Redwood National Park - Day #2

 

Since our 2nd day at Redwood National Park was a sunny, clear day, we started with a stop at the High Bluff Overlook. The views of the Pacific Ocean were so pretty. 

The California Coast

Just a little further down the road, we stopped at the World War 2 Radar station. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the possibility of an attack on the US mainland was a big concern. The two buildings that made up the radar station were disguised to look like working farms, when in reality they housed an early warning radar system. 

Continuing north along Highway 101, we stopped at the Trees of Mystery. This is a privately owned attraction that is not actually in the national/state parks that make up Redwood NP.  It is quite commercialized and a bit touristy, but we had fun seeing redwood trees from a different perspective - from the aerial suspension bridges and from the SkyTrail gondola ride.

The Canopy Walk

After a picnic lunch at The Trees of Mystery, we made our way to Stout Memorial Grove which was another short hike amongst the towering redwoods.

The road to Stout Grove

As the sun was setting, we made a quick stop off at the Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City. Although we couldn’t tour the inside of the lighthouse, we thoroughly enjoyed the view of the setting sun from its vantage point.

A perfect ending to a weekend spent at Redwood National Park!

Redwood National Park - Day #1

We celebrated our 27th anniversary with a weekend camping trip to Redwood National Park. We had a long day of driving on Thursday to get from Fresno to the Emerald Forest RV Park in Trinidad, California. On Friday morning, we started our exploration of Redwood NP at the Kuchel Visitor Center where we bought our refrigerator magnet souvenir. Then it was on to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail. This easy one mile walk was a great introduction to the redwoods. 

The early morning fog hanging on to the treetops

Our 2nd hike of the day, The Tall Trees Trail, required us to have a permit issued online. Only 50 permits a day are given out in an attempt to preserve the area. We only saw a few other hikers on this trail which turned out to be my favorite hike of the weekend. The trail is 4 miles round trip and descends 800 feet down to the floodplain of Redwood Creek. The redwood trees that grow here have very favorable growing conditions with plenty of water and protection from the wind - thus some of the tallest trees in the national park can be found along this trail - many of them taller than 350 feet. In addition to tall trees, we saw lots of interesting mushrooms and fungi.

That's a tall tree!

You do a lot of this in Redwood National Park

Before heading back to our campsite for the night, we decided on one more short hike, so we took the road to Gold Bluffs Beach. We were met by a herd of elk who were grazing in and around the parking lot. Once we got past the elk, we walked the quick .75 mile trail to Fern Canyon where a few scenes of Jurassic Park 2 were filmed. The 50 foot high canyon walls are covered in lush green ferns. It’s nearly impossible to do this hike without walking through ankle high water - luckily I had read that ahead of time and brought a spare pair of shoes.

Fern Canyon

It was a great first day at Redwood National Park!