I cannot begin to describe the trees and do them justice. While in the area we visited both Redwoods National and State Parks and Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Driving along under their canopy on the scenic drives through these forests is special – hiking into the forest and standing under a giant and looking up is inspiring.
In Humboldt we drove the “Avenue of the Giants” 31 mile drive. At both the North and South entrance you can pick up a pamphlet for a self guided auto tour. We hiked the Chandler Grove Trail where we got our first real taste of these giants. Parts of the filming for Star Wars Return of the Jedi were done in these forests. So COOL. As we walked along, I could totally picture the Ewoks and Star Wars speeders zipping through. There is a great visitor centre with a lot of historical records on display with details about how a group of naturalists saved the forest from loggers, and about the fires and floods that have occurred over the years.
Picture the Star Wars Speeders flying through here.
A redwood carpet (the fallen trees have been cut to allow the trail to continue because they are too big to climb over)
This tree is on display at the visitor center to show how long the redwoods can live.
The are not only big, but they can live up to 1200 years or more.
In Redwoods Park we drove a scenic route along coast and inland forest areas. An 8 mile drive along a winding and narrow dirt road brings us to a beach and hike into ‘Fern Canyon’ . The hike along the canyon is wet and dark after the rain and we wade through ankle deep water in places. The walls are covered thickly with ferns and moss and birds nest at the top in the mess of fern roots.
Part of the original Jurrasic Park movie was filmed here and ‘yes’ dinosaurs really did walk this path in the Jurassic period. At the end of the canyon there is a set of stairs which leads up to a trail along the top of the canyon and loops back to the parking area. From the top are glimpses of the canyon below.
Fern Canyon
Five finger ferns
Ferns and moss covered walls
The Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail is 1 mile loop trail. A brochure available at the trailhead and markers along the trail give a good overview of the forest. Here the forest is not quite as dense and in spring there would be beautiful flowering rhodoendrons and azaleas. Most striking is the number of fire damaged trees. Apparently Redwoods are very resistant to fire because of their thick bark and water retention and can even survive even being struck by lightening several times. We see many trees in this forest that have been hollowed out inside and scorched black, but still have green leaves at the top. Amazing !