On June 4, 2022 we arrived at the Redwood Meadows RV Park which is only one mile from the northern visitor center for Redwoods National Park. We stayed in this park for eight nights. This RV park has no pool or other amenities but it does have a duck pond and another interesting pond covered in lily pads. Also, the historic Hiouchi Cafe is right across the road and coastal Crescent City is only 8 miles away.
Redwood National Park is home to the world's tallest trees and old-growth redwood forests. Many of the trees in the forest are over 300 feet tall and 2,000 years old. Unlike other national parks, Redwood National Park is actually part of a partnership with three California State Parks. The national/state park is located in northernmost coastal California. Almost 50 miles long, the parks stretch from Crescent City, CA (near the Oregon border where we stayed) to the Redwood Creek watershed south of Orick, CA. This park has decent weather all year long thanks to the mild coastal temps but the winter months tend to be rainy. The best months to visit are May to September.
Our hike ~
We hiked close to the RV park in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, home of the Stout Grove which is a 44 acre grove of old growth redwood trees, many of which are hundreds if not thousands of years old. Some are over 300 feet tall. It's very difficult to photograph these huge trees!
We hiked through the park and along Howland Hill Road beside Mill Creek.
Our hike took us to the trail leading to Grove of Titans, home to four notable monster trees. The trail up to the Grove is less than a mile with a 200 foot incline. At the top there is a 1,300 foot long elevated walkway through the Grove. This walkway was a multi-year, $3.5 million project constructed in order to save the spongy ground needed by the redwoods. To prevent the soil compression and allow rainfall to reach the soil, the trail is elevated on a 6 foot wide metal mesh walkway. The redwoods need protection from human feet. Exceptionally large trees can only get that way if conditions are perfect. If those conditions change, the tops of the trees can die, and eventually the trees become more likely to fall.
28 miles south of Crescent City we hiked the Klamath trail to Hidden beach. We spent a couple of hours climbing on the rocks and examining the sea life in the tide pools. We saw many sea stars (formerly known as Prince, I mean starfish).
Like many of the national parks, this park is huge. We didn't make the drive to the southern section. Was it the gas prices? Not really, there were just so many things to see in the north.
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