Thousand year-old towering skyscraper trees SO big you can drive through them. Sound familiar? It should. If it doesn’t, go check out our REDWOOD NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS: HOW TO PLAN YOUR VISIT post first, then come back here. Ok, you back now? Great! Let’s jump in to 5 must-do activities in Redwood National Park and State Parks.
5 MUST-DO ACTIVITIES IN REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK AND STATE PARKS
WHERE TO START
Keep in mind, there are far more than 5 things to do in Redwood National Park and State Parks. In fact, Redwood NP has just over 20 different hiking trails in it according to AllTrails. Depending on how much time you’re planning to visit, and the types of activities you’re interested in, will really dictate what you end up doing. Where you stay in relation to all of the different points of interest may also be a deciding factor. For us, these are simply the five things we were most excited about seeing and doing during our two-day visit.
AVENUE OF GIANTS & NEWTON B. DRURY SCENIC PARKWAY
No matter where we go for a trip, whether it be a National Park, or an island vacation, the first thing we always do, is drive through or around our destination. For us, this helps us get a good visual idea of what there is to see and where we want to spend our time during our stay. Redwood NP is no different.
Driving the Avenue of Giants which if you read our REDWOOD NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS: HOW TO PLAN YOUR VISIT post, is a 30mi/48km scenic drive from Phillipsville to Pepperwood with some of the best views of the giant redwoods. Similarly, the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway is a 10mi/16km scenic drive in the middle of Prairie Creek Redwood State Park with more beautiful views of the red giants.
While you won’t find any trees you can drive through on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, you will find one along the Avenue of Giants, the Shrine Tree in Myers Flat. Which leads us to our next activity.
DRIVE-THRU TREES
Speaking of drive-thru trees, there are three of them around Redwood National Park and State Parks, Chandelier, Shrine and the Klamath Tour-thru Tree. Each of these trees is privately owned and not part of any of the parks, so you will have to pay to enter and to drive through the trees, roughly $5-10 depending on the location.
The Shrine Tree was actually created naturally with the owners widening the opening only slightly to accommodate vehicles, while the Chandelier and Klamath Tour-Thru Tree are man-made openings. While all three are basically tourist spots with gift shops trying to sell souvenirs and nicknacks , our personal recommendation of the three would be the Chandelier Tree. Despite being much further away from the parks, it is the more popular of the three.
FERN CANYON
One of the coolest places we visited in the parks was Fern Canyon. It’s an 8mi/13km windy drive off of Hwy 101 on a narrow gravel road which eventually leads you to a small parking lot right next to Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. A short 5-10 minute walk from the parking lot and you are treated to an incredible canyon with walls covered in fern and moss. The canyon itself is relatively short, and the looped hiking trail is only 1.1mi/1.7km long making it a pretty easy hike to do. And then once you’re done, go take a walk over to Gold Bluffs Beach and enjoy some time at the beach!
HIKE THE REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK AND STATE PARKS
With over 20 different hiking trails, all ranging from easy to strenuous, there are plenty of options for everyone. And with there being four different parks to choose from, you won’t have to travel far no matter where you’re staying to find a good hiking trail to check out. Both the Redwood National and State Parks NPS website and the AllTrails website offer great suggestions for which trails to check out based on your location and activity level preferences. One of our favorites was the Lady Bird Johnson Grove trail inside the National Park. One thing to keep in mind though, the Bald Hills Road which runs along the eastern side of the National Park, can be pretty narrow, windy and steep at certain points, so be prepared for some slow and tough driving.
One of the best places to do some hiking, is from Elk Prairie Campground and ranger station. From here, there are a number of different trails like Karl Knapp, Big Tree, and Cathedral Trees.
Here you’ll get some of the best views of moss covered trees, a walkthrough tree and a tree so big it’s called Big Tree.
TREES OF MYSTERY
Ok, so this one may seem a little weird. First, you must know, we both try to avoid the super gimmicky tourist attractions. We find them to be overpriced, and not worth the money. But as you can see, two of our five recommended activities are gimmicky tourist attractions. And we don’t do that easily. But both of them, the drive-thru trees and the Trees of Mystery, we genuinely enjoyed. So we’re going out on a limb (see what we did there?) and recommending them.
So what is the Trees of Mystery? The Tress of Mystery is a privately owned guided tour of a grove of redwood trees. But many of them are quite unique and have unique histories and backstories on how they came to be. Additionally you’ll find a canopy trail with suspension bridges where you can walk high up in these massive giants. The largest and tallest privately owned redwood tree in the world at 297ft/91m is also located here.
BONUS OPTION
If you’re looking for ONE more thing to do, or have some extra time on your hands, then our recommendation would be the Klamath River Overlook. It’s a relatively short drive off of HWY 101, but the view from this vista point is incredible.
WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO DO IN REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK AND STATE PARKS?
Between this and our How To Plan Your Visit post, we hope we’ve given you some inspiration and all you need to make an epic trip to Redwood National Park and State Parks. If there are any other hikes, trails, or points of interest we didn’t comment on that you think should be done, comment below and let us know! We know we’ll be back here again in the future, and it may also help others with their trip planning!
And if you’re looking for some other California or National Park inspiration, check out some of our other California and National Park articles:
- ULTIMATE GUIDE TO YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK
- ULTIMATE GUIDE TO LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK
- 5 MUST-DO ACTIVITIES IN JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK
- 12 TOWNS TO VISIT ON THE CALIFORNIA COAST
- 9 WAYS TO VIEW GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
- 10 NATIONAL PARKS IN THE U.S. YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW EXISTED
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Thanks for stopping by!
Ryan & Katy
