Redwoods National and State Parks

Hello all! How was your Christmas? Hope all was merry and bright (in spite of a certain virus). Today I am going to share with you our trip to the California Redwoods.

As many of you know, there are five redwood parks in the Redwoods National and State Parks system in Northern California, four state parks and one national park. (One of the state parks is a ways south of the National Park, separated from all the others. We didn't visit this one.) We visited the national park and the three state parks north of the national park.

We drove down on a Friday and stayed in Cresent City, CA. Cresent City is north of three of the parks and west of the fourth. A good place to call base. Saturday morning we drove south on Highway 101. This highway cuts through all three of the parks we visited that are south of Cresent City. The first park we hit was Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. This particular park has no handicap accessible trails, but Highway 101 goes right next to the ocean in this park. In particular, next to False Klamath Cove. This cove has a lovely little beach and some cool sea stacks. There is a place to pull off the highway there, so we stopped to get some pictures. Very nice. You don't have to take my word for it. See for yourself.

Next we drove through Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Highway 101 cuts through the heart of this park, but we just drove through. We would come back to it. First we wanted to hit the National Park, which is the most southern of the parks we visited. There are many trails in the National Park, but none of them handicap accessible, so we just drove through parts of it, enjoying those magnificent trees.

After about 15 to 20 minutes, we turned around and headed back north to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. This is the park we spent most of our day visiting.

First we went to a trail called the Trillium Falls Trail. My human had read that it was an easy trail that lead to a waterfall. After the falls, it got more difficult. She thought it would be nice to go to the falls, then just turn around. Well......don't believe everything you read. When we got there, the trail was ranked as moderate. She was hoping it would still be easy enough for her up to the falls, so we set out. It was not.

My human is stubborn. Very stubborn. (Probably why we get along. Cats can be stubborn too. Don't believe me? Ask a dog). The trail was too difficult for her, but she kept going. Finally, after about a third of a mile, we hit a spot she knew she couldn't maneuver. We turned around. Now up to this point, we were going up hill (easier for my human). Now we had to go downhill. She was very slow. This did give me time to check out the trees. 

                   The base of a large tree. 

                Me checking out that base.

They were HUGE. Not only are they big around, these coastal redwoods are the tallest trees IN THE WORLD!! They get to over 360 feet tall. Now the Sequoia's are the biggest trees, but that includes girth. The coastal redwoods are the tallest. (For those of you who don't know, Sequoia's are also a type of redwood, as are the Dawn Redwoods found in China.) Now you know I like trees. We have established that. I really like to climb trees. But THESE?

Just looking up at them made me dizzy. The first limbs can be more than 20 feet off the ground. I just looked up and said, "no thank you". I didn't even try to climb a redwood. Climbed over some of their root systems (remember, some of these trees get their start on nurse logs so they have exposed root systems) but didn't climb one single redwood. Not one. (OK. Judge me if you want, but I'ld like to see you do it. Yeah, thought so.)

Not only are these trees tall, but they are also old. While the average age is 500 - 700 years old, some of the mature trees are two thousand years old. TWO THOUSAND!!! Talk about a lot of cat generations. I can't even count that high.

     One, two, three, four.....oh, buggard. One, two...

Some of these individual trees started life about the time Jesus walked the earth. They lived through the fall of Rome, the dark ages, the Renaissance, the birth of democracy, and on into the space age. OK. I don't know about all those periods of history, but my human assures me they existed. Needless to say, these trees can get old! I am nine MONTHS old. Simply doesn't compare. 

Now there were a few places going back down the trail that worried my human, but she did fine. We got down without incident. (She didn't fall once.) But we never saw the waterfall. She was bummed. I didn't mind. She gave me salmon when we got to the car just for being patient with her. I was. Really. Didn't try to kill her once. (Hard to believe, right?)

After the Trillium Falls Trail, we headed to Elk Prarie. Now this is a lovely meadow where the elk like to graze. In the morning and evening you can usually see elk. Next to the meadow, there is an ADA trail that goes into the woods. This trail was perfect!

This "wall" is actually a fallen tree. On its side it was taller than my human.

Packed dirt/gravel, level and without barriers (ie. steps). We really enjoyed this trail. You are close to the parking lot but, once into the trees, you would never know it.

Very few people were there. We had the wilderness all to ourselves (almost). A wonderful walk.

Oh, and we saw a true dinausor.

A pay phone! I didn't think any of these still existed. They are probably here because cell reception is so bad in the park. Try getting a signal through all those trees!

On the way back to Highway 101, we took a bypass called Newton B. Drury Scenic Byway. It connects to the 101 at its north and south end. It is a smaller road and gets you right up to the trees.

A really cool drive. You can barely see the sky because the trees spread out over the road. Cool.

There is a town between Praire Creek Redwoods State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. In this town, someone cut a path through a redwood on their property. It is big enough to drive through. Now I'm sure you all have seen pictures of drive through trees. There is a fallen tree they cut a tunnel through in Sequoia National Park. But there are no trees you can drive through in any of the redwood parks at this time. My human really wanted to drive through a redwood. So we drove through this tree. They just charge five dollars to do so. Not bad. It didn't take long and was pretty cool. We were INSIDE a tree. 

This town also has Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Now I always associated him with the lakes in Minnesota, but I guess if you are that big, you can get around fairly easily. They were just there posing for pictures.

You can see how big they are.That is NOT a toy car. 

It was getting late in the day by this time, so we stopped again at False Klamath Cove and watched the sunset. It was truly beautiful. See for yourself.

Sunday we went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. This park is east of Cresent City on Highway 199. We took the Simpson - Reed Grove Trail. This trail is close to the highway, but one would never know. Once you get on the trail, the woods swallow all sounds and sight of the road. It was lovely.

             Another "wall" that is a fallen tree.

There were ferns everywhere.  Here is a field of ferns.

There was a small creek running through this area on it's way to The Smith River. It was late in the year when we were there, and the creek was nearly dry, but there were lovely bridges over the creek bed.

We did come upon one interesting thing. A tree that arched over the trail.

It was equally grounded on both sides of the trail. It wasn't a redwood. My human thinks it was a maple. You couldn't tell which side of the trail the tree started on. Now this arch was pretty big, six feet off the ground at least. Probably closer to seven feet over the trail.

Not sure how this tree came to be the way it was, but my human thinks maybe a nurse log was to blame. If so, there is no evidence of a nurse log now.

We had a truly fun weekend. The redwoods are beautiful and magnificent. I highly recommend you visiting. There are the woods, the ocean views, and even the meadows. Nature at it's best.

Till next time, I bid you goodbye. I just want to say, keep wandering my friends. Keep wandering.