Exploring Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Crescent City, California is a coastal town not too far from the Oregon border. Just east of the town is the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park which protects some 10,000 acres of primeval redwood groves. According to information we read the park has some of the most scenic stands of redwoods and some of the most massive known trees. We decided it would be worth the long drive to check out the park.
Howland Hill Road
The first day we went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on the Howland Hill Road. Shortly after entering the Park the road turned into a narrow unpaved one lane winding through the trees.
Of course we had to stop and check things out so we found a wide space to pull off the road to park and then we walked with the trees towering above us. One has to experience it for ones self to appreciate how immense the old growth trees are.
The sun light sometimes lighted up the redwood branches. The park was named for explorer Jedediah Smith, the first non-native known to have traveled by land from the Mississippi River passing through this area of California in 1826. .
Mill Creek Trail
We continued driving on the road and stopped at the Mill Creek Trail for a short hike.
These two Redwood trees were growing close to each other.
Sometimes they grow together like the clump of tree trunks seen on the left.
We passed by tree or shrub branches covered with moss. With a bit of imagination one might think of some kind of mysterious forest creature.
From time to time the trail would pass near Mill Creek.
There were different kinds of foliage on the ground. The plant with big dark green leaves is Andrew’s clintonia which is a native lily that blooms in the summer, displaying reddish-purple flowers on a tall stalk. Over the summer these become blue berries that we see now.
Stout Memorial Grove
Our last stop for the day was at the Stout Grove which was named for lumberman Frank D. Stout. The land of the 44-acre grove was donated by Clara W. Stout to the Save the Redwoods League in 1929 in memory of her late husband. The cathedral-like forest has made it one of the most popular redwood groves.
The Smith River flows nearby which is the last major undammed river in California.
Some of the trees have interesting growths at their base.
The largest tree in the grove is the Stout Tree which has distinctively rippled bark. It took two pictures to take in the entire tree. Because of the crowds the wooden viewing platform was built around the tree in 2018 to help protect the tree’s roots.
Boy Scout Tree Trail
The second day we hiked on the Boy Scout Tree Trail where right off the start we walked by some pretty massive trees.
There was a little bridge over a small stream.
Some areas had smaller trees.
There were occasionally trees across the trail.
There were also roots in places.
We also saw a large fungus growing on a downed tree.
We eventually got to the side trail that takes off the main trail and goes to the Boy Scout Tree. While there was a small sign it is easy to miss as one member of our party did. This side trail is short but steep. The Boy Scout Tree was named because of the Boy Scouts in the Crescent City area in the 1930s who helped develop and maintain the trail to the tree. This double-trunked Redwood is more than 238 feet high and 23.24 feet in width.
The Boy Scout Tree Trail continues on to Fern Falls which is another 0.3 miles. However when we were there in late September the reports from people returning from the falls who said there was very little water so we decided not to go to it and returned to our car the way we came.
Grove of the Titians Trail
That afternoon we checked out the Grove of the Titians. Near where we parked we saw some deer like this one I captured with a zoom lens. It started out abiding by the Stay on Trail! sign but soon scampered off into the woods.
The trail starts with a steady uphill before descending toward the grove.
This immense multi-stem redwood is the Chesty Puller which was named to honor U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell “Chesty” Puller, the most-decorated Marine in history.
Researchers came across the grove in the late 1990’s and they kept the location secret. People did find out about the grove and over time it become a destination for many visitors eventually causing much damage. To help protect the forest floor 1,500 feet of elevated boardwalk was constructed and was completed in the summer of 2022.
The Grove of Titans is relatively small but contains some of the largest redwoods. The large redwoods are somewhat spread out making it more open then other groves. There is also a lush covering of ferns, shrubs and a few other kinds of trees.
We end this hike as well as our exploration of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park with this beautiful view of the redwood forest.
We enjoyed seeing the magnificent redwood trees in the different areas of the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park that we visited. However on this trip we also checked out three other redwoood parks but they will be covered in other blog posts.
The pictures for this post along with more are in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods Park Gallery
These are the blog posts for other places visited on this September 2025 trip:
- Exploring Fern Canyon
- Exploring Humboldt Redwoods State Park
- Upcoming: Exploring Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park
More Information:
California Parks information on Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Wikipedia article
The Redwood Hikes website has information for the hikes in this post
