Redwoods are among the most impressive living organisms in this planet. And not only due to their height. They are certainly impressive as the tallest trees, growing upwards of 350 ft at their highest – think of that, like a 30+ storied building! But also due to how they grow, fuse, and survive fires.
A few months ago, I spent four days with a friend exploring the redwood groves in different parks in the northern California area seeing old-growth and less old-growth areas. I thought it could be helpful to trip planners out there to share some of how we did the trip and what factors played into the different decisions to make about such a trip.
First, some info on the redwoods…
About the coastal redwoods
The redwoods I got to visit are called ‘coastal redwoods‘ which differentiates them from other related trees broadly called redwoods (like sequoias). These coastal redwoods are only found in the northern part of California / southern Oregon.
These trees can be a couple of thousand of years old which is mind-boggling. (Heck, a 500-year old tree would be mind-boggling!) For example, the redwood known as Big Tree is 1,500 years old.
Where to see the redwood trees
As mentioned above, southern Oregon / northern California is the area to go. But it seems the California side will be richer and have more options in terms of landscape, accessibility and “format” (trails vs. walks vs. drives).
In terms of seeing redwoods, I think it is important to explore multiple areas as there is a different feel for the trees and their environment, depending on where you are. There are multiple parks in the area (one national one and several state ones) to choose from. We hit them all (read more below!)
How the forests can be different
I am not an expert on redwoods but I felt differences in what I saw across the parks and areas.
One thing that may affect the forest seemed to be how close the forest was to the water versus one further inland (they don’t grow too far inland as the climate changes and they need tons of moisture).
While the forests we saw in the different parks look more or less alike, we did notice variations in trunk color. We were unclear on whether that made it a variant of the tree, or if it was just like eye color for humans but we did notice the difference.
Also, some areas can be more likely to produce taller trees depending on the level of moisture and ability of the trees to compete with each other.
The terrain of the forest can make a difference at least in how one perceives the tree. While there was almost no entirely flat forest in the trails we explored, some (like the Damnation Creek trail) seem to offer different vantage points vis-a-vis the trees. For example, at some points in that trail, there were higher areas around us so we got to look up not only at the tree but even at the base of the tree; whereas at other points, we were maybe at an elevation already a third up the height of some trees whose bases were way below the edge of the trail.
Finally, the ground level under the canopy did vary a bit based on terrain and probably location and thickness of canopy. In some spots, ferns and/or clover dominated the forest floor; in others, it was more open/clear.
The redwood parks in northern California
The key parks we looked into and did were the ones closest to the area framed roughly by Crescent City in the north and Myers Flat in the south. These parks/areas were:
- Del Norte State Park
- Jedediah Smith State Park
- Prairie Creek State Park
- Redwood National Park
- Humboldt Redwoods State Park
I will write more about some of the hikes we did but we got to visit all of these via hikes and some walks, and driving a couple of scenic roads (Newton B. Drury and Avenue of the Giants).
How to get to redwood country
One of the key questions was how to get to the region. Flying into larger cities like Portland and Sacramento would require some drive time. Flying into smaller airports (e.g., Medford, OR) could shorten the drive time but potentially cost more or not have ideal flight times.
We opted to land in Portland for ease of schedule and maximizing our arrival day. We understood there was a lot to also see between northern Oregon and northern California and we thought it’d be worth 2-3 days devoted to that as we made our way south. We ended up going NW of Portland to see famous Cannon Beach, then head inland to wine country in the Willamette Valley and then heading back out to the coast to drive the remainder of the beautiful Oregon coast.
In terms of returning, not wanting to backtrack, a flight out of Medford fit the time and cost parameters and it greatly saved us drive time so we opted for that.
Planning the route or itinerary
With the broader question of how many days we had to use and the in/out destinations, we could move on to pinning down the general itinerary. For reasons of car rental costs, we started in Portland vs. Medford. Though we were headed south, there was a detour northwest of Portland that I had heard was a must-see: Cannon Beach. So, Cannon Beach became stop number one.
Next, we could opt for driving down the Oregon coast to reach the parks we were targeting. Or… sampling some wines first. So, the Willamette Valley became stop number two, if only for 2 nights and 1 day… In doing some research, McMinnville sounded like a town in the area with enough going on so it became stop number two for a couple of nights.
In continuing south, we wanted to see more of the Oregon coast as we had heard and read good things about it. The alternative was taking the slightly faster I-5 highway but missing out on the coast. So, the Oregon coast (highway 101) and the many sights along the way became a continuous “stop”, stop number three.
At this juncture, the option would be to stop upon entering California to overnight and sort of work our way south through the parks, or drive all the way to the southernmost over-nighting destination and backtrack up instead. But driving along the Pacific Scenic Highway (route 101) would take a long time and it would already be a long day at that point. So we opted to make the first town on the California coast (Crescent City) stop number four.
The next day we would begin our hikes at Jedediah Smith State Park and Del Norte State Park: Boy Scout Trail and Damnation Creek Trail, respectively. Along the way, we would drive the Newton B. Drury Scenic Highway, instead of the 101 highway to enjoy the beauty of the forests in a more “intimate” (read: less trafficked) route.
After those two hikes and scenic drive, we would make our way south to McKinleyville (not to be confused with McMinnville!) and Trinidad to overnight for four nights and hence, becoming our next stops, let’s call them stops number five and six.
In between those nights, the first day we would schedule our hike on the Tall Trees Trail (which requires a permit ahead of time as only 50 vehicles are allowed on any given day). In addition, we would do the loop involving Prairie Creek Trail and Cathedral Trees Trail, right by the Prairie Creek State Park Visitor Center. After those hikes, on the following day, we would hit Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park and do some short, easy walks.
At that point, we were going to begin the march back north to reach Crater Lake National Park which became stop number 7. However, there was considerable distance to cover so it took a good part of a day to reach the area, where we would spend one day at the park and two nights around the area.
Our final stop was to be the town of Medford itself since we had a very early flight to return home. Though not a target of the trip itself, it became our final stop, stop number 8.
Things to know about visiting the redwood parks
While the core part of this trip to explore the redwoods was to be a hiking trip, one does not have to be a hiker to get to enjoy the redwood forests. Trails like Cathedral Tree Trail (where one can run into nearby Big Tree) is easy enough for most to walk through. Also, the many small stops (Rockefeller or Forest Grove in Avenue of the Giants) are really just walks.
For the hiker, there are endless trails and combinations of trails. Some are in-and-out trails, some are loops, and some can be combined to create long hikes (as when we connected Miners’ Ridge Trail with Gold Bluffs Beach, and James Irvine Trail). The more daring can even add river crossings (only possible in the summer) to some of the routes. It is a veritable endless menu of hikes and trails for beginners or experts.
Certainly there are campgrounds and the like in the area and I would just refer you to the various parks’ own websites for more details on those. I found the National Park Service and the California State Parks made a lot of information available on the Internet, including detailed maps.
I will try to share in other posts about each of the hikes or walks we did. I will add links to this post as those posts are published!
