Redwood National and State Parks May 29 - June 1, 2002 [Redwood Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

Redwood National Park was established in 1968 and expanded in1978 to protect the superlative ancient redwood forests growing along the northern California coast. Coast redwoods tower over all other trees in the world (the tallest tree at 367.8 feet was discovered on the bands of Redwood Creek in 1963). Giant sequoias, their cousins growing on the Sierra Nevada's western slope, grow larger in diameter and bulk, but not as tall as coast redwoods. Today, the national park's boundary also includes Jedediah Smith, Del Norte Coast, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks.

Getting there ...

Driving to Redwood was pretty easy: just keep going north on 101 for 400 miles and we will get there. We had an early start at 7:00AM (because Woanyu thought it was the time to register the Chinese School for Linus ...), and traffic was good even in San Francisco and on Golden Gate Bridge. But it was too late to give Linus some car sickness medicine that he threw up in the car not far after we passed the Golden Gate Bridge, and we had to stop to change some clean clothes for him. After that, it was a smooth drive and we stopped at a McDonald's in Willits and still got some breakfast in time. When we entered the redwood country, we chose to drive on the Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile scenic alternative to Highway 101. It is a portion of old Highway 101 and passes through dense redwood forests.

• Shrine Drive-Thru Tree

There are three drive-through trees in the area: Shrine Drive-Thru Tree in Myers Flat, Chandelier Tree in Leggett, and Klamath Tour Thru Tree in Klamath. All of them are privately owned and a fee is charged to drive through. Although it sounds very artificial, we still decided to visit the one in Myers Flat on the Avenue of the Giants just for some fun. It costs 2 dollars per adults and we can drive through the tree as many times as we want.

• Humboldt State Park

Humboldt State Park is along the Avenue of the Giants. We stopped at William Grove and took a short walk passing through redwood forests to the river. We also stopped at the visitor center to get an overview of the redwood country. We did not spend too much time here since we still had more than 60 miles to drive to today's destination: Eureka.

• Eureka
  We stayed at Eureka for the first night since it was a long drive already. After a break, we went to the old town Eureka and walked to its pier and boardwalk. It's a nice little town with many historic Victorian style buildings.

The Second Day ...

• Redwood National Park

We headed north to Redwood National Park at about 8:00AM. We stopped at the visitor center near Orick first to get the permit to Tall Tree Grove. The visitor center was not open until 9:00AM and we were about 15 min early. We took a trail beside the visitor center going through the wet lands along the coast while we were waiting.

• Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Redwood National Park
  This easy one-mile trail follows an old logging road through a mature redwood forest. I was a little disappointed that Rhododendrons were not blooming yet in the grove. When we headed back to the parking lot, I noticed that there was a rainbow right above us. It was so abnormal that a rainbow appeared at noon and it was a full circle around the sun, but the contrast was too strong to capture what I saw and felt on films.

• Redwood Creek Overlook
  

  We had a picnic at the Redwood Creek Overlook where you have a nice panoramic view of mountains and forests.

• Tall Tree Grove
  

  We had got the permit to Tall Tree Grove earlier. There was a locked gate at the beginning of the unpaved road and we were given today's combination code to the lock. The trail down to the grove (1.3-mile one way) is steep, descending 800 feet into the grove where some of the world's tallest trees grow (367.8 feet). I carried Iris to the grove and she fell asleep on my back. After reaching the grove, we went to the creek side where we can have a much better view of those tall trees. On the way back, Linus and Iris held each other's hand and walked (and ran sometimes) uphill without stop. I couldn't believe they made it and still had plenty of energy left.

• Gold Bluffs Beach, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
  We drove the unpaved Davison Road to Gold Bluffs Beach where there were many dead crabs (we guess they were eaten by birds) on the beach.

• Fern Canyon, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
  Fern Canyon is located at the end of Davison Road, and it is the most unique place we've ever been in this trip. Once we started the trail into Fern Canyon, we followed a small stream zig-zagging back and forth several times. It is a beautiful canyon with walls 30 to 40 feet straight up with magnificent vegetation, which is so different from any canyon we have visited before.

The Third Day ...

• Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park
  When we drove south on 101, the road conditions was changing very fast: one minute we were in dense fog, the next minute it was clear with sunshine. There was a section about hundreds of yards where the sun was behind the mist with radiated rays; redwood forests were covered by mysterious fog; rhododendrons were in full blooming; and there were plenty of room for parking on the road side. It was a perfect condition I could dream of for redwood photographs. I hoped I caught the scene, the trees, the fog, and the mood as best as I could.

• High Bluff Overlook
  After cross the bridge on 101 at Klamath, we turned into the Alder Camp road connected to the unpaved Coastal Drive where we passed a World War II radar station which was disguised as a farmhouse and barn.

• Klamath Overlook
  We took Requa Road from 101 to Klamath Overlook, a spectacular vista point offering a breathtaking view of Klamath River's mouth which was constantly altered by the sand deposited by ocean currents. After lunch, we decided to walk down the cliff to an even closer vista point (about 1/2 mile one way) where we spent some time and saw a few whales and seals pass by.

• Hidden Beach
  The trailhead to Hidden Beach is so hidden that it was very easy to miss if I hadn't done a thorough research on this area. In fact, its trailhead is just right across the Trees of Mystery (a very popular tourist attraction), but its sign is blocked by trees and other signs. It's about 1/2 mile to the beach, and Iris felt asleep again on the trail. There are many drift woods between the foothill and the beach, and we had to hop over these dead woods to get to the sand beach. Linus had a lot of fun playing sand and pebbles, and he also liked to stand in front of waves until the last second to step back. We spent more than an hour on the beach till Iris woke up.

• Battery Point Lighthouse, Crescent City

Built in 1856, this historic lighthouse sits on a small island 100 feet offshore. It is accessible only on foot -- and only at low tide. We went to the lighthouse after dinner, and we were lucky that it was low tide. There were many tide pools between the lighthouse and the mainland. Woanyu found many little gastropods, crabs and hermit crabs in those tide pools. To be honest, it was my first time to see and feel a real hermit crab. We all had a lot of fun of finding those small creatures.

The Fourth Day ...

• Stout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwood Park

Howland Hill Road is an exceptionally beautiful drive (unpaved), which follows the historic stagecoach route to Oregon, leading to Stout Grove, an outstanding grove of old growth redwoods. Although it was rainy, we can still do some hiking in Stout Grove because these tall trees were like huge umbrellas for us.

• Hiouchi and Simpson-Reed Grove
  Simpson-Reed Grove is a redwood grove with a short and easy hiking trail which only takes about 30 minutes.

• Ocean World, Crescent City
  It was rainy harder and harder when we headed back to Crescent City around 2:00PM. We had planned to go to Enderts Beach (south of Crescent City). But when we drove there, we didn't even get off the car because of rain. We went back to our hotel and let Iris take a nap. After a 2-hour break, we decided to go to the Ocean World which is a small aquarium with guided tours and a sea lion show.

After dinner, we went back to Battery Point lighthouse again. It was kind of crazy because it was rainy and windy and there was nobody else. We only stayed for about 5 minutes and found a couple of hermit crabs. Although we were all a little bit wet, we were all happy to call it a day.

The Last Day ...

• The last few stops
  We stopped at a beach along 101 after passed Del Norte State Park. It was a rocky beach with some tide pools where we wished to find some interesting creatures.

We took the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway (parallel with 101) in Prairie Creek State Park. We stopped at the visitor center where there is a big open space of meadow with a herd of elks walking around. They were too far away from the parking lot even for my 400mm lens.

Going Home ...

On the way home, we stopped at Willits again and had lunch at the same McDonald's. From 9AM to 6PM, it took us about 9 hours to get home. Besides we had a longer drive than other trips we had before, one other major difference of this trip was that I didn't get up early to shoot any sunrise or stay late for sunset because the weather was always cloudy (or rainy) in the early morning and late afternoon. The good thing was that I got more sleep than what I needed. Now we have visited all eight national parks in California, we have to think about what our next step is :-)

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