Redwood Part 1: Howland Hill Road
Redwood is a a cooperative of one national and three state parks, stretching 50-60 miles along the Northern California coast.
From Lassen NP, we drove northwest into Oregon on Interstate 5 and then southwest back into California on the Redwood Highway (CA-199). It was hours before sunset, so we stopped to do a short hike in the northernmost park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
Not far from the highway, we turned onto historic Howland Hill Road, a former stagecoach route. We drove the winding dirt road through an old-growth redwood forest, and practically rubbed shoulders with huge trees!
At Stout Memorial Grove, the trail was lovely - a soft bed of needles underfoot, lush ferns lining the path, and late afternoon sunlight filtering through the tree branches. The redwood trees were stunning! I had seen redwoods years ago, at John Muir Woods near San Francisco. But these trees were something else - over 300 feet tall and more than 2,000 years old. Every time we turned a corner, there was another enormous tree. It was mind-blowing.
We returned to the Redwood Highway and drove to our inn, an old-timey hotel in the seaside town of Crescent City. It was a short walk from Sea Quake, a popular local brewery with a casual, friendly vibe and creative comfort foods like Chicken and Waffles Pizza - definitely our kind of place.
The next morning, we drove the full ten miles of Howland Hill Road, starting at the eastern end, in Crescent City. It was narrow, unpaved, and dusty - probably similar to the way it was when mule trains and stagecoaches used it in the late 19th century. The road had two-way traffic, but it was really a single-lane road with some places to pull over. A few times, we drove between pairs of ancient tree trunks with just inches to spare. Taking turns with other vehicles on the road was part of the fun.
About midway along the road, we stopped to hike the Boy Scout Tree Trail. It was exhilarating to be in the old-growth forest in the cool morning air. The trail was a little bit challenging - gnarled roots to walk on and fallen trees to crawl under or climb over - and a whole lot of fun. The Boy Scout Tree, an impressive double-trunk tree more than 30 feet in diameter, was discovered in the 1920s by the founder of Crescent City’s first Boy Scout troop.
Further along Howland Hill Road was another, much shorter trail called Grove of Titans. It was midday, hot, and very crowded. Much of the trail consisted of metal grated platforms to protect the environment from hordes of visitors. We didn’t enjoy this trail as much, but we’re glad we saw the “Titans.”
We continued past Stout Memorial Grove, congratulating ourselves for hiking there the previous afternoon, when there were no crowds. Our last stop for the day was the Jedediah Smith Visitor Center, where we learned about coast redwoods and other trees growing in this region, and marveled at their tiny cones.
