Come Away With Me: Redwood National Park

I’ve seen ‘tropical & moist’, ‘tropical & dry’, and ‘cool & dry’. The Redwood National Park was my first ‘cool & moist’ and I must say, it was spectacular. "When" you actually plan your visit is key, lest you may have to experience ‘cold & moist’, which I promise is not nearly as pleasant.

The Redwood national park is essentially a bunch of state parks one after the other along the coast. It’s a long strip and the drive along the coast is completely under the park system! The best part is that, it’s not the park alone that is breathtaking with their tall coastal redwoods towering over your heads , but the journey to it as well. The “avenue of giants” is a 31-mile scenic drive that goes through some groves – so you have dense clusters of coastal redwoos on either side of the road and a strip of light over a road guiding you through it. It’s truly like being in another world.

Our trip was 2 ½ days in the park and the avenue of giants and another day traveling. Of course one could always spend more time - but this time frame is a bare minimum to enjoy all that the place has to offer.

Accomodation:

Elk meadows. They have just 5 cabins and is one of the handful of options inside the park. ( so, book early!) One of the perks of being situated right in middle of elk meadows ( in the south side of the park) was being greeted "good morning" by a friendly herd of elk grazing just yards away while , sipping chai on the deck lookiing into green hills topped with a layer of fog . We Didn’t realize until we got there that the location was a popular tourist attraction because of the elk . Elk meadows is perfect for a group of friends or to visit with family. The cabins have 3 bedrooms, a fully equiped kitchen and a view to die for.

Map of the Park: Click

Itinerary: Check the Itineraries page

Highlights:

1. Drive-through trees

2. Whale watching in Klamath overlook

3. Fern canyon hike

4. The Avenue of giants

5. Trees of mystery cable car ride up to the canopy of redwoods

Best Places to see Roosevelt Elk:

1. Elk Praire right along 101 south of the entrance to praire creek redwoods statre park

2. Davison rd – on the way to glod bluffs beach / fern canyon

3. Gold bluffs beach

Three kinds of redwoods:

1. Coastal redwoods – They tower above all living things. They cant survive alone. Dense forests stand on butrient rich river banks and flood plains. They receive tons of rain and fog from the ocean and develop their own microenvironment.

2. Giant Sequoia – they are the largest of the redwoods ( and of living things on earth) – wide , tall and voluminous. For more, watch out for my post on sequoia national park, where these thrive.

3. Dawn Redwood – These were long thought to be extinct with the ice age until they were rediscovered in china. They are very different from their Californian cousins and I’ll hopefully get a chance to see them someday.

Now coming to specifics of our trip!

Day 1: The Drive to the Park

The route is fairly straighforward. 101N all the way. If you're going traveling in a group, you're better off in a minivan. It's just that the drive is long and is more fun that way. Most of our drive was about picking the right songs and stopping for coffee breaks until we hit the humboldt county. After that it was about getting in and out of the "trunami hazard zone". The road winds up and down and everytime it went below a 100m elevation or so, there would be a board warning us that we were in the hazard zone. One of the other highlights was pizza in this amazing mexican place. so many vegetarian options & so yummy!

Day 2: Coastal drive upto crescent beach and back

After being greeted by elk in the morning, we were off to the Prairie creek visitors center to validate the itinerary we planned. After briefly enjoying the displays and infomation board we headed north on Newton B Drury parkway ( parallel to 101) and then onto the coastal drive. The coastal drive is a narrow and unpaved road. Thankfully, we didnt have traffic coming down the other way - it may have been a challenge with the minivan. Our first stop was an ovrlook with a beautiful view of the gold bluffs beach with slopes of redwood groves on one side and the mighty pacific on the other.

View of the Gold Bluffs Beach:

The story around of the beach is interesting. When the tide receded, gold appeared on the beach and men stuffed their saddlebags with sand and with the help ofmules, hauled these up the bluffs where the sand was washed.

High Bluff Overlook:This was a great spot - panoramic views with the ocean on atleast two sides and deep down below. there are picpinc tables and wildflowers - A good place for some postcard pics and a snack!

Klamath River Overlook:

After following the coastal drive all the way till it joined 101 and went over the Klamath river, we took a left oto requa rd to read klamath river overlook. This is where we spent most time today. The reason : Grey whales!!!! We were not on a boat nor did we need scopes! there were atleast 8-10 grey whales near the mouth of the river below and the mere task of spotting them was such a joy. We spent atleast 30 mins just looking at them from atop before heading down a steep trail that gave us more dramatic views. This spot is a must-visit.
The Whales:

They would just pop out for a fraction of a second. There was even a calf that swam and surfaced with mother whale all through.

Crescent Beach overlook:

The next part of our drive took us to the crescent beach overlook We could see why the name was appropriate. we were at the tip of a crescent and right at the other end was crescent city. All along the coast , we could see crescent beach. It was a clear day, not so windy and perfect.

The Trail to Enderts Beach:

on the other side of the overlook was the trail down to enderts beach. We encountered a variety of interesting plants all along. There was one tree which practically grew horizontally with respect to the ground because of the slope that it it was on.

This plant here had a completely different character in different angles. Was a lot of fun to photograph!

Enderts Beach:

Once we reach the beach , i lay on a pile of rounded rocks - and let them massage my back. The others just sat and enjoyed the ocean. Enderts beach is known for spectacular tidepools. For that we needed to have planned on reaching appropriately during low tide. Unfortunately that did happen. I would definitely recommend planning around that - especially if traveling with kids!

Big Tree Wayside:

On our way back to the cabin we stopped by at the big tree wayside. It's just north of the praire creek visitors center off the NBD pkwy. The giant coast redwood here is just about 100ft from the parking lot and is one of the old-growth redwoods. The pathway leading to the tree is literally magical. It's this web of almost flourescent green leaves and creepers hanging down from pver your head. It's like a mini dome with sunlight streaking in through the gaps. Very very surreal.This spot is also where i saw my very first Banana slug.

Day 3: Fern Canyon, Trees of mystery and Ladybird Johnson grove

The drive down Davidson rd and Gold bluffs beach

Davidson rd is right in the middle of elk habitat. So we drove past herds of elk before we hit the beach. We drove along the beach till we got to the parking lot for the fern canyon hike. The drive took us through multiple puddles of water, a wonderful campground and past one magnificant male elk grazing.

Fern Canyon:

OK, this was THE BEST hike of the trip and probably the highlight. The hike is through this canyon whos walls are alive with ferns growing all over and that has a stream flowing in between. You always hear the sound of water, it's super moist, cool, green and bursting with life.

The hike starts off with us walking across the stream over a plank and then again over the trunk of a fallen tree. We took our time to balance and achieve this crossing, only to realize it was just wasted time. There would be spots subsequently where youc annot get by without wetting your feet/ splashing into a puddle of water. So wear appropriate footwear! I am just goint to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Trees of Mystery:

After a wonderful afternoon in fern canyon, we all headed towards "Trees of Mystery" - a nice little "theme park" which took us throgh interesting redwood groves and then to a gandola ride that took us from the base of the redwood trees all the way up to the canopy. I was skeptical initially to try out something that commercial and not under the national park service, but the people of the Yurok reservation have done a great job!

The Gandola Ride:

Some of the "trees of mystery" included the lightning tree ( it had a kink in the middle), the cathedral grove ( a group of trees that had a nice little space in between like an altar) and trees that had fallen off only to have other trees grow off it. It was incredible. The resilient redwoods.

The ladybird Johnson Grove:

We finished out day with a hike through the ladybird johnson grove. There are signs for right off 101 closer to Orick. The road takes you over a bridge and then to a parking lot. The trail is pretty flat and takes you through groves of redwood trees, dense shrubbery and a lot of moisture. Basically, you will see a lot of green and shortly thereafter a dedication site with a plaque.

Pantry Loading in Orick:
It was time for a quick stop in Orick to fuel up for the evening. This was the weirdest imagery i have seen on an 6-pack. ( Offensive in some ways, but Ganesha is awesome - he's really cool & i hope will be fine with it)