For a first solo camping trip you might want to err to the side of safety, as opposed to sublime wilderness experience, so one of the state parks might be a good choice. That way you can get a feel for your comfort level being by yourself. Patrick's Point and Prairie Creek Redwoods are both beautiful, and not far from Arcata.

If you still want more privacy than that, ask at the ranger kiosk at either Patrick's Point or Prairie Creek about the environmental camp by Dry Lagoon. You'll have to hike your stuff in to your site from where you park, but it's not more than maybe a couple hundred yards at the most, and you'll have a beautiful spot in the woods near the beach, without your neighbors being too close.

Hi!

You may be talking about something more ADVANCED than what I do, however, one of my favorite spots to camp is Big Lagoon. They don't take reservations, it's first come first serve...but the water is always warm and it feels pretty safe.
www.redwoods.info/showrecord.asp

Another spot is Tish Tang out at Willow creek. This area is a little more dicey. It's very beautiful and you can usually find a spot along the river to sunbathe, swim around etc. but we've heard gunshots from the nearby Reservation and we've had drunk people roaming around in the middle of the night.

But this site has info on Tish Tang and other camping locations that may better suit what you are looking for.
www.redwood.national-park.com/cam....htm

Good luck!

When I was growing up there, Mom took me out to all the campgrounds along 299 one summer. But the most remote one we went to was called camp Ripstein up in the Trinity alps, dunno if it's still there or not.

Just a thought.

Why are you posting that you are going alone?

I mean, you could have gotten the same information, say, you posted you were going with a friends.

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