My First Camping in the USA: A Night in the Redwoods & a Half-Cooked Hot Chocolate

I think I had forgotten how much I love travelling.

Since the beginning of this year, I’d been trying to plan trips, book flights, find places to go, but somehow, nothing was really happening. Work at Tiggle kept me busy, and then came the whole process of moving to the US for a year or two. Somewhere along the way, travel just kept getting pushed.

Then, almost on a whim, we found a campsite in the redwoods one day before the trip, packed a tent into our car, and drove from the Bay Area to the Avenue of the Giants.

It was just one night. 36 hours, to be exact.

But somehow, those 36 hours brought something back in me that I hadn't felt in a while ~ the fire to travel, explore and just go somewhere.

So, here's how my first camping trip in the US went.

We reached our campsite just as the evening was settling in.

And because there was no network, we had to use the good old paper campground map to find our site in the middle of the redwoods. That was kind of cool.

This was my first camping experience in the US, a road trip to the Avenue of the Giants.

I’ve camped before, but under very different circumstances. During my mountaineering course, camping meant extreme conditions, long hikes and carrying almost everything on your back. I loved every bit of it, but that was quite a few years ago.

This was different. This was car camping, where you can literally drive your car right up to your campsite.

We had bought a tent, sleeping bags, camping chairs, a stove and all the little things that apparently make you a “camper.” The fun part? We had never actually set up the tent before.

And somehow, we found this campsite just one day before the trip.

Camping grounds in California get booked ridiculously fast, so I still can't believe we got lucky.

We started our road trip from the Bay Area, stopped for breakfast, and made a couple of very important food stops along the way. Quail & Condor being one of them. The chocolate croissants were SO good.

And then there was the drive itself, open roads, giant trees and that feeling of we're actually going somewhere.

Eventually, we reached the Avenue of the Giants.

We spent some time exploring the groves and creek trails before heading to our campground.

Our campground had 51 campsites, spread out with a surprising amount of space between them. And one of the things I loved most was seeing how many people were camping.

There were people well into their 70s camping, cooking, walking around and setting up their tents. This was inspiring.

Our first-ever tent setup 😍

Once we found campsite 25BU, we got to the most exciting part: setting up our tent.

We had bought the REI Base Camp 4 tent, and considering we were complete beginners, it was surprisingly easy.

20 minutes.

That's all it took to set it up.

We made our beds, put in our sleeping bags, added fairy lights and suddenly… we had a little home in the middle of the redwoods.

Then came dinner.

Pav bhaji.

One of the things I've always been fascinated by is those tiny propane camping stoves. So finally getting to set one up and actually cook on it felt ridiculously exciting.

And honestly, pav bhaji cooked at a campsite tastes pretty damn good.

By the time we finished, it was around 7:30 PM.

We decided to walk around the campground and see what everyone else was doing. Partly because we were curious, and partly because we wanted to understand the camping culture in the US.

We said hello to a few people along the way.

There were RVs, families, dogs, elaborate cooking setups, people sitting around fires and even someone watching a movie on a projector. (SO FUN)

And yes, some dogs had their own tents :')

We eventually came back to our little campsite.

We lit our fireplace, you need a permit for this, which we had. Then, we pulled our camping chairs closer, brought out the pav bhaji and just sat there.

No phones.

No notifications.

No work.

Just fire, trees, food and conversation.

Eventually, we were exhausted from the long day and went to sleep.

“What if a bear came?”

We woke up around 6am the next morning and, naturally, our first conversation was basically: “Imagine if a bear had come to our campsite last night.”

We slept in very well though.

And the morning was beautiful.

It was chilly, quiet and slow.

We made hot chocolate.

And this one was special. Because...

We made our 55% Dark Hot Chocolate, a new Tiggle product that isn't even launched yet. It's our first-ever percentage hot chocolate, made from a chocolate from Anaimalai Estate in Tamil Nadu, India. I’d been carrying a small batch of it around in our existing packets while Nishat and Mahira from design team work on its own packaging. So, naturally, it came camping with me too.

And somehow, making chocolate drinks in different places has become one of my favourite little things. Maybe that's my version of a travel ritual.

We sat in our camping chairs, wrapped up in the chilly morning, drinking hot chocolate under these magnificent redwoods.

And the 55% Dark Hot Chocolate?

10/10.

My partner was tasting it for the second time and said, again:

“This is the best of Tiggle hot chocolate.”

His current favourites are our Iced Chocolate and Jaggery Hot Chocolate, so I'll happily take that review.

After breakfast, we spent some time just looking at the redwoods.

Their size is difficult to comprehend.

We talked about trees, how long they live, their branches, their lives, the kind of conversations you don't normally have when you're rushing through your day.

Then we went for a small hike towards a river.

And because apparently no camping trip is complete without it…

We made Maggi. 

By then, it was almost time to leave.

We packed everything back up ~ sleeping bags, chairs, tent, stove ~ loaded the car and started our drive back to home.

We had work the next day.

It was only one night.

Only about 36 hours.

But it didn't feel small.

This little road trip changed that.

It reminded me how much I love travelling.

How much I love waking up somewhere unfamiliar.

How much I love being outside.

And how little I actually need for a trip to feel like an adventure.

This trip was short, crisp, beautiful and raw ~ exactly what I had been craving.

And I think it gave my fire for travel back.

So, I have a feeling there is going to be a lot more camping in the coming weeks.

Next one? Somewhere on the coast.

And yes, I'm already imagining myself sitting by the ocean with a chilled glass of iced chocolate.

Ahhhh. I can't wait. 🌊 🏕️