{"id":5481,"date":"2026-04-19T16:28:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/?p=5481"},"modified":"2026-04-19T16:32:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:32:54","slug":"how-to-spend-four-days-in-redwood-national-and-state-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/?p=5481","title":{"rendered":"How to spend four days in Redwood National and State Parks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coast Redwood Trees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Coast Redwood Trees, or Sequoia Sempervirens<\/strong><\/em>, are the tallest living trees in the world. In addition to being the tallest trees, they are the longest living trees as well. They live up to 2,200 years, or more, and grow to heights in excess of 350 feet. The impressive trees are resistant to fire, insects, and rot. When they fall, they can often re-sprout from their uprooted roots. Prior to the beginning of commercial logging in the 1850s, the species had a natural range from Northern California coast to southern Oregon. After the development of commercial logging and the clearing of forests, the need to conserve these great trees became apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Giant<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Development of Redwood National and State Parks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The California gold rush that began in 1848 created a massive demand for lumber. Redwood forests were cleared to meet the demand. Concern for California’s giant trees began to grow. John Muir’s Sierra Club was established to preserve the Giant Sequoias in Yosemite<\/a> in 1892. Artist Andrew P. Hill successfully lobbied for creation of California’s first state park to preserve coast redwoods in Big Basin south of Santa Cruz. In Northern California, the Save the Redwoods League began as an offshoot of the Boone and Crockett Club.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Congress began showing interest in protecting the redwoods by 1919, but did not make an appropriation of funds. Stephan Mather, National Park Service’s first director, began purchasing land in Northern California with private donations. In 1926, the Save the Redwoods League commissioned a survey by Fredrick Law Olmsted. Support for creation of state parks continued to grow. When Olmsted finished his survey, he suggested creation of parks in the areas that make up Jedidiah Smith Redwoods, Prairie Creek Redwoods, and Del Norte Redwoods State Parks. Olmsted suggested a fourth park in the area that is today Humbolt Redwoods State Park, which is the largest of the four state parks – but not part of the state parks\/national park collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In 1938, the National Park Service proposed creation of a national park, but the Save the Redwoods League opposed it. The League was against<\/em> NPS’s goal of creating recreational opportunities within the forests. Instead, it favored preserving the forests in their natural state. Meanwhile the Sierra Club lobbied for the largest park possible. In 1963, the National Geographic Society begin surveying areas for a possible national park. During its survey, National Geographic discovered Tall Trees Grove, which is home to the Libbey Tree, the tallest known tree in the world at that time. Discovery of Tall Trees Grove, led to more public support for the national park, which was finally established in 1968. The three state parks and national park are managed together through a partnership between California and NPS.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Our Visit to Redwood National and State Parks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We spent four days exploring Redwood National and State Parks. We traveled from Crater Lake<\/a> in Oregon to California, so our first stop was Jedediah Redwoods State Park – the northern most park in the collaboration. We stayed at a cute AirBnb<\/a> in McKinleyville. The remaining three days were spent exploring Prairie Creek, Del Norte Redwoods State Parks, the national park and nearby Sue-Meg State Park. Our one year old daughter accompanied us on this trip. Redwood National Park was her sixth national park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After a quick stop at the Hiouchi Visitor City to pick up a map, we began exploring Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park. This park was named for the first fur trapper of European descent to explore the area. Our first stop was Simpson-Reed Grove. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Simpson-Reed Grove<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located off the Walker Road exit on Highway 199 between Hiouchi and Crescent City. Even the parking area is mesmerizing here. We parked next to a redwood tree that was wider than our rented Nissan Rogue. The trail through the grove is a flat .8 mile loop that can be extended by taking the short .5 mile Peterson Memorial Trail. Walking in this ancient forest was an amazing experience. Though we only walked about 1.2 miles, we spent a lot time here admiring the trees and the forest surrounding them. Simpson-Reed Grove was one of our favorite stops in all of Redwood State and National Parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stout Memorial Grove <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After our stroll through the Simpson-Reed Grove, our next stop was Stout Memorial Grove. Here, a half mile trail meanders through a grove of redwoods next to the Smith River. In 1929, Clara Stout donated this 44-acre tract to the Save the Redwoods League. While the trial is only .5 miles, it is recommended to allow for 2 hours to visit Stout Memorial Grove because the route to get there requires using rugged Howland Hill Road.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Howland Hill<\/strong> Road<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howland Hill Road is a 10 mile road that was once a stage coach route. It is very narrow and covered in gray dust. Recreational Vehicles and trailers are not allowed on the narrow path, which is often closed during spring for repairs from winter storms. The road crosses the fern covered forest floor and passes right next to enormous redwoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the time we spent exploring Simpson-Reed Grove, the slow drive on Howland Hill Road, and the distance to our McKinleyville Airbnb<\/a>, we weren’t able to make it to Grove of the Titans or the much longer Boy Scout Tree Trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big Tree Wayside<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made one last stop on the way to McKinleyville at Big Tree Wayside. The Big Tree is located in Prairie Creek State Park at the south end of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Byway. At less than 200 yards from the parking lot, the Big Tree may be the shortest hike in the parks. One of only a few named trees in these parks, the Big Tree is over 300 feet tall with a diameter of over 215 feet. Signage at this stop advises visitors that Redwood State and National Parks prefer not to name trees in the tradition of Yosemite<\/a>, Sequoia<\/a>, Kings Canyon<\/a> because they want guest to connect with the forest instead of just one notable tree. Indeed, Hyperion, the world’s tallest tree is located in a secluded portion of the national park, with no trail service. NPS strongly discourages visitors from attempting to find it. Here at the Big Tree, there is a short loop trail through the grove that houses the many big trees.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Day 2 in Redwood State and National Parks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We started the day with an early morning hike through Lady Bird Johnson Grove in the national park. A thick fog blanketed the grove on this particular morning making the hike unforgettable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lady Bird Johnson Grove<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grove is just north of Orick – located 2.5 miles up Bald Hills Road. It is accessed across a fun little foot bridge from its parking area. The hike is only 1.5 miles, but may have been our favorite in the park thanks to the fog and a few wild azaleas we found blooming. The loop trail features a small plaque dedicated to Lady Bird Johnson, who used her time a First Lady of the United States to promote protection of natural habitats. Mrs. Johnson was on hand at the National Park’s dedication in 1968. President Richard Nixon dedicated this grove to her in 1969. The ceremony was attended by President Nixon, former President Lyndon Johnson, and future president Ronald Reagan, who was serving as governor of California.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Trillium Falls<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trail head for Trillium Falls is located in the Elk Meadow Day Use Area. After a short lunch time picnic in Elk Meadow, we hiked to the falls. The falls are only .5 mile from the parking area, but the trail gains 200 feet in elevation over that half mile. Continuing past the falls, the makes a 2.7 mile loop. The trail features some lovely redwoods and forest, but it is definitely a little more rugged than any of the grove hikes mentioned above. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Sue-Meg State Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our last stop on Day 2 was at Sue-Meg State Park where our midwestern daughter caught her first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. The park is located along 101 north of Trinidad. For a time, the site was called Patrick’s Point after an Irish immigrant who found wild potatoes growing here in 1851, but the park was renamed to honor the Yurok Tribe in 2021. We really enjoyed learning about Yurok culture at Sum\u00eag Village, which features recreations of tradional Yuork homes, sweat lodges, and gathering spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n

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After exploring the village we hiked to the top of Wedding Rock. A series of stone stairs lead up to the top which is 200 feet above the crashing surf below. The trail also has a nice view down to Agate Beach. It was a great way to wrap up our day.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Day 3 – Tall Trees Grove<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of our third day in the parks was spent hiking into Tall Trees Grove and exploring the grove. In 1963, National Geographic explorers located this grove and determined the tallest living tree in the world was located here. The discovery lead to development of the national park. Based on that history, we really <\/em>wanted to visit Tall Trees Grove. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Tall<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Getting to Tall Trees Grove today is still a challenge. Visitors who wish to do the hike, need to obtain a free permit online here<\/a>. Only 50 permits are given each day. The day before the reservation, the Redwood Parks Conservancy emails out a code, which is used to unlock the gate along the road that leads to the parking lot for the approximately 5 mile round trip trail. The drive deep into the National Park alone takes about an hour including the last seven miles of rugged dirt road. From the parking lot, hikers descend 800 feet of elevation to get to the grove which is located in an alluvial floodplain along Redwood Creek.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A short loop traverses the grove, and leads to spur trails down to the creek. Another family of hikers told us that they saw a family of otters playing in the creek, so we diverted our route to see them. We enjoyed a trail side picnic lunch watching a mother otter teach her young pups to swim. Hiking around the white rocks of the creek bed was a unique experience as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back on the main trail, signage vaguely indicates the location of the Libby Tree, which was once the tallest known tree in the world, but has since regressed to the world’s 34th tallest tree. The hike out of tall trees grove is a challenge as it ascends the 800 feet lost on the way in. While we are glad we experienced this historic grove, we aren’t sure we’d recommend it to others or if we’ll do it again on our next Redwood adventure. Between the drive and the hike, this adventure ate up most of our day. While the grove is lovely, it does not have density of redwoods that Simpson-Reed, Stout Memorial or Lady Bird Johnson Groves do. While this may have been a once in a lifetime hike for us, we did enjoy the journey!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Elk spotting to wrap up day three<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After our Tall Trees hike we headed back toward McKinleyville. In Orick we spotted two large bull elk, so we decided to take a detour back over the Elk Meadow to see if any of their friends were around. While we did not see the herd at the meadow, we did encounter quite a few across the road from the Prairie Creek State Park Visitors Center. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Alder Camp Road to Klamath Beach Road – Scenic Drive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We concluded our day by taking Alder Camp Road to High Bluff Overlook<\/strong> – one of the most scenic overlooks in the park. The bluff overlooks the rugged California coast line. From the bluff we continued on the unpaved Coastal Drive to Klamath Beach Road to get back to 101. We really liked the bears atop the ruins of the old bridge that used to cross the Klamath River along Klamath Beach Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Day Four – Fern Canyon and Beyond<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our fourth day in the parks began with another interesting drive. This time to Fern Canyon. Visiting the canyon also requires a permit – available here<\/a>. The canyon is located in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park The road to the Gold Bluffs Beach\/Fern Canyon parking area is rough and requires two stream crossings. The helpful ranger at the Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center assured us our little Rogue would handle it okay, and it did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sequoia Park Zoo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our little girl was so good hiking though parks with us, that we decided to reward her with a trip to the Sequoia Park Zoon in Eureka. The zoo is small, but features black bears, eagles, spider monkeys, and Flamingos – which were our daughter’s favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n

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She also loved the Redwood Sky Walk – the longest board walk of its kind in California at a quarter mile. There are a mix of sturdy construction decks and swinging rope bridges that rise 100 feet above the forest floor below. It was a fantastic way to experience these amazing trees. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Moonstone Beach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We finished the day at Moonstone Beach on the south side of Trinidad. Our daughter loved the cool sand on her feet and trying to dodge the waves as they rolled in. The beach is named for its large black rocks that add to the scenery. Thanks to the folks at Headies Pizza<\/a> in Trinidad for suggesting Moonstone Beach to us! Headies was our favorite place to eat during this trip. The pizza was great and the service was always friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Drving back to Sacramento – One Last Redwood Forest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On our drive back to Sacramento we made one last stop to visit a few more of the amazing Sequoia Sempervirens<\/strong><\/em> at Humbolt Redwoods State Park. The park is located about 40 miles from Eureka. The scenic Avenue of Giants passes down the middle of the park and runs approximately parallel to US 101. We stopped for a quick hike through the Founders Grove on the Founders Grove Nature Trail – a .4 mile loop. Highlights along the loop include the fallen Dyersville Giant and the Founders’ Tree.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Visiting nearby Crater Lake<\/a> or Lassen Volcanic National Park<\/a>? Be sure to check out our blog posts on each! Or click here<\/a> for more Land of Liberty Explorers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow us on Pinterest<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hope this four-day Redwood National & State Park itinerary is useful in planning your own Redwood adventure!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[203,58,24],"class_list":["post-5481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california-national-parks","tag-beaches","tag-california","tag-hiking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_4437.jpg?fit=1600%2C2133&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5481"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5577,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5481\/revisions\/5577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/landoflibertyexplorers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}