In northern California are one national park and 3 state parks that are managed together, and while named after the iconic coastal redwood tree are much, much more. These parks include remote beaches, awesome fern-lined canyons, wild rivers, wildlife, and of course the redwoods.
It is difficult to adequately describe the size of an old growth coastal redwood tree and the experience of walking through an old growth forest of these trees. During our visit we saw many trees that are taller than a football field is long. We also saw many trees more than 10 feet in diameter. They are difficult to kill without a chainsaw; thick moist bark protects them from fires, they are not susceptible to insects or disease, and when a tree dies it is common for clones to sprout up from burls around the stump, forming a ring of trees. They also reproduce by seeds from pine cones.
This one has been named “The Cathedral”.
The tallest of the tall are located in the Tall Trees Grove next to Redwood Creek. These trees can be found 7 miles down a dirt / gravel road and then a 2 mile hike to get to the loop path through the trees. These redwoods were a little different from most of the others we saw. They were obviously taller, but they also did not have the same girth as other massive trees. It seems they put their growth energy into growing tall vs wide.
All the water we’ve seen in the Pacific northwest is crystal clear.
The banana slug is only found in the redwood forests along the Pacific coast. They grow up to 10 inches long and are most often seen, when it is moist, slithering around leaving a slime trail. They like to eat everything in their path, except redwood seeds and saplings. They are also the mascot for the University of Santa Cruz….Go Slugs!
There are a lot of species found only in the redwood forest. Redwood Sorrel is another one we saw everywhere we hiked in the old growth forests. One we didn’t see is the endangered Marbled Murrelet, a bird that nests in the top of mature trees (older than 200 years) along the west coast, but spends most of its life in the ocean.
Fern Canyon appeared in one of the Jurassic Park movies. It is about half a mile long, with ferns covering the 50-foot high walls. It is a beautiful, fun hike that at times makes you walk through the creek. It felt good once we got used to the cold water.
There are miles of beach included in the parks. It was easy for us to find a beach to walk on with few or no people sharing it with us. The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Peninsula. This results in cool temperatures along the northern California coast. We stayed between the ocean and the first mountain for 3 weeks and the high temperature rarely exceeded 70 degrees. A few days never even reached 60 degrees.
We took a 3-hour kayak trip down the Smith River with a park ranger. Prior to leaving we signed a liability waiver that would make any lawyer proud and scare the crap out of anybody who actually reads it. We didn’t drown, break anything, or get sliced up on the (round) rocks; however, we did get soaked and had a great time. During the trip we navigated class 1 and 2 rapids. We have kayaked on lakes for many years, but both the dynamics of kayaking in a fast-flowing river and our first time in a two-person kayak were new to us. During the first rapids the boat in front of us got trapped against a cliff face, and while trying to help them out Joe fell in and finished that rapids feet first body surfing while hanging onto the boat. We continued without any new problems until the final “BIG” rapids. We were told to go to the right to avoid the large standing wave in the middle. The river had other ideas and forced us directly into the standing wave, which hit Jane full in the face. We both stayed in the boat, and after we stopped laughing we finished the trip.
We spent 3 weeks in the Redwood National Park area – two weeks in the south area and one in the north. This allowed us to hike all of the most popular trails and several less popular ones. It also allowed us to take some days to just hang out at the campground. It was an amazing 3 weeks among the tallest trees on earth and the environment they live in. Crystal clear streams and deserted beaches with redwood driftwood, seals, and sea lions. It isn’t simple to get here, but worth the journey. Now off we go to explore the Oregon coast.