Backpacking in Redwood National Park

It's not easy to get to Redwood National Park in Northern California. When most people want to visit big trees they either go to Sequoia National Park, located in the Sierra Mountains of the interior of California or they go to Muir Woods just outside San Francisco. There are two species of giant trees in the redwood family existing in California. First, the Giant Sequoias of the Sierra Mountains. They live in groves at an elevation of between 6000 and 9000 feet above sea level. They are the most massive trees on the planet, sequestering carbon and creating more wood than any other tree. Coast Redwoods live from sea level up to a few thousand feet along the Pacific coast of central and northern California north into Oregon. These trees were heavily logged in the 1800's and through the 20th century. Today on about 4% of old growth coast redwoods exist. Broad forests along the coast are returning, but with trees only fifty to one hundred years old. These forests are extremely important to our planet as the ecosystems return to health. Redwoods are some of the fastest growing trees on the planet, doing more photosynthesis and carbon sequestration than any other tree species. These second growth forests are probably the most important forests on the planet, as the trees return to their glory of 300+ feet in heights. Oh yeah, coast redwoods are the tallest trees on the planet, with the tallest reaching almost 400 feet!

This tree has three trunks that split off, making it look
really big at it's base. Made for a great picture! 

In my research and quest to spend time with the largest, oldest and tallest trees on the planet I struggled to find a good backpacking trip in a coastal redwood forest. The remaining old growth redwoods are strewn out in small pockets of trees all along northern California's coast. Redwood National and State Parks are located more than six hours from San Francisco in the northern reaches of the state. In the park there's one trail, with many side trails, where dispersed camping is allowed, the Redwood Creek Trail. My dad and I decided this would be our route for three days in the woods.

Redwood Creek is a beautiful stream that connects to the Pacific Ocean just a few hundred yards from the trailhead. I entered the wilderness of the park expecting it to be different from our expeirence at Sequoia National Park in August, but I had no clue how different it would be. Namely, we hiked around twenty miles in three days and saw one other backpacker, and that from a distance. We saw a few day hikers near the trailhead and then at the far end of the trail in the Tall Trees Grove, one of the most popular places in the park to see the big trees. In the Tall Trees Grove we saw maybe six people.

Redwood Creek in the Morning

This backpacking trip is perfect if you're seeking silence and solitude. Earlier in the week we had seen some massive and beautiful trees in Muir Woods, but we did it along with a few thousand other people. Its so close to San Francisco that there's constant noise from planes overhead, and in our case, fire fighting helicopters. Muir Woods is really well managed, considering how many people visit the park, a place well worth a visit if you only have a half day. We also visited the Founder's Grove of redwoods in Humboldt State Park. Those were some of the most magnificent of trees, but the noise of the highway never stopped. Redwood National Park is so far from any large city, any major highway, any airport, that most people choose to see redwoods in more convenient locations. For that reason its also very quiet, a great place to experience the sounds of nature without the cacophony of modern human noise that's heard in so many of the other redwood parks and even the more popular national parks. In Redwood Park the ferns grow right up to the base of trees, in other more popular groves people walk off the trail so much that few plants can grow near the big trees.

While the trees along Redwood Creek are not the most amazing of the coast redwoods, they are well worth seeing, and they lead to a grove that does contain some of the tallest of the tall trees. Much of the area along the eight mile trail had been logged around eighty to one hundred years ago, but hundreds of giants still exist, some in groves completely untouched by loggers. It's interesting to see the thick second growth on one side of trail and the more open old growth forest on the other. We surmised that the trail was once a logging road and it was easy to load trees from the uphill side of the road, so the trees on the downhill side, leading toward Redwood Creek, were left alone. Nearly all of the giant stumps left by the loggers are now family rings of trees growing from those ancient roots. Redwoods do this, when they are cut down they put up new trucks from the base of the stump. Today, 100 or more years after they've been cut, many of these new trunks are two or more feet in diameter, bigger than any trees I regularly see in the east.

Looking up at the Tall Trees

On the second day of our trip we made it to the end of Redwood Creek Trail where it connects to the trails of the Tall Trees Grove. This space, never touched by loggers, was awesome. It wasn't until the 1960's that the trees in this area were recognized as some of the biggest and tallest redwoods in the area. That was also around the time that the National Park Service joined with the state of California to create Redwood National Park. Without this grove of and it's ancient ecosystem we might not have a Redwood National Park.

The day that we reached the Tall Trees Grove we hiked around twelve miles, but still had time for a twenty minute meditation within the grove. One of my favorite things to do in these spaces is to find a tree and comfortable spot against its massive trunk to sit and pray for twenty minutes or so. The tree I chose was huge, like a sequoia in it's girth. I sat and prayed the version of the Jesus prayer that I'd learned under a similar tree in a remote part of Sequoia National Park in August. "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of Earth, have mercy on us." For me, this prayer helps me connect with the Christ spirit in, with and throughout all of creation. I pray for the planet, for all people and for the ancient trees that might save us from the worst effects of climate change. I pray that the trees would be protected as they continue to do what they've done for millennia.

The trip, done in the fall, requires several crossings of Redwood Creek, which is knee deep when there hasn't been any recent rain. So, be ready to take your boots off and experience ice cold water. If you backpack this area you can choose to stay along the creek on a gravel bar, there are areas with enough sand that it would be comfortable. Or you can stay at one of two designated camp sites off the trail in the darkness of the old growth redwoods. Both are beautiful. We choose the designated spots, mainly because I like being in the trees and its nice having a picnic table. When I asked the ranger the day before how many other people would be at the sites she almost laughed, "no one, I'm sure," was her answer.

A family of second growth redwoods growing around the old stump of their
parent tree. They all have the same root system. 

So, if you want to experience silence and solitude in an old growth redwood forest, this is the place to do it. I haven't visit all the groves of remaining giant trees, but this is definitely a good one.