Discover the Best Things to do in Redwood National and State Parks
Don’t let the many different parks that make up the Redwoods confuse you! We’ve got you covered with this comprehensive guide to the Redwood National and State Parks
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📍- Redwood National and State Parks, California
It took us a year of exploring the United States to find our favorite forest in Redwood National and State Parks. This unique woodland, ethereal and haunting, is tucked away in the northernmost corner of California where it waits to put visitors under its spell of enchantment. Simply saying that the redwood forests here are beautiful does not do this place any sort of justice. To walk amongst the redwoods is to be swallowed by a sea of ferny vegetation, constantly mesmerized by the trunks of the rust-colored watchmen that guard the sacred land around you. Impossibly large, you simply can’t help but crane your neck to try and catch sight of the treetops, most of which hide from view as they disappear into the heavens.
If the forest calls to you as it does to me, your attention will likely be directed toward marveling at the giant beings guarding the sacred land around you, causing you trip over a few more trail encroaching roots than usual. If you take a moment of stillness, you can expect to hear nothing more than the rhythmic tapping of a Pileated Woodpecker, the murmur of a slow-flowing stream, or perhaps a mysterious rustle in the nearby brush that motivates you to not stay still for very much longer.
The land of Redwood National and State Parks is mother nature’s masterpiece and rapidly became one of our favorite places in the United States after traveling for a little over a year. And yet, overshadowed by its big brother, Sequoia National Park, many people overlook the Redwoods when planning to tour the west coast national parks. While Redwood National Park may not own the largest tree in the world, or be an easy drive from iconic destinations like Yosemite, it is more than worth a detour to explore this spellbinding park, all the same.
After spending a week in the redwoods, and stealing every spare second we could to explore its landscapes, we feel like we’ve uncovered the best things to do at this underrated national park. So, if you’re headed to the park anytime soon, or if you’re trying to decide if a trip to the redwoods is for you, keep reading to learn about the 9 best activities that you should do in Redwood National and State Parks.
About Redwood National and State Parks
The Redwoods are located in the northernmost coastal corner of California. 325 miles north of San Francisco and a stone's throw away from the border of Oregon, this gem is hidden away from all major cities. In fact, San Francisco International Airport is the closest major airport to the park and still requires a six-hour drive after landing. Fortunately, if you aren’t coming from out of the country, the smaller airports of Eureka-Arcata Airport and Del Norte County Airport are both located just outside of park boundaries.
The weather in Redwood National Park is extremely temperate and described as having cool and dry summers which rarely exceed 72°F, with long and wet winters which rarely experience freezing conditions. The mountains which line the coastlines often trap any fog or clouds that come through the area so it is frequently overcast for the better part of the day.
If you are willing to get wet, you can visit the redwoods any time of year thanks to its mild temperatures. If you do plan to arrive during the winter, plan on bringing plenty of rain gear to keep yourself dry during the rainy season and enjoy the low crowd density. Most people generally consider the months of May through September to be the best time to hike in the redwoods due to the low chance of precipitation, but you will have to share the trails with more people during this time.
While the visitor centers and campgrounds are closed on a seasonal basis, the Redwood National Park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year! That means you’re free to plan your day around sunrises, mid-day hikes, sunsets, or even stargazing.
Playing in a small cave along the shoreline outside of Crescent City.
Redwood National and State Parks stretches along the coastline of California with Crescent City along its northern border and Eureka along its southern border. Both cities are excellent base camps to explore different sections of the park and are about an hour's drive from each other. We chose to stay at Crescent City during our trip because it gave us more reliable cell phone coverage. It’s a smaller city, but we found it quaint and far less crowded than what we saw after driving through Eureka.
Like most national parks in the United States, pets who are not considered service animals are limited to what trails they can go on here. However, I would still consider Redwood National Park to be one of the more dog-friendly national parks in California because there are several overlooks, beaches, and trails that welcome furry friends of all types. The national parks service has listed some of them here for easy reference.
So, why the heck is it called Redwood National AND State Parks? Simply put, this park is jointly operated by the Federal AND California State Parks and Recreation Departments. Together, four parks are managed here, with Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Parks making up the northern portion, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park making up the southern half. Besides these sections being a handy tool that you can use to help orient yourself while exploring the park, you don’t have to worry too much about these distinctions and are welcome to travel between them as much as you would like.
Preparing to Visit Redwood National Park
Flying bugs are plentiful in the redwood forest and they are hungry in the summer. I can only imagine that if you were to come unprepared without some effective bug spray that a damper would put a damper on what would otherwise be an amazing day in the forest. Don’t let that happen to you and pack yourself a fresh bottle of your favorite mosquito repellent.
There are plenty of restaurant options in both Crescent City and Eureka, but the options to get a bite to eat in between those destinations are few and far between. In addition, even if a hike you are headed to may look close to civilization on the map, the roads in the parks are narrow, winding, and require slow travel. Make sure you pack enough food and plenty of water to keep yourself fed and hydrated for the entire day, even if you don’t plan on staying out that long. You never know what detours you may take along your journey.
Bears love the ancient redwood forests so it is important to be familiar with bear safety to prevent damage to your property or injury to yourself. Firstly, remove any food or fresh-smelling items from your car. It doesn’t matter how tightly you think you may have packed these items away, bears can smell them and they can easily break your car window to get to them. Also, keep your backpack within arm's reach for your entire hike. Even if there is no food in your pack, bears can smell residual food odors and have come to associate backpacks with food rewards, so they will quickly snatch one up if they see one unattended.
Talk with your hiking partners or hike with a bell on your pack to avoid surprising a bear in the wild. If you do happen to see a bear, never approach it, especially if they have their young with them. Talk firmly and loudly as you tell it to leave and lift your arms above your head to make yourself look larger than you are as you slowly back away from the bear. Never run, as this will only make the bear recognize you as prey. Trust me, they are faster than you and you can’t outrun them.
As usual, service in the parks is practically nonexistent and a great place to disconnect from the usual noise of the internet. It can pose a problem if you are relying on it to help you navigate through the park though, so we suggest you download the official national park maps and the regional maps from Google Maps onto your phone before you head out into the woods. This will ensure you can reliably use GPS to help you get from point A to point B.
Aside from needing either a day pass or an annual entrance pass to park at most of the trailheads, you should also secure permits for some of Redwood National Park’s most popular hikes. The unique trek through Fern Canyon and the moderately strenuous hike to Tall Trees Grove are some of the best in the park and require you to reserve your spot because of limited parking.
Balancing atop a log in the middle of Fern Canyon.
What to do at Redwood National Park
The beaches along the redwood coast are some of the most ruggedly beautiful stretches of sand that I have ever seen, and they all seem to have a special quality that sets them apart from the rest. We first drove into Redwood National Park from the south and pulled over onto the first stretch of sand that we saw. The Ocean by the Road was wild with salt-resistant shrubs and ancient driftwood. We walked across black, sparkling sand as we dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean for the first time, watching the low-hanging clouds collide with the forested mountainside across the road. In contrast, we walked the entirety of Crescent Beach later that weekend which is a perfect place to go if you want to swim. Huge expanses of tan sand stretch into the ocean here, close to the comforts and conveniences of Crescent City. Nestled in a cove, this section of beach is protected by the ocean waves and its gradual slope into the water means it has some of the warmest water in the area.
Gold Bluffs Beach is wild and rugged. Similarly moody like Ocean by the Road, you can get a bit more tranquility here from the absence of road noise. Gold Bluffs Beach is 10 miles long, and although there is a campground in the area, it is easy to find a bit of seclusion if you look for it. Drew and I enjoyed a lovely picnic here with nobody in sight, and not a sound to hear except for the crashing waves. Even with all of this, our personal favorite beach was Enderts Beach, a hidden coastline along the Pacific Coast Highway that requires a short 0.5-mile hike that keeps the crowds at bay. While its choppy waves and frequent undertow mean it’s not a great swimming beach, it is one of the best places to see a sunset, watch for sea life, and catch a gorgeous view in all directions. Where the mountains meet the sea, Enderts Beach is a small slice of paradise for everyone who enjoys natural beauty.
Charlie and I enjoying the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
While most national parks prohibit bikes on their backcountry trails, Redwood National Park has put in a lot of effort to ensure that you can bike through a great portion of their old-growth forests. Because the park is so stretched out, riding your bike is a great alternative to hiking that can give you a greater ability to cover a lot of ground. During our trip to the redwoods, we enjoyed biking the Coastal Trail, a short bike trail that leads from the Battery Point Lighthouse to Crescent Beach as you travel beside several beaches and parks in Crescent City.
Howland Hill Road is also a great biking destination and is recognized as one of the best drives in the United States because it weaves through 10 miles of some of the tallest redwoods in the world. While cars are allowed to drive here, it is infrequently traveled so it wouldn’t be uncommon for you to have the road all to yourself.
Check out all of the other bike trails which you can consider riding on right here!
Charlie and I enjoying a bike ride on the Coastal Trail.
Never in my life have I been to a national park that made me want to get in my car and see the views out my window like this one. The scenic drives throughout the Redwood National and State Parks are world-renowned and make experiencing the redwoods accessible to everyone. The Pacific Coast Highway connects the southern portion of the park to the northern end and is a drive that everyone should take if they visit Redwood National Park. We drove this road in our RV, so we had a big screen view of the towering trees, dramatic sea stacks, and steep seaside cliffs that had Drew clutching the steering wheel a bit harder than usual.
Again, I have to note Howland Hill Road as being a fantastic way to see the magnitude of some of the oldest redwood trees in the world all from the comfort of your car. This unpaved road drives through the heart of Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park and is not suitable for trailers, RVs, or large vans because of its winding turns which take you so close to the redwoods that you can practically reach your arm out your window and touch one of them.
You can check out all of the scenic drives that Redwood National Park boasts about right here. An honorable mention goes to the Shrine Drive-Thru tree where a standing, hollowed-out tree straddles the road to allow motorists to drive their cars through it! Located south of Redwood National Park in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, we didn’t make the trek to take our Jeep through it on this tour, but it’s a unique experience that can only be done a few places in the world.
View from off the Pacific Coast Highway.
When you’re finished frolicking amongst the redwoods, catch some sun rays by the coastline and search for some tidepools. These tiny underwater ecosystems are plentiful along the redwood coast, but only show up at low tide after the water has receded from the rocks. Our favorite places that we were able to search for sea life in tidepools were at Enderts Beach and along the shore of Battery Point Beach. Kids and adults will enjoy looking for crabs, fish, snails, and even starfish that claim these small pools as their temporary home.
Drew looking over some tidepools next to Battery Point Lighthouse.
Of course, no trip to Redwood National Park would be complete without a good hike under these otherworldly trees. After seeing how mesmerizing these trees are in person, I’m sure you’ll want to wander into the forest and never leave. Fortunately, there are a ton of hiking options in this park that vary in intensity, giving people of all activity levels plenty of options to choose from. During our time here, some of our favorite hikes included the Simpson-Reed Trail, an easy 1-mile loop in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park that introduced us to the redwood forest and sparked an excitement for the park that we kept throughout our stay.
The Tall Trees Grove Trail is noted as one of the best hikes in the park and ended up being our favorite trek on the entire trip. You will need a permit to hike here and the courage to drive several miles on an unpaved, four-wheel drive road, but if you make it, you will get the chance to walk in the same grove where the tallest tree in the world stands: Hyperion.
If you get tired of hiking through the redwoods and want something a bit different, then you will surely want to check out the wildly beautiful Fern Canyon Trail. Once again, you’ll need permits to visit the Fern Canyon trailhead because of limited parking, but the effort is worth it to experience this unique natural beauty. Towering canyon walls surround you in soft shades of green while you traverse through a gently flowing stream. Bring water shoes with you for this one, because your feet will likely get wet!
Other highly regarded hikes in the parks include Boy Scout Tree Trail, James Irvine Trail, and Lady Bird Johnson Grove.
Drew walks atop a fallen tree trunk at Tall Trees Grove.
After exploring national parks from across the United States, Drew and I had some of our best wildlife experiences at Redwood National Park which rival the ones we had while exploring Alaska. As previously mentioned, Bears are everywhere in the redwood forests, and we had the unbelievable pleasure of getting to see a mama bear with two of her cubs right off the road while we were making our way to the Tall Trees Grove. We were happy to be in the safety of our car for this spotting, but we enjoyed a few blissful moments of watching the cubs play together as the mom foraged for berries in the brush.
The park is also lousy with elk, particularly Elk Meadow which is home to a large cohort of Roosevelt Elk. When we passed the prairie, we were shocked to see nearly a hundred elk sunbathing along the meadow and enjoying the beautiful weather.
For my fellow sea life lovers, we suggest bringing a pair of binoculars along with you to the beach to search for movement atop the ocean. During our time at Enderts Beach, we weren’t lucky enough to see any whales, but we did catch sight of a few seals and loons out on the water.
A family of bears beside the road in Redwood National Park.
If there is anything that I love more than going on a walk in the woods, it’s going on a walk in the woods with my dog. So many national parks do not offer decent dog-friendly hikes, so when I stumble upon a place like Redwood National Park, where I can actually enjoy a scenic hike with man’s best friend, I am ecstatic! There is a long list of dog-friendly activities that you can do with your furry pal, but our favorite hike included the Walker Road Trail which allowed our trusty pup, Charlie to sniff and pee on a few of these iconic redwood trees. Dogs are also allowed on paved biking trails and almost all of the beaches along the coast as well, so Charlie was able to spend a day playing in the Pacific Coast waters alongside us.
Other popular dog-friendly trails include Cal Barrel Road, Elk River Corridor Trail, Myrtle Creek Trail, and Craigs Creek Trail.
Charlie enjoying the waves along the Ocean by the Road.
Is there anything better than enjoying a cold beer after a long day of hiking? So many national parks that we have visited in the past were so far from civilization that going out to dinner was often more effort than it was worth. At Redwood National Park, you can choose between any of the restaurants at Eureka or Crescent City to replenish your calorie reserves after your adventures. We particularly recommend SeaQuake Brewing for their local brews, fresh seafood, and dog-friendly outdoor seating. A shoutout goes to their habanero fried cheese curds which knocked our socks off after our day of adventure.
Fried cheese curds and a cold beer at SeaQuake Brewing.
There is arguably no better place to see a sunset than atop the Pacific Ocean, so the 60 miles of coastline that Redwood National Park sits on makes it full of sunsetting opportunities! You will find varying opinions on where the best place to watch the sunset is with popular locations including Whaler Island, Crescent Beach, and Battery Point Lighthouse. Personally, the sunset we enjoyed at Enderts Beach was one of the most spectacular light shows I have ever feasted my eyes on, and the fact that we had the beach almost to ourselves only added to the beauty of the moment. If you do happen to make it here to watch the sun dip below the ocean, be sure to take in the view from all angles. With the horizon turning orange, the sand started the glow for us, and wonderful photo opportunities showed up along a few hidden caves under the end of the trail. The forested hillside behind us even offered its own shade of glory as the redwoods began to reflect a golden glow in the last few moments of direct daylight.
Watching a pacific coast sunset on Enderts Beach
We hope you enjoyed and learned something from this all-in-one guide to the many Redwood National and State Parks. If you have any questions, or if there’s something you think I may have missed, be sure to leave a comment so that we can help future travelers together!
Thank you for joining us at Discovery Detour, where the destination is always unknown.
