Redwood National and State Parks

We approached Redwood National and State Parks from the South, via California State Highway 101.

I’d gotten an email a few weeks prior about a highway closure but had forgotten about it until we were on the way. I looked at the email again – the highway would be closed intermittently throughout the day during the week for repair after a landslide. Open before 9AM, between 11AM-12PM, 2-3PM, and then open for the day after 5PM. We'd have to plan our days around it.

We stopped at one of the four visitor centers before heading up to the closure. The area and building reminded me of New Jersey – the building had a very distinct postmodern coastal style. It was humid, temperate, and a thin fog hung in the air.

After getting our stamp, token, and sticker, we headed north towards the closure.

Highway 101 generally follows the coast and we were treated to beautiful vistas of the Pacific ocean as we approached the highway closure.

We queued up to go through and then proceeded to wait. Eventually it was northbound's turn to proceed and we passed without much ado, and entered Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and our campground, Mill Creek, which was 2.5 miles down a very winding road.

We had reserved site 40 and eagerly drove along the campground drive. There were some really cool sites – some completely hidden by the dense foliage, some elevated 10’ in the air and fenced in, some near the stumps of ancient redwoods. Sites 35-40 were at the very end of a small loop. After all the really cool sites we were disappointed to see that 40 was about 13’x13’ wide (barely larger than our tent), and RIGHT next to our neighbors, who had a big RV. Behind it was a social trail that accessed Mill Creek. It wasn't terrible but we could hear our neighbors snoring at night...

The campground itself was a ~vibe~. Mystical, moody, gloomy, lush, damp, dank, decomposing, and alive. It is set amongst a grove of second-growth redwoods, which cast their magnificent shadows across the campground. The sunlight pierced the gloom only very occasionally through the thick canopy. The gloom was so incredible that our site was relatively sunny and I wished it was gloomier.

The first night we were uncomfortably sticky from the humidity... but after that we got used to it and were pretty comfortable. Overnight lows were mid-50s, so very nice temperatures to wake up to in the morning.

Redwood National and State Parks is unique from other national parks in that it is co-managed with the three California Redwoods state parks around it. There’s Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The park brochure features all of these in addition to the National Park itself, and for the most part the experience between them is seamless.

The next morning was a Thursday, and we decided to stay north of the highway closure to avoid it entirely. We went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and visited Stout Grove, which is an old-growth grove unique in the fact that it is right by a river, which causes periodic flooding and prevents a lot of the understory from growing. This resulted in glorious redwoods on full display and more of the beautiful, moody, forest gloom. We bathed in it and walked among the giants.

Coast Redwoods (Sequoia Sempervirens) and Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron Giganteum) are in fact related, two of three genera of the subfamily Sequoioideae. The third genera, Dawn Sequoias (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) are only found in China, and are actually deciduous, although the leaves are needle like. Redwoods are the tallest of the three, and the grandest trees I have ever seen.

I couldn’t tell much difference size wise between the largest of the redwoods here versus the average sequoia at Sequoia National Park. Their general appearance did differ slightly… the redwoods were mostly gray, with their bark having the appearance of being striped, although sometimes they were reddish. In terms of density, the redwoods were far more prolific, dominating the hillsides by the ocean. In Sequoia, there were only a few groves left where they were the primary inhabitant.

Back to the beautiful atmosphere of this place, as if you could ever forget. This area also experiences a lot of fog. I’m not sure how it is the rest of the year but when we were there each day would start with fog and it would gradually burn off towards mid-morning. We like to get out in the morning to sightsee because the lighting is better and the crowds are still eating breakfast... The fog lended so much atmosphere it was incredible. Sometimes you could always find fog in the same stretch of highway; sometimes the fog would travel through a place and then be gone. It was an enigmatic presence that we were always delighted to meet. Fun fact: redwoods get as much as 50% of their water from fog. The fog hits their needles and then condenses and falls to the ground.

My only regret is that there were so many instances of this fog interacting with the light on highway 101 that I couldn’t capture… there are not many pull-offs and no shoulder for most of the highway.

Back to what we were doing... we did the Howland Hill Road scenic drive to get to our next stop, the Boy Scout Tree Trail.

We pretty quickly realized that this forest was special beyond anything we’d seen before, and very soon after that we both decided it was our new favorite National Park. It’s pretty great that we are 3 months through this trip and we are still being delighted far and above what we had seen before.

The hike to the Boy Scout Tree was fantastic. Probably one of the most enjoyable trails we’ve done. The trail surface is soft – just soil, deeply colored a reddish brown. The only obstacles for the most part were tree roots, which were slippery, but not bad at all.

The Boy Scout Tree was off of the main trail up a steep hill, barely marked. It was huge. It looked as big to me as Sherman or Grant, but perhaps it was not. It did split further up which makes me think it was two individual trees, which perhaps disqualifies it for size competition.

Something unique to coast redwoods – they can reproduce not only through seed (as the giant sequoia is limited to), but they can also sprout from stumps or logs, which creates some very interesting shapes as older trees either become laying trees (because they’re tired!) and sprout, or sprout from their base just for the heck of it.

At the end of the trail was Fern Falls. This last portion of this trail was unusual -- very high salmonberry bushes almost overtook the trail and we were left to rub shoulders with the plant life.

A common complaint we have is that campgrounds often don't have showers. Places like Zion and Yosemite, major parks, have giant campgrounds where people stay for extended trips -- and no showers! This campground did, and we were so happy for them. They were hot (not this lukewarm BS we encountered previously) and somehow I managed to get multiple showers for free! The first day I put in 1.25 (25 cents a minute), but was standing there waiting waiting waiting for the water to turn off, and it never did! I tested a theory the next day and didn't have to add any coins. Vitali had to pay for his though... Vitali reports that 25 cents actually gave you two minutes, twice advertised.

On Friday, the highway work crews went home early so we decided to head south for the day. We picked the Yurok and Coastal Trails to visit first. They both proved to be exemplary slices of the landscape. The Yurok trail was a short loop that went through the coastal forested areas which made us fall even more in love with this place.

It was close to rainforest levels of foliage. Not quite as much as say, the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park, but maybe 80% of the way there. The trail was generally up on the cliffs above the beaches. We walked past one bay, and then descended into the next and walked along the shore.

The trail sign pointed to one Hidden Beach via this beach, so how could we resist? We started rock hopping over the rounded boulders. As we progressed, the shapes started to change. Larger, more angular, more irregularly spaced. Vitali asked me if we swanted to continue. I hesitated, but said “We’ve already come this far, let’s just go.” I began to regret this decision pretty quickly as the larger boulders gradually changed to giant shards that required scrambling to cross.

But, we made it across and we peeked over the point and into Hidden Beach. It was small, and not as pretty as the beach we were on... We turned around and made our way back and decided we would avoid any hiking over beach talus again. We visited the Coastal Drive after that and met some nice ladies who commented on the stickers on our car.

The conversation started innocently enough. "Have you actually visited all of these parks?" Yes! And we talked about it for a bit... and then... "Well, you guys clearly have a love of nature so I'm going to give you my business card". I look at the card and it says Jehovah's Witnesses. "There's a website on there called 'Was it Designed?', that has short videos that you should watch -- things like shark skin, bird's wings, and how they were designed. It's all very interesting!" I was very polite and pocketed the card but after they departed Vitali and I were left shaking our heads.

On Saturday, the highway was open to one way travel all day, so that would cut down on time spent waiting to cross. We started out on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and visited the Big Tree -- 279’ tall, and very wide. There was a network of trails in this area and we walked for a bit to enjoy the grove in the morning light.

After that we had planned on doing a 7 mile loop outlined in the Visitor Guide, which included the mysteriously named “Fern Canyon”.

The drive to the trailhead was beautiful and foggy. This was in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, and passed along Gold Bluffs beach, where we encountered a herd of elk.

We were maybe half a mile from the trailhead parking when we encountered a stream crossing the road. We got out to look at how deep it was, and saw a sedan approaching from the other direction. We watched them cross (it was maybe 3” deep) and they cheered us on that Numa was capable.

We forded the river and proceeded. I wasn't lying that we were making Numa an overland vehicle... 😂 To see Numa's full capabilities, please see this review by Top Gear in which Numa performs as a beach assault craft (and also outruns baddies).

We only had a text description of the Fern Canyon loop -- the map in the visitor guide was not great, so I had to guess which trail section was what, but had a good general idea. Rangers were stationed at this trailhead and I asked if Fern Canyon was well signed? The ranger said yep, you can’t miss it. Turns out Fern Canyon was right at the start – maybe half a mile in. We decided to scrap the rest of the hike because what could be more spectacular than what we saw?

Fern Canyon was carved by the stream that wanders through it to the ocean, through sedimentary rock. The walls are vertical and completely covered in luxuriant ferns. Talk about green walls.

Walking through this canyon of green was very special. We rock hopped and bounced on the wooden planks for crossing the deeper areas of the stream.

We headed back to camp but having nixed the 7 mile hike we were caught at the highway closure at the wrong time. We stopped by DeMartin beach instead. It was cold, but the sand was black and if you sat on it you warmed right up – so we put on our swimsuits and worked on our tans.

On Sunday, we hiked the Trillium Falls Trail. It's a loop trail, but the falls are in the first quarter of the overall hike and were not very dramatic so we were looking the entire hike for another waterfall that never manifested!

Every time I found myself in a forest of redwoods I felt profoundly right. They must be releasing some righteous phytochemicals. The feeling was one of wellness, and one of never wanting to leave.

We got back to camp and noticed our neighbors on the other side (much further away) had left a day early. One of the campground staff was riding around doing a check and I asked him if we would be able to swap spots. He told us he couldn’t give us a yes or no but to talk to the ranger at the gate, but I didn’t bother asking (or moving, as it was our last night).

It was about this time I realized that the tallest trees in the world are in fact, here. I knew about Hyperion (the world's tallest tree at 380'), which was photographed in its entirety for an edition of National Geographic, showcased in a multi-page fold out print in the magazine. Its location is undisclosed to protect it, but it quietly slumbers somewhere within the National Park. The second and third tallest, Helios and Icarus, are here too.

I was looking at the park map every day for three days now and even after seeing “Tall Trees access road, permit required”, I didn’t think much about it. Finally I looked it up online and saw that you could apply for the free permit, of which there are 50 granted a day, to go do the short hike to the grove where some of the tallest redwoods are found. I looked at the next few days -- plenty still available. The only problem was -- you needed to apply two days before you wanted to go and we were leaving the campground the next morning, although we did then have a night in a motel in Crescent City, 10 minutes to the north.

We thought we could maybe continue on our trip to Oregon Caves National Monument, which was only an hour and 45 minutes away, and then come back for the hike... but after some deliberation we decided to see if we could get a walk-up campsite for the night before our permit, the day after our motel stay instead.

I applied for the permit for the 22nd and we asked the campground attendant at the gate what the deal was with walk-ups. She said that if people sign a waiver when they leave early, the park can sell their sites as walk-ups and they became available at 2pm on the dot every day. If we show up then we could potentially get a site for the night. We're in business!

The next morning we packed up camp and drove all the way back down to the National Park and walked the Lady Bird Johnson trail, which was named in her honor for her environmental conservation efforts. There was an amazing raised pedestrian bridge made of glulams that must have spanned 80’, and of course, more beautiful redwoods. After the hike we got the email that our permit application for the Tall Trees trail was approved!

We picked up some food and spent the night at a motel in Crescent City, which seemed to always be 10 degrees cooler than Klamath, and almost constantly foggy.

The next afternoon we sat in a beach parking lot to wait for 2pm and the walk-up campsites. I got caught up on blog posts and Vitali ran. When it was time, we headed back to the campground and rolled in… Anything? Yes! The very nice dude set us up with an awesome site. It had a HUGE trunk around the firepit and picnic table, which unfortunately, attracted a lot of small children.

We had some time to kill so we decided to go do the short trails around the campground which were must less traveled but very beautiful.

We prepared for our hike to the Tall Trees the next morning and went to sleep.

In the morning we left early -- around 6:30AM, and drove down the Bald Hills scenic road to get to the Tall Trees access road. We wanted to make sure we’d be back for the highway to reopen at 11AM, because we were heading to a first come first serve campsite next.

We stopped by a river overlook which was filled with fog, and tremendously beautiful.

We arrived at the trailhead not long after. Several other vehicles were there but only one group we ran into on the trail. The trail to the Tall Trees grove is 2 miles, 800’ or so of elevation loss, to a bend in the river.

The conditions in this small area are just right for redwoods to flourish -- sheltered from the wind and salt air in a gulch and near a constant water source. We reached the grove and reveled in the unique experience of feeling like an insignificant blip compared to the lifetime lived by these trees. We decided to go for the course record on the way back up and proceeded to power walk our way out. We eventually got back to cell reception and realized there wasn’t even a segment.

Oh well! We made it back to the highway closure in time and then proceeded to Oregon Caves National Monument.

We both fell in love with this place. It was sunny, it was moody, it was warm, cool, foggy and ethereal. Plants grew on every surface and obviously the redwoods thrive. We debated whether we could ever live here, with the winters seemingly being one endless deluge of rain (120"+ a year), and the temperatures not really varying that much over the course of the year (50 degrees in the winter, 70 degrees in the summer). It was maybe 70 degrees every day that we were there, but quite comfortable in the sun and if moving.

I fantasized about waking up on a cool 45 degree morning and turning on the water in my outdoor shower, watching the steam rise from the hot water through the floor to ceiling glass wall. The walls of the shower are covered in ferns and the shower itself is set in a cacophony of plant life, dewy and dripping from the light rain overnight. The house is set on a platform, raised above the surrounding meadow, a glade within, but set apart, from the surrounding forest.

The jury's still out on this one!