

A hypnotist with pinkeye is like a boxer with two broken hands

Griffon
Guest
Griffon
1 year ago

The fact that the state park has any say in this matter is a joke. This road is a through road to communities beyond. If the state has to have a say, Caltrans should fix the road so at a minimum emergency services can get through, but this is really quite ridiculous

Timb0D
Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Griffon

Env. Impact Report, engineers coming and going, making big bucks for just a look/see. Waiting and waiting for emergency funding, and all this before a shovel is used. Yes, the old ways may not have been the safest ways fpr a permanent fix, but they worked, and the road would reopen. People on D-9’s and cats not expecting anything in return except some diesel. Those were the days. It happened at my place in Mendo where the road washed into the creek and Eel river. Bless those hardworking souls.

Guest
Guest
Guest
1 year ago
Reply to  Griffon

That section of road is owned by the parks, explaining why they have a say. Caltrans has no jurisdiction here.

Griffon
Guest
Griffon
1 year ago
Reply to  Guest

I’m simply pointing out how ridiculous this is. There is no reason for a state park to control a road like this. Leave that to state agencies that have the resources to deal with the problem.

In my post I never claimed caltrans had jurisdiction.

I’ve worked with the state parks on projects in the past, and they are not the model of efficient to put it nicely. They are way over their heads here.