May 18 – 21, 2022, California.
I wasn’t immediately bowled over by the Redwoods. I remember learning about the Redwoods as a child and being a bit mystified by them. Giant trees! I was eager to see these goliaths.
But when I first saw them in person, from the car, they were just really big trunks. Granted they were beautiful trunks. Driving among them I got this cozy comfy feeling. Vegetation mostly disappeared, replaced by a textured, deep but warm brown. The road wove through them like a secret passage to another place. Then the tunnel of trunks ended and brought us out to another side where the disarray of shrubs and green leaves on full branches began again.
It was hard to see that these trunks were actually very tall trees until we stopped and I got out of the car, craned my neck all the way back, and looked up. Way up. This is difficult to do this while you walk, so mostly I admired the lovely trunks as I wandered among them. That was until I walked ahead of Greg, turned around, and snapped a long view of him, a miniature person in the forest.
I didn’t know there were so many places to see Redwoods. We visited Hulmbolt State Park, the Avenue of the Giants, and Redwood National Park which includes three other California State Parks, Prairie Creek Redwoods SP, Del Norte Coast Redwoods SP, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP.
Here is the path we took. (All pics are click to enlarge. Once you have them enlarged you can view them in a slide show. Also, you can hover over the pics to see captions.)
Day One
– Humbolt Redwoods State Park & The Avenue of the Giants
When we left The Lost Coast Trail on the California coast we were heading for camping reservations in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. But instead of taking the direct route there, we made a detour east. We were heading for the Avenue of the Giants (which we were told not to miss). This route led us through Humbolt Redwoods State Park. We stopped in Humbolt to hike the Big Tree Loop Trail and to see the Big Tree.
After our hike to see the Big Tree we drove on until we intersected with the Avenue of the Giants, a 30-ish mile stretch of road that passes through many Redwood groves. We turned north on the Avenue in the direction of Redwoods National Park.
Day Two
– Redwood National Park & Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
On the second day of our Redwood adventure, we hiked a couple of trails, the Lady Bird Johnson Grove and the Trillium Falls Trail. First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson was a big supporter of the Redwoods and in 1967 President Richard Nixon honored her with a grove of trees in her name.
After our day of hiking, we returned to our campground at Prairie Creek to find elk lazing about in a field.
Day Three
– Prairie Creek Redwood State Park
We spent a second day in Prairie Creek driving the Newton B Drury Parkway through the park on our way to our next camping destination in Del Norte Coast Redwood Park. We stopped along the highway and hiked a few trails and found some interesting trees, wildlife, and the beach.
Day Four
– Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park & Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
We didn’t spend much time in Del Norte Coast Redwoods except to camp overnight and hike a short trail out of the campground in the morning. After that short hike, we were off to our last Redwoods Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park where we found a few more nice trails and really big trees.
This is the last of our posts about our travels in California this past Spring. Next we are off to Canada and Alaska. Maybe the blog will catch up with sometime.
Have fun up North!
Thanks, John! Hope all is good with you!
Stunning photos!
Thank you!
Beautiful photos and what great weather! That part of California is so often overlooked.
Be safe
Steve
Thanks! We did have a little fog but just in the morning. The weather was pretty nice! We will be safe, thanks!
My goodness—you were practically in our backyard. We live in Eureka, so I’ve been to every one of the places you visited. One of the things that we in Humboldt County get bent out of shape is that people think of San Francisco as northern California. Technically, it is in the northern part of the state, but we folks behind the Redwood Curtain think we’re the northern Californians, especially since San Francisco is five hours south of us.
I hope you enjoyed this part of the country on your travels. This is the place to live for those who don’t like the heat. We’re right on the ocean, which leads to milder temperatures. Warm days are in the 70s; maybe once a year, it might get to 80.
What great weather! You Redwood Curtianers have it made! It is probably to your benefit that no one thinks there is anything north of San Fransisco.
This is the first time we have been this far north in California. I love California and all its diversity. I’ve often looked at the map and wondered about this part of the state. Too bad we didn’t have more time. I always feel like I’m passing stuff up. Maybe next time we will get to visit some of the coastal towns – and everything else we missed.
Some of those names sound familiar. I’ve been to that area two or three times over the last two decades. It’s fascinating and I’m glad you lucked out with the weather, too.
You did an amazing job capturing the size and spirit of these magical trees in your photos, Duwan. I remember that being one of the “negatives” of Humboldt County: being able to represent the forest and the trees in photos.
Thanks!
Of course I was thinking about the blog as I was taking pictures. And at one point after taking so many vertical photos I knew I need a horizontal photo for my feature photo. But really don’t get the scale until you see a person in the pics. And the wide angle lens on my phone helped a lot too.
This was the first time I had been to this area. There is a lot to it – I had no idea. And unfortunately we missed all the family tourist attractions associated with the area. So much to see, so little time.
Thanks for your comment all the way from Belgium. Hope you enjoy your visit.
Thanks, Duwan. For the first time, I’m really struggling with jetlag. Nine hours of time difference is a lot. I think I left my first comment on your post around 3am local time here… It will get better. Once I catch up on sleep, I’m sure I’ll enjoy my visit. One of these days, I’ll reply to your email as well. I’m way behind with things again.