ALONG California’s mystical redwood coast, 1,000-year-old trees as much as four times the height of the Rockefeller Center Christmas spruce command rocky bluffs that overlook golden, frothy beaches. Many travelers in search of the California redwoods never venture beyond one of the southernmost groves, the gorgeous but often crowded Muir Woods, just outside of San Francisco. But a journey 300 miles farther north, through Redwood National Park and its surrounding state parks, plus outpost-like towns and the mountainous corner of southwestern Oregon, is one packed with rich rewards. California Travel GuideGo to the California Travel Guide »MultimediaInteractive FeatureMileposts: A Journey Through the Land of the Giants
Begin in Arcata, the Humboldt State University town that was founded by loggers. Today, it’s populated with dreadlocked hippies and is known, in these parts at least, for the high number of houses where marijuana is covertly grown. It’s also home to a minuscule airport and is a no-fuss place to rent a car, grab a fortifying granola breakfast and start your drive. You’ll be going mostly north, but first dip briefly south on Highway 101. You’ll pass through Arcata’s sister city of Eureka, whose historic district is a colorful jumble of refurbished Victorians, tiny boutiques and stunning inns, and then be on your way toward Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
MILE 35
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS
A 32-mile spur leads you off the highway and along a two-lane road (Route 254) originally built for stagecoaches in the 1880s. You’ll drive beneath a canopy of massive branches belonging to the giants themselves, averaging 200 feet tall and 500 years old here. Eight Auto Tour signs offer facts on some of the history of logging (which wiped out an estimated 96 percent of the original redwoods in California) and on local wildlife including the elusive, nocturnal flying squirrel.
MILE 85
TRINIDAD
Backtrack on Highway 101 to Arcata and then continue north to this tiny town of 400, where the bluffs will present you with your first elevated view of the Pacific coastline, slate gray and misty, its shore strewn with tangles of beach grass and smooth driftwood logs. Immerse yourself in the landscape by descending into the pocket of fog along the steep, scrub-oak shaded staircase near the white and cherry-red Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse (a replica of an 1871 structure), which leads you to a rocky, sheltered pocket of Trinidad Bay.
Heading back out of Trinidad, turn left off Main Street onto Patrick’s Point Drive and follow it north until, east of Patrick’s Point State Park, it ends at 101 North. You’ll wind past several sandy beaches and above ocean coves where sea lions gather to bark and howl, sending eerily mournful echoes up into the trees.
MILE 100
REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK
The approach on Highway 101 to the southern edge of the park whisks you through a dewy, lagoon-laced landscape made magical by fog-filtered light and the Sweet Tart-like scent of bursting wildflowers. You’ll quickly come through the fog (created almost daily in summer, when inland warmth clashes with the cool ocean’s morning air) to the Kuchel Visitor Center just outside of the tiny town of Orick.
Redwood National Park was created by Congress in 1968, and together with abutting state parks, makes up nearly 40,000 acres of ancient forest. “The draw among visitors is to see the tallest living things on the planet,” noted Jeff Denny, a National Park ranger stationed there, adding that the tallest known redwood is in this forest and stands 379 feet high (to protect the tree, rangers don’t divulge its location).
Before leaving the visitor center, pick up a free permit to hike into the awe-inspiring Tall Trees Grove, and a map to guide you there.
MILE 110
TALL TREES GROVE
A slow-going, 40-minute drive along a narrow gravel road takes you to the head of a mellow trail snaking down into a mossy, shady bowl that holds Douglas firs, rhododendrons and some of the tallest redwoods in the park. Small signs note redwoods with the black, burnt bark of century-old fire scars; “spiketops,” or treetops that died after too much exposure when their neighbors were logged; and an ancient streambed, a shallow ribbon of clear water and fist-size polished stones. The trees are so towering that it strains your neck to peer up at their tops, and only if you sit among them for a while, listening to the high-up branches blow and squeak in the breeze, can you truly begin to take in their immensity.
“Time, time as we dissect it in days and hours and minutes loses all meaning in a setting such as this,” wrote Philip Hyde and François Leydet in the Sierra Club’s “Last Redwoods,” excerpted in the Tall Trees Trail Guide available at the start of the hike. “... Here are trees that have already stood for a millennium or two — and still their lives will outlast yours a thousand years.” Return to 101 and drive a couple of miles north to Davison Road; turn left and continue to the parking lot at its terminus.
MILE 120
GOLD BLUFFS BEACH
This gem of a beachfront is a gorgeous spot to visit at the end of the day, when sunsets bathe the sand, surf and fields of beach grass in a gilded, otherworldly glow. You can pitch a tent and camp right on the beach or simply take the short and simple hike into deep Fern Canyon, where a 60-foot sheer ravine stands smothered in gigantic, bushy ferns. Near the beach, keep your eyes peeled for Roosevelt elk, which graze in the purple lupines.
Begin in Arcata, the Humboldt State University town that was founded by loggers. Today, it’s populated with dreadlocked hippies and is known, in these parts at least, for the high number of houses where marijuana is covertly grown. It’s also home to a minuscule airport and is a no-fuss place to rent a car, grab a fortifying granola breakfast and start your drive. You’ll be going mostly north, but first dip briefly south on Highway 101. You’ll pass through Arcata’s sister city of Eureka, whose historic district is a colorful jumble of refurbished Victorians, tiny boutiques and stunning inns, and then be on your way toward Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
MILE 35
AVENUE OF THE GIANTS
A 32-mile spur leads you off the highway and along a two-lane road (Route 254) originally built for stagecoaches in the 1880s. You’ll drive beneath a canopy of massive branches belonging to the giants themselves, averaging 200 feet tall and 500 years old here. Eight Auto Tour signs offer facts on some of the history of logging (which wiped out an estimated 96 percent of the original redwoods in California) and on local wildlife including the elusive, nocturnal flying squirrel.
MILE 85
TRINIDAD
Backtrack on Highway 101 to Arcata and then continue north to this tiny town of 400, where the bluffs will present you with your first elevated view of the Pacific coastline, slate gray and misty, its shore strewn with tangles of beach grass and smooth driftwood logs. Immerse yourself in the landscape by descending into the pocket of fog along the steep, scrub-oak shaded staircase near the white and cherry-red Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse (a replica of an 1871 structure), which leads you to a rocky, sheltered pocket of Trinidad Bay.
Heading back out of Trinidad, turn left off Main Street onto Patrick’s Point Drive and follow it north until, east of Patrick’s Point State Park, it ends at 101 North. You’ll wind past several sandy beaches and above ocean coves where sea lions gather to bark and howl, sending eerily mournful echoes up into the trees.
MILE 100
REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK
The approach on Highway 101 to the southern edge of the park whisks you through a dewy, lagoon-laced landscape made magical by fog-filtered light and the Sweet Tart-like scent of bursting wildflowers. You’ll quickly come through the fog (created almost daily in summer, when inland warmth clashes with the cool ocean’s morning air) to the Kuchel Visitor Center just outside of the tiny town of Orick.
Redwood National Park was created by Congress in 1968, and together with abutting state parks, makes up nearly 40,000 acres of ancient forest. “The draw among visitors is to see the tallest living things on the planet,” noted Jeff Denny, a National Park ranger stationed there, adding that the tallest known redwood is in this forest and stands 379 feet high (to protect the tree, rangers don’t divulge its location).
Before leaving the visitor center, pick up a free permit to hike into the awe-inspiring Tall Trees Grove, and a map to guide you there.
MILE 110
TALL TREES GROVE
A slow-going, 40-minute drive along a narrow gravel road takes you to the head of a mellow trail snaking down into a mossy, shady bowl that holds Douglas firs, rhododendrons and some of the tallest redwoods in the park. Small signs note redwoods with the black, burnt bark of century-old fire scars; “spiketops,” or treetops that died after too much exposure when their neighbors were logged; and an ancient streambed, a shallow ribbon of clear water and fist-size polished stones. The trees are so towering that it strains your neck to peer up at their tops, and only if you sit among them for a while, listening to the high-up branches blow and squeak in the breeze, can you truly begin to take in their immensity.
“Time, time as we dissect it in days and hours and minutes loses all meaning in a setting such as this,” wrote Philip Hyde and François Leydet in the Sierra Club’s “Last Redwoods,” excerpted in the Tall Trees Trail Guide available at the start of the hike. “... Here are trees that have already stood for a millennium or two — and still their lives will outlast yours a thousand years.” Return to 101 and drive a couple of miles north to Davison Road; turn left and continue to the parking lot at its terminus.
MILE 120
GOLD BLUFFS BEACH
This gem of a beachfront is a gorgeous spot to visit at the end of the day, when sunsets bathe the sand, surf and fields of beach grass in a gilded, otherworldly glow. You can pitch a tent and camp right on the beach or simply take the short and simple hike into deep Fern Canyon, where a 60-foot sheer ravine stands smothered in gigantic, bushy ferns. Near the beach, keep your eyes peeled for Roosevelt elk, which graze in the purple lupines.
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