The 5 Best Redwood Forests on Earth

“Do or do not, there is no try”

Yoda

Being in the Redwoods

Being in the Redwoods is like being on another planet. You do realize they filmed Star Wars here right? (Endor, Return of the Jedi)

We’ve already been to the redwoods numerous times so we knew we were going to love it – so we planned on staying a full week amongst the giants. We ended up staying 3 weeks. And it only cost us $8 🙂 (outside of food and gas – because you have to buy food or gas even if your just sitting on your butt at home or going to and from work)

Very possibly our favorite place on earth: The Northern California Redwood Trees. They’re something you can’t really describe. Pictures don’t do justice. You have to “feel” what it’s like to be in an old growth redwood grove. You get the tallest trees on earth, mountains, and the ocean all in one. Add in the fact that there’s surprisingly few people here and the added bonus that they are free to see – I think we have a winner here!

For the sake of this post I’ll be focusing on the Redwood National and State Park system that consists of the Redwood National Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. I’ll also include the Humboldt Redwoods State Park because it is on the way if you’re driving from the south – and totally worth going to in it’s own! That’s a total of 5 different redwood forest areas.

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Fun Facts

• The Coastal Redwood Trees are the tallest trees on earth, reaching up to 380 feet tall. 
• The Redwood National Park was founded in 1968 when close to 90% of coastal redwood trees had already been cut down and logged. 
• Redwood Trees drink fog through their needles far up in the forest canopy. 
• Star Wars (think Endor) and Jurassic Park (remember the little girl who gets eaten by tiny dinosaurs?) were filmed here. 
• Warning: If you go to the Redwood National Park, you will forever be a tree hugger. 

Fall Forward & Visit the Redwoods

Must Dos

1. Redwood National Park

• Lady Bird Johnson Grove (1.5 miles)
• Tall Trees Grove – requires free permit for the access road (get from Prairie Creek visitor center)

2. Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

• Circle Trail (Big Tree Wayside) (.5 miles)
• Coastal Trail (this one is REALLY long, you can easily access it from multiple points to do shorter stretches of it though)
• James Irvine-Miner’s Ridge Loop – from Prairie Creek Redwood State Park Visitor Center area through redwood groves all the way to the coast at Fern Canyon (where they filmed some of the scenes in Jurassic Park)
• If you’re not up for the James Irvine hike, drive Davison road all the way to Fern Canyon and the Gold Bluffs Beach. You don’t want to miss Fern Canyon either way! (But it does cost an $8 day fee to enter this area via driving on Davison Road – and you miss ALOT of good views)

3. Del Norte Redwoods State Park

• Damnation Creek Trail – (4.4 miles – steep) The size of the redwoods at the beginning of this trail are awe inspiring! But what makes this hike unique is that it drops all the way down to an overlook and rocky beach on the Pacific.
• Drive thru Redwood tree in Klamath! (One of only 3 redwood drive thru trees left in the world: the other two are close by in Legget and Humbolt)

4. Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park

• Boy Scout Tree Trail – I’m mainly giving more detail here because there are no signs indicating where the Boy Scout tree is, until you find it. Near the end of the trail, before you get to the waterfall, there is a lightly traveled trail that goes up to the right a few hundred feet to where the Boy Scout tree is. Trust me you want to see this monstrosity!! 
• Stout Grove – short easy trail definitely worth seeing

5. Humboldt Redwoods State Park

• Avenue of the Giants
• Rockefeller Forest (largest single strand of old growth redwoods in the world)
• Visitor Center to see the 3 kinds of Redwood trees all next to each other (Coastal Redwood, Dawn Redwood, and Giant Sequoia)
• Drive thru tree (not as good as the drive thru tree in Klamath)
• Kayak the Eel River

If we had to do it all in just one day

If you’re wanting to see the Redwoods in one day – go see the overcrowded, reservation required Muir Woods near San Francisco or pay a visit to Big Sur or many of the other redwood groves along the coast. However the old growth Redwoods on the upper northern coast of California are the best of them all. But depending on where you’re coming from, it can take a whole day just to drive up to the Redwood National Park – so you might as well spend at least several days while you’re here. 

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Amenities

• Gas – there are plenty of gas options, but it’s Californian $ gas.
• Cell Service – Verizon has decent cell service at most places along the highways and around most of the smaller towns that are dispersed throughout the area. There are a few places in some of the deeper trails that surprisingly had service, but don’t depend on it!
• Dog Friendly – MEH – Dog’s are allowed on leash within developed areas, roads and campgrounds – but not on trails.
• Max Vehicle Length – The main roads don’t have any issues with large vehicles, but some of the smaller roads that lead to the best places in the parks are unpaved and don’t allow RVs/trailers. 
• Closest Grocery Store – There are several small towns with markets dispersed throughout the redwoods, we chose the Grocery Outlet (similar to an Aldi’s) in Crescent City. 
• Free Camping Within 20 Miles [YES] – see freecampsites.net for a location to the east of the Jedediah Smith Redwoods (no cell service). In Crescent City we also stayed (at the recommendation of a park ranger) in the library parking lot for a couple days and at Howe Drive Park at the beach (Locals said people in contained RVs camp there all the time, just keep it to a few days. We even talked to a cop who said he didn’t mind it as long as it wasn’t more than a couple days.)
• Activities: Hiking, Kayaking, Swimming, Beaches, Scenic Drives
• Our Cost: (outside of food and gas, because you have to buy food and gas anywhere anyways) $8 day use fee to drive to Fern Canyon and Gold Bluffs Beach in the Prairie Creek Redwoods.