REDWOOD

This park was on my “I CAN’T WAIT” list. I think growing up you see pictures of these giant trees, and you’re like ‘Oh wow. Yeah that’s cool.” But now that I’m older and realize these trees are some of the oldest living things on Earth… I’m like “THIS IS THE COOLEST!”

PLAN A TRIP

The Redwood National Park is actually kind of a strange National Park for one reason: it’s a bunch of parks put together. The amazing people who thought this land was worth fighting for and preserving decided if they grouped several State Parks together along with the National Park, they could protect the largest amount of land. Redwood National and State Parks is a combination of four parks, Redwood National Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, spanning 133,000 acres.

Between the coast and the forests, this place really has it all. We spent our first day in the park exploring the Kuchel Visitor Center and planning our Redwood NP adventures. Backpacking and backcountry camping is really easy in the Redwood NP. The Kuchel Visitor Center is the place to plan your trip, as it is the only visitor center throughout all the parks that can issue permits for all the campgrounds. There are so many places cool places to camp, you can choose from camping right on the beach or deep in the forests. They also offer dispersal camping along the Redwood Creek bank. All backcountry camping permits are free! Which is a nice perk.

OUR ADVENTURE

We chose to sleep among the giants at 44 Camp for our backpacking adventure. The hike to 44 Camp was an easy 4 miles that goes right through Tall Trees Grove, a place that holds a lot of old growth trees.  The hike to Tall Trees Grove should be on your list even if you are not planning to camp! I couldn’t even get a picture of an entire tree because they are so tall. We also hiked over a small creek crossing that had beautiful clear water before one last stretch of forest hiking to reach our campground. It was on this little hike that we saw a banana slug! The very first one we had ever seen. Etta Rose was immediately fascinated with it, and thought the banana slug was super cool! We only passed one or two people during our entire hike, which I thought was lovely.

Our campground was nice and developed. It had a bear box to store all of our food, a fire ring, and pit toilets near by. We had the entire spot to ourselves and never saw another person until hiking out the next day. The one and only con to this area was the mosquitoes!! I’m pretty sure they could’ve picked us up and carried us away. We quickly built a fire and the smoke helped out a lot.

Sitting in the quiet I was able to hear the trees talking to each other, a sound I had never heard before. When the wind would blow the trees would sway, causing a squeaking noise. While we cooked our dinner we heard many different birds singing. Once we crawled up into our tent for the night, we could hear wildlife all around us. It was an amazing experience to be able to sleep amongst old giants. We actually really wanted to be able to see the stars at nighttime through the old trees, but we ended up crawling into our tents around 9:30pm, and it was still light outside!

Funny story time: While we were cooking dinner and hanging out around the campfire, we started to hear what sounded like a whistle being blown. When in the backcountry, where there is no cell service at all, a whistle is usually the only way to communicate distress. At first we though, eh that’s probably not a whistle. But the more we heard it, the more I started to become convinced that it was a whistle. Since we did not pass anyone on our hike in, I started to have all the crazy thoughts. What if it was a distress whistle? What if we were the only ones to hear it? If we don’t help will anyone? Is this person in danger? I mean honestly the questions could go on and on. We decided we should at least try to check it out. Orry grabbed a few things and took off for a jog to see what he could find. Of course as soon as he left our campsite neither of us could hear the noise any longer, making it impossible for him to hike “towards the noise.” He ran all the way down to the river and caught sight of several other hikers either kayaking or just walking along. No one in distress. He made the call to run back up to our campsite. We started to hear the sound again a bit later, then another sound just like it from another direction. We later asked a ranger and the noise was indeed…. a bird. Hahaha. At least we had good intentions? And a funny memory!

The next day, we hiked half way out and stopped at the Redwood Creek. It was hot and the sun was beaming down on us, so we decided to take a dip. The water was freezing but so worth it. The water was clear and refreshing. Etta Rose was like a fish! She loves anything that has to do with water, so it was a treat for her. We did not come prepared for swimming so we just went in our underwear and laid out on our sleeping pads until we were dry, haha! Another perk to little to no traffic! After eating lunch picnic style and filtering some drinking water, we packed up and hiked back out.

Our second adventure was at Flint Ridge Campground. It is located north of the Redwood NP and is part of Prairie Creek Redwoods SP. On our way here, we were able to pass by Fern Canyon. It is a beautiful canyon made up of tons of ferns, and it was actually used in one of the Jurassic Park movies.

Flint Ridge is located on the coast and has beautiful views overlooking the coastline. Down from the trailhead parking lot is a trail that goes down to the beach. I named this trail the “jungle hike” because it is overgrown with lots of vegetation. It was obvious rock climbers used this trail quite often because several climbing ropes were dispersed along the trail for assistance. Once we got to the bottom, we had the entire beach to ourselves. Seeing huge rocks rise from the ocean, massive waves crash on the beach, and sounds of sea lions in the background was like a personal paradise. Orry actually even did a little bouldering while we were down there. Etta Rose enjoyed exploring and climbing on rocks, too. It was like our own personal playground!