4 Days in Redwood National Park: The Perfect Short Itinerary

For the 4th of July weekend, we decided to drive from San Francisco to the Redwood National Park. It’s a mid-range drive (5:30-6 h, depending on traffic), so it’s an ideal destination for a long weekend. The redwoods are iconic Californian trees, and the park offers great views of these giants next to beaches. Check out this 4 days itinerary to the Redwood National Park to get inspired for your next trip!

The Redwoods National Park is in close proximity to multiple state parks and it’s quite easy to lose track on whether you’re in the national or the state park. The Redwoods NP is free, which is another of the perks of visiting this park.

Something else I want to mention about this park is that we (or I, at least) tend to judge our future destinations by the photos we see. However, while I’ve seen beautiful photos of the redwoods, I don’t think that any has conveyed the grandiosity of these trees that you experience in real life. They are HUGE. That’s why I recommend you check out this national park!

Day 1 – Avenue of the Giants

Heading early in the morning, we drove all the way to the legendary Avenue of the Giants, a 31-mile scenic drive through some of the tallest redwoods in the world, and part of the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. In case you’re curious, Humboldt was a German naturalist from the 18-19th centuries, who made plenty of fascinating discoveries. I read a book about him (The Invention of Nature), which is extremely engagging. But back to the park!

We did the Founders Grove Nature Loop Trail, which is only 0.53 miles with basically no elevation gain. During the trail you get to see the Founders tree, which for a while was considered the tallest tree in the world, measuring 325 ft (99 m)! There’s also the Dyerville Giant, a fallen tree with a width of 16 ft (5 m), which was approx. 1600 years when it fell.

We also stopped at the Drury-Chaney Loop Trail, a 2.5 mi trail, which had lots of ferns suddounding the trees. There’s quite a few trails with different lengths, so you can really choose how many you want to do. There’s an informative panel and a paper pamphlet that you can take at the beginning of the tour to help you decide the points.

From this park we continued our way to Crescent City, which was our base for the trip. Our first day was also the 4th of July day, so when we arrived to Crescent City, we went to the fields behind the hotel to enjoy the fireworks. It was quite crowded, so if you want to be on the beach on 4th of July I recommend arriving in advance.

Day 2 – Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park & Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

We headed east to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, where lush trails wind through dense, ancient forests. Additionally, this part is a World Heritage Site, which is totally deserved when you see it! This park is not free, and costs $8 per vehicle, which can be paid at the Hiouchi Visitor center. From the visitor center, we continued driving the 199 South until we saw a turn to the right over a bridge. There was a parking lot nerby the bridge, with many people enjoying the sunny day near the river.

We decided to drive further through the Howland Hill Road, a several-mile long dirt road that brought us to our destination, the Grove of Titans trail, a 1.5 mile loop hike. The parking was pretty crowded, but it was totally worth it, It was an amazing trail! The light was getting through the trees, creating beautiful rays of sun, and you would just walk with your head high to see all the amazing trees.

Beware that there is no cell signal in the forest, so if you plan to do more extensive hikes you should bring a map.

Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor

In the afternoon, we crossed into Oregon to explore the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor. This is a 12 mile scenic drive along the Highway 101 in the Oregon coast. To be honest, the hikes that you could do in the corridor were a bit unclear, as there’s not much information around. The ones we did were not necessarily very long, and tended to end up on a beach. That being said, some trails were extremely steep, so be aware of that before you go down, as coming back up might be less easy than it seems.

The Natural Bridges Viewpoint is one of the most famous points to stop. The viewpoint is not necessarily great, but if you try to come in closer, there’s an indication that you may die. Usually that’s pretty good to disuade me, but not necessarily everyone, so you can try it out. The House Rock viewpoint had a plaque for Samuel H. Boardman, who had a big impact on the creation go the state parks in Oregon state. There’s also a stop at the Arch Rock, where you can walk around and have good views of the rock itslef. There area. few additional stops, some of them with longer hiking trails that you can enjoy as well.

Day 3 – Fern Canyon Trail & the Tall Trees Trail

Before reaching out first hike of the day, we did a brief stop at the Wilson Creek Beach, a quiet rocky beach. It’s a beautiful spot, so I recommend stopping by. There’s a large parking lot next to it, so it doesn’t need to be a long stop.

Driving to the Fern Canyon

We then continued out way to the Fern Canyon Trail, a surreal canyon with walls covered in ferns. The canyon is famous for being used as a filming location for Jurassic Park. This hike needs a permit, which you can either purchae in advance or the day before. It’s also famous trail, so the permits are very competitive to get. It took us 2 trials to get the permit. However, it’s so worth it! We were lucky and got a permit, so we visited in the morning, which gave us a beautiful illumination and not many people on the trail. If you didn’t get a permit, you still have the chance to visit the canyon, but it has to be part of a 10.4 mile trail from the Prairie Creek Visitor Center.

You can reach the trailhead going through the Davison Road, a gravel road that you take from the Redwood Highway. The first part of the road was ok, but towards the end there were quite a few puddles, which were also pretty deep. If you don’t think you can make it, you can park in the Gold Bluff parking lot, but then it’s quite a walk (approx. 1 mile) to the Fern Canyon Trailhead. Once you reach the parking, you have to pay $12, cash only.

The hiking trail

The hike is a lolly-pop type. There is a short path form the parking lot towards the canyon. Once you reach the river, you can go right for the canyon, or straight up if you prefer finishing through the canyon. We started going through the canyon and finished going over it. The second part is definetly less special, so many people go back and forth in the canyon. It’s only a 1-mile hike, so quite an easy one too.

Since the hike is going through a creek, there’s quite some water. While we were lucky and there were wooden footbridges strategically placed around for you to cross, I read that this is not always the case (you can check out in the park website), so you might get wet.

Relaxing at the Freshwater Lagoon beach

Afterward, we drove south and spent lunch time having a picnit by the ocean, on the Freshwater Lagoon Beach. It’s a pretty cool landscape, as you have the lagoon on one side of the road and the beach on the other. As usual in California, swimming in the ocean is not recommended.

Tall Trees Trail

The Tall Trees Trail is one of the most famous hikes in Redwood National Park. The 4.5 mile lolly-pop trail takes you into a secluded grove with some of the tallest trees on Earth. Now, to get in there you need a permit too. Getting a permit was again a fight, because in less than a minute all permits are gone. You need to be lucky, have a good network signal, and be really fast typing. Anyway, somehow we got the tickets, but they were for the afternoon. Once you get the permit, you will also get a code to enter into the parking lot, as it is closed to avoid people just coming into it. Then, you’ll have to drive through a 7 mile dirt road to reach the parking lot. There’s a bathroom there in case you need it.

The first part of the hike is going down, when you cross some fallen trees that have apertures made in them and are typical photospots. Once you reach the valley, you will go in a circle. You can see plenty of tall trees surrounded by ferns, which is a really cool landscape. On our way, we heard someone in the tall grass, which turned outto be a deer. Very cute, although I don’t like to be that close to wildlife. Fortunately, the deer shared the feeling and fleed once it heard us approaching. There was also a river passing by next to the trail, which made the air feel fresher. The last part, going back up (800 ft or 243 m), was the hardest part due to the extreme heat that weekend and the wrong timing (midday). So if you hike in summer, bring plenty of water.

Back to Crescent City

After dinner in Crescent City, I headed for the last stop of the day, Point St. George to see the sunset. Amazing! The beach has an ample parking, and I had no issues finding a spot there for sunset. The beach is also pretty close to the parking lot, a 5-10 min walk.

Day 4 – Coastal Overlooks

A great stopping point returning from Crescent City to San Francisco is the Crescent Beach Overlook, which offers a sweeping view of the coastline. There is a parking lot from which you already get the nice views. There’s also a coastal trail, which would bring you to the beach, but we decided not to go there.

See tide-pools at Enderts Beach

End the trip with a peaceful walk at Enderts Beach. Crescent Beach and Enderts Beach are really close together, and while there is a parking lot closer to the trailhead of each beach, it’s really not worth re-parking your car. Once on the trailhead, you need to hike 0.5 miles to reach the beach, but it’s an easy descending path, with the first half passing through a forest and the second half going through high grass. The beach itself is a quiet spot perfect for tide-pooling and sunsets. On the trailhead, a ranger offered us a sheet with a bingo game to find multiple species in the tide pools.

This beach was my best tide-pooling experience! I’ve done tide-pooling in Monterey and other places not too far from the Bay area, but the biodiversity and size of the seastars here was totally unexpected for me. The starts were larger than my palm! After an hour watching the pools, we’d almost completed the bingo sheet, missing only some type of water slug.

Highlights

I was a bit worried that the park would get boring fast due to the trails being too similar, but that was not at all a problem! There’s plenty of different things that you can do during a 4 days itinerary in the Redwoods National Park and the surrounding state parks. My personal favorites were:

• Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park: the trail we chose really had it all – giant trees, history, fantastic light, and small crowds. My favourite trail to see the redwoods.
• Fern Canyon Trail: it’s a very short trail, but it’s very magical, and different from anything I’ve seen before.
• Enderts Beach: fantastic place for tide-pooling!