Cover photo created by LG @jayasimha78 using pictures shot in the Redwood National Park.
Redwood National Park is located around 300 Miles North of San Francisco, CA. We made a road trip to the National Park during the Thanksgiving break. This was my third National Park visit in 2022, Other two were Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park. Coincidentally all three National Parks have Redwoods in them!. Please check out this post for my other National Park Visits.
It was around 6.5 hours drive to Arcata, CA (town we stayed in before heading to Redwood National Park next day), we also stopped at several places in Avenue of Giants which is part of Humboldt State Park. Will share more about Avenue of Giants in another post.
At Arcata, CA we stayed in Hampton Inn & Suites, check out my review here.
LG @jayasimha78 next to Redwood National Park Sign
One of must do things when you visit a National Park is to take a picture next to the National Park Sign. Her you go, it is me with the National Park sign. Unlike other National Park, this sign is right on the free way 101, we had to pull over on the free way to take some pictures!
Tall Trees Grove Trail Head Parking.
First thing we did was drive to the Tall Trees Grove Trail head Parking, it was around 45 Mins drive from the place where we stayed in Arcata, CA. Hiking in this trail requires permit. We had reserved the permit previous day. In fact permit is limited to 50 parties each day. We had to drive on a dirt road for around 6 miles to get to the trail head. They get the dirt road closed with a locked gate. As part of the permit, national park folks send the code for the key to open the gate.
Trail head
This hike round trip is around 4.5 Miles, It is 1.3 miles downhill to the Tall Trees Grove 1 mile loop. It is a moderately strenuous hike since we go down 800ft quickly, climbing back up takes some effort.
On the trail you come across many fallen old red wood trees. Here is couple of fallen trees, there is enough space to walk under them on the trail.
This tree however is fallen right on the trail, National Park Service has made a tunnel through it!
Here is another tree which was fallen on the trail, they have made way by cutting the tree. You can see my daughters posing for a picture. You can also get an idea on relative size of these huge trees!
Another interesting part of this hike was were able to see various varieties of Mushrooms growing on these redwood trees. There were so many, I had to create a collage of all those pictures.
More mushrooms we found on the trail in this collage!
Here is a picture of one of the trees which has a mini cave in it, which is located on the tall trees grove loop.
Once we climbed down 800ft, we reached the Tall Tree Groove loop, loop is 1 Mile long, on the way we also visited Redwood Creek.
Here is a shot of redwood creek, you can see some fall colors too.
This groove is very beautiful, as in this picture we saw moss growing on these tall trees.
We could also experience some fall colors among these redwoods. You can see some beautiful yellow colored leaves! We thoroughly enjoyed this Tall Trees Grove. We spent around 3 hours on this hike, stopping at many places to capture pictures and enjoy the nature.
Our next hike was at Trillium falls. Here is a shot of Trillium falls. This hike is around 2.5 miles long.
Here is a shot of Elk Meadow Picnic area where we stopped for lunch picnic. We were supposed to see some Elks here, however they were all relaxing at Elk meadow Cabins, which is half mile north of this picnic area.
We had to stop on the side of the free way to capture pictures of Elks which were relaxing at Elk Meadow Cabins!
We drove north along the coast, even though it was cold there are very scenic beaches and overlook points on the way.
Here is a shot of Klamath River and some reflections on the river.
Shot of a beach from one of the overlook points on the way
One more shot of the trail on the way to Tall Trees Groove!
