Exploring Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park
In Northern California roughly midway between the towns of Eureka and Crescent City are Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Redwood National Park. According to our research these parks have some redwood groves that stand out. So we decided to visit a few to see what is special about them.
Redwood National Park
Redwood National Park was created on October 2, 1968 and expanded on March 27, 1978. We explored three areas in this park.
Lady Bird Johnson Grove
Our first stop was the Lady Bird Johnson Grove which had a very big tree at the parking area.
To get to the grove we used a bridge which crossed over the road.
We passed by this group of redwoods.
There were places where there was lush undergrowth.
In 1969 President Nixon dedicated this grove to former First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, for all of her conservation and environmental work. In this area are some benches and informational plaques.
The forest was very picturesque.
A closer view of some of the interesting bark patterns of a redwood tree.
Trillium Falls
Later in the day we did a hike on the Trillium Falls Trail where we passed a pretty massive redwood tree. There was a small redwood tree growing out of the exposed roots.
It was about a half mile to Trillium Falls which is a small but pretty waterfall.
The stream runs in the fern and tree covered ravine.
The trail continues on to make a loop where there was more lush undergrowth.
Tall Tree Trail
On another day we did a hike on the Tall Tree Trail. To get to the trailhead a reservation is needed which we obtained in advance. Along the drive to the trailhead we stopped where we had a nice view of the hills to the west. There are areas with old growth redwoods, replanted redwoods, and logged bare spots.
This shelter at the Tall Tree trailhead was for a shuttle which no longer runs.
The trail goes downhill to the Tall Trees grove with an elevation loss of about 700 feet.
This trail has numbers with a guide for them. For example information for number 7 begins with “These hollowed out trees indicate a history of repeated fires in this grove, Successive fires can burn through the redwood’s thick bark to the heartwood of the tree, exposing the wood to dying and decay.”
At the grove there is a one mile loop that goes around the grove. In places the redwoods were spread out some with other types of small trees growing underneath.
There was a pretty bush lit by the sun.
The Redwood Creak flows near the grove and had a nice reflection.
When this area was surveyed in 1963 a 368 foot redwood was found which the tallest tree ever measured at the time. While other taller redwoods have since been found this grove still contains a number of very tall trees including this one which needed two pictures to capture it.
The trail back to the parking is the same way we came but of course all uphill. There were a couple places where trees had fallen across the trail but we managed to climb through them.
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park was established on August 13, 1923. We explored three areas in this park and also saw elk near the park.
Toward the south end of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park are some meadows where elk are often seen grazing. One of the days we were in this area traveling along Route 101 which is the main north-south road along the coast. The cars came to a stop because a small herd of elk were crossing the road a few at a time. We were able to observe the elk at a fairly close range for a bit from the safety of our car.
A little farther south on Route 101 we saw a larger herd grazing. The male elk in charge can be seen near the school house though you might need to zoom in a bit is see his antlers.
Karl Knapp Trail
Starting from the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Visitor Center is the Karl Knapp Trail. This caused us some confusion because it was renamed in 2021 for a park administrator and older maps had its former name which was the Prairie Creek Trail. It does follow Prairie Creek where we saw a nice reflection in it.
One of the redwood trees had a big fungus growing on it.
These redwood trees were nicely lit by the afternoon sun.
There were places where there was a carpet of ferns and other types of trees.
Foothill Trail
To do a loop we turned right at the first trail intersection, crossed Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and took the Foothill Trail to the Big Tree Wayside area where we found the tree named Big Tree. The tree is one of the big ones with height 286 feet, diameter 23.7 feet, circumference 74.5 feet and estimated age 1500 years. It has a wooden platform, added in 2012, to help protect the tree’s roots. After taking in the mighty tree we continued on the Foothill Trail to return to the visitor center.
The third place we visited in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park was Fern Canyon. It is not included in this blog post because the area did not have any redwood trees and I thought it deserved a post of its own as it was very scenic. The link to my Fern Canyon post is below.
Near the Big Tree was this signpost. During our visit to the redwoods parks we saw lots of big redwood trees. After a while one might begin to think if you have seen one redwood tree you’ve seen them all. The redwood trees and their settings are unique and as I did this post and the other two redwoods posts I tried to pick pictures that highlighted the differences. Hopefully someday I will be able to do more exploring in the redwood parks.
The pictures in this post along with more are in the Prairie Creek and Redwood Parks Gallery
These are the blog posts for other places visited on this September 2025 trip:
- Exploring Fern Canyon
- Exploring Humboldt Redwoods State Park
- Exploring Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
More Information:
California Parks information on Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park Wikipedia article
Redwood National and State Parks Wikipedia article
Tall Trees Trailhead Day use online reservations
The Redwood Hikes website has information for the hikes in this post
