Only three hours from the Bay Area, between Sierra ski resorts and the California gold country, Calaveras Big Trees is understandably a popular park.

The park has two groves, of which the most popular by far is the North Grove, just inside the park entrance. The larger and more remote South Grove requires a fairly long drive into the park. Both groves are at a relatively low elevation and have a low concentration of sequoias among a dense dogwood understory. But the groves are of decent size and have some impressive trees.

Outside the sequoia groves, the park’s other trails — the Lava Bluffs Trail, the North Grove Overlook Trail, and the many dirt roads — are pretty dull.

The park has two campgrounds. The main campground is built around a scenic alpine meadow just outside the North Grove. The campsites are under the trees, so you can’t see the meadow from most of the sites, but it’s still a really nice setting. Since it’s right off Highway 4 it gets some traffic noise.

The Oak Hollow campground isn’t as scenic, but iit&rsqu;s wonderfully peaceful and woodsy. Despite its name, it’s in a regular Sierra pine forest, not an oak grove. There are also some walk-in primitive campsites on the ridge between the two campgrounds.

North Grove Loop Trail

Getting to the park

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The drive up to Calaveras Big Trees is exceptionally easy; the road is mostly straight all the way up, except for some twists and turns in the foothills. It’s worth a short detour to drive through the town of Angels Camp. A few minutes further up, the road passes the very attractive (but also touristy and overcrowded) gold rush town of Murphys.

Just past Murphys, the oak-dotted foothills gives way to pine forest, and the road, climbing a surprisingly gentle incline, passes through the mountain resort town of Arnold before reaching Calaveras Big Trees.