Redwood: walking among the tallest trees in the world

On the north coast of California, near Oregon, grow the tallest trees on the planet. Coast redwoods rise more than 100 metres, the height of a 35-storey building. They live for 2,000 years. The national park and three state parks, managed together, protect what is left of them.

History and origins

These trees need fog. Through their needles they drink the moisture the ocean sends in every summer. That’s why they only grow on a narrow strip of coast.

The Yurok, the Tolowa and other peoples have always lived here. They built their houses and canoes from fallen redwoods. From 1850, the loggers arrived. In a century they felled more than 95% of the old-growth forest. Conservation groups began buying groves in the 1920s, to create the state parks. The national park only came in 1968, against the opposition of the timber industry.

What to do there

• Lady Bird Johnson Grove: an easy loop on a ridge, among very tall trees and rhododendrons. This is where the park was dedicated.
• The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway: 16 km beneath the redwoods, running parallel to the main road. You can stop anywhere.
• Prairie Creek: meadows where elk graze, and the start of many trails.
• Fern Canyon: a narrow corridor whose walls, 15 metres high, are carpeted with ferns. You walk along the bed of a stream.
• Stout Grove: in the far north, a redwood grove beside an emerald river. The late-afternoon light is magnificent there. You reach it by a dirt road that winds between the trunks.
• Tall Trees Grove: an isolated grove at the bottom of a valley, home to some of the tallest known trees.
• The coast: beaches of grey sand, cliffs and wave-battered rocks, often in the fog.

Stories and good to know

• The tallest tree in the world, a redwood nearly 116 metres high, is in the park. Its location is kept secret, and approaching it is punishable by a fine.
• A redwood’s bark can be 30 cm thick. It hardly burns at all and repels insects.
• These redwoods shouldn’t be confused with the trees of Sequoia, in the Sierra Nevada: stockier, not as tall, but far bigger.

Practical information for your road trip

• Getting there: the park stretches for 80 km along Highway 101. Allow 5 hrs 30 to 6 hrs from San Francisco.
• Roads: Howland Hill Road and the track to Fern Canyon are closed to motorhomes and trailers.
• Clothing: it’s cool and damp, even in July. Bring a jacket.
• Where to stay: in Crescent City, to the north, or around Orick and Trinidad, to the south. There’s no hotel in the parks, only campgrounds.
• Combine it with: the Oregon coast, Crater Lake or Highway One heading south.