Phillipsville, California: Chimney Tree, Old Hobbiton USA

Attraction combined a room in the trunk of a still-living Redwood with a concrete-statue-and-hidden-speaker trail of J.R.R. Tolkien scenes. Reopened as hamburger cafe; Hobbiton section long closed and overgrown.

All that's left is a small water wheel house and a barely recognizable statue of the wizard. The path is overgrown. There is a small footpath that was "made" by nosy seekers. It's littered with broken wood and rusty nails. I believe this is private property; any climbing up the foot path would be trespassing.

I visited Hobbiton USA in July 2015. The hillside is overgrown with weeds, but enough curious visitors still walk up the trail that a small path has been created. It goes past a couple of hobbit doors to Bag End, where I found no Bilbo, but did see the remains of Gandalf. His arm, hand, shoulder, and face were under a growth of weeds at his feet. Cement and chicken wire showed through. I fear what is left will not last long.

Further up the trail I saw the trolls and remains of speaker boxes, but I stopped when I saw a couple of homes.

I understand one reason the exhibit closed is because a mudslide wiped out half of it; another because ownership changed. Too bad.

The famous Chimney Tree and Chimney Tree Cafe are open. The tree itself is free to look at and the Cafe has burgers, sandwiches, salads, desserts, etc. Hobbiton, unfortunately, is still closed.

Sadly, i have to report that Hobbiton is no longer open. It appears to have closed some time ago, and the inhabitants of the house above the property are not open to explorers. The gift shop area is closed and the Chimney Tree is in disrepair. In fact, many of the old redwood highway attractions are closed, or have seen better days.