Redwoods National Park

Visited: August 2019

Duration: 2 full days and then some…..

Accommodations: AirBNB Idyllic Coastal Log House in Trinidad, CA

Redwoods National Park, the whole reason for this year’s National Park Trip Season 4. Each child was given a summer task (last year) to write a report or do a slide show on which National Park they would like to visit and why. Gunnar’s report won, it was on Redwoods National Park. Here we are and I couldn’t be more grateful that he chose this park to report on. From Trinidad (the home base of our AirBNB all the way up to Hiouchi Visitor Center on the Northern most tip of the park was nothing but amazing beauty from the ocean, to giant trees, fun stops along the way and a kayaking adventure along the Smith river to top off one of the most beautiful parks in our country. This puts Redwoods National park as one of my favorite parks we have visited.

Our first stop was Kuchel Visitor Center where we met with a ranger and he gave us some ideas of what we need to see and do in our 2-3 days here at the park. We grabbed Junior Rangers and some little pamphlets called Redwood EdVentures which, by far was what we enjoyed the most. If you have kids or are an adult that is just out to have fun, these are great. They are hikes that you follow to find key words or numbers that earn you a patch. We did 4 of them while in the area but there are 20 or so total. Check it out at www.redwood-edventures.org.

We headed north out of the visitor center on Hwy 101 that cuts through the park. Second stop of the day was just up the road at Elk Meadow, The Trillium Falls Trail (also an edventure quest). This trail was where we witnessed our first banana slug, which was exciting but not as exciting as getting out and seeing the redwoods. You can’t imagine how amazing these trees are until you are right next to them.

Back to the car and up to Prairie Creek Visitor Center for our second EdVenture quest. The Prairie Creek Trail, where the trees were even bigger and you can stand in them and walk through them.

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Up the road we continued and stopped for the obligatory tour through the tree photo at Klamath. Hunter got out to guide me and take the photo. Pretty fun and I would do it again.

Next stop was lunch at the Forest Cafe, super cute, they had duck feet hanging from the ceiling which made it look like we were under water. Great food and when we were done we went across the street to visit Paul Bunyan and do some souvenir shopping at Trees of Mystery. The kids got some sweet bigfoot slippers, see below.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening doing our other EdVenture quests at Patrick’s Point State Park and Trinidad which can be found on the California blog. I highly recommend stopping at Patrick’s Point State Park, to me it is one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. I am looking forward to returning here and camping. Dinner in Trinidad on the water, and then back to the cabin to play Trekking the National Parks. 🙂

Day 2

Up and at em, so we get to the park before anyone else. We have a full day ahead of us today. We headed straight up to Fern Canyon to do some hiking where Jurassic Park and Star Wars were filmed. This place was awesome!! I highly recommend doing this part of the park even though it is very rough to get here. On the way back there were several cars stuck. Make sure you have 4 wheel drive if going here. Also it’s a one lane road so go slow because if traffic is heavy your are in trouble at some spots. We got in early and out about the right time.

Check this out, Ferns everywhere!! I would love to have ferns like this at home but I haven’t botany, not sorry.

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This hike was truly amazing and will go down as one of my favorites. It felt like another world out there.

We headed out of Fern Canyon and up to Hiouchi for our kayaking tour this afternoon. This was another great memory that I can’t recommend enough. We went through Redwoods Rides. Our guide Joey was amazing and the kids still talk about him 2 years later. Clear waters all the way, we stopped to swim (jump off of rocks) and Joey took some pretty amazing photos of us with the Redwood trees. I gave this 5 stars on TripAdvisor and it was one of the highlights of our trip.

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We drove back to the house on the Old Redwoods Road, name Howland Hill Road. This was gorgeous! The sun was going down and shining through the trees, what an amazing experience. That wraps up another perfect day at Redwoods National Park.

Day 3

Today we leave but not before stopping at all visitor centers to shop, get our Junior Rangers and EdVenture badges. See below for the nice haul we got visiting Redwoods. We can’t wait to get these on our National Park vests.

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Also be sure to stop at ALL of the Visitor Centers (even the State Parks) for awesome Passport cancellations and stamps.

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We are heading north into Oregon and hope that we can stop at Oregon Caves for a tour, fingers crossed they have openings when we get there. This was not on our itinerary but Gunnar has purchased a shirt with The Circle of Discovery on it, it includes all the parks we are going to this summer plus Oregon Caves, so we figured why not stop. 🙂 Redwoods was awesome, definitely going in our top 5 for sure, I think it may be Gunnar’s #1 Park. Regardless, it is a must do in your lifetime! I can’t say enough about this park, go see for yourself. It has been 2 years since our visit and I want to go back so bad (more than any other park I have been to). Thanks for visiting. Have you been to Redwoods? What did you think?? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.