★★

The Coastal Trail

DeMartin Section

Length 12.6 mi · Climbing 2370 ft

California > Redwood National and State Parks > Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park

The Coastal Trail passes through sunny meadows as it climbs up to DeMartin Campground

Background

This out-and-back hike starts at Wilson Beach and climbs through attractive fir, spruce, and alder groves interspersed with sunny meadows. Although there aren’t any redwoods for the first three and a half miles, the woods nontheless appear to be old growth and include some gigantic spruce trees. Traffic noise over these first few miles detracts a little from the otherwise enjoyable scenery.

The scenery changes dramatically just after DeMartin Campground, as the trail climbs into old-growth redwoods. Compared with the primeval, fogbound forest on the nearby Damnation Creek Trail, this area has relatively small redwoods, but it’s still an exceptionally scenic, lush North Coast redwood upland. It helps that the trail is a purpose-built singletrack, and that it’s free of traffic noise since it’s separated from the freeway by a ridge. As a bonus you’ll probably have the trail to yourself; I’ve never seen anyone else in this area.

The first half of the trail can be a bit overgrown. Although it’s clearly visible and mowed, it’s so little-used that there’s no tread (e.g., bare dirt), just a thick mat of grass, which makes it hard to walk at a normal pace. The second half of the hike, under the redwoods, is considerably easier but may require scrambling over fallen branches in winter.

Start at the Wilson Creek parking lot, which is on the west side of Highway 101 across from the former Redwood AYH Hostel. The parking lot is right at the point where northbound Highway 101 begins to climb into Del Norte Redwoods.

Walk along Highway 101, crossing a large bridge over Wilson Creek, to reach the trailhead (there used to be a short bypass trail that eliminated the need to walk on the highway, but it’s been abandoned and is too dangerous to use). The trail climbs a knoll covered in a very attractive, bright and open forest of white-barked red alders and light-grey fir. Rounding the top of the knoll, there are some glimpses of a large seastack. Traffic noise drifts up from Highway 101. The trail begins to descend, but fortunately not very far; it crosses a saddle and soon begins to climb again. There aren’t any redwoods here, but this appears to be natural, since there are very large (apparenly old growth) spruce trees scattered along the trail.

Spruce trees on a typically overgrown section of the trail

The trail leaves the woods and climbs through a series of open meadows. Grass grows on the trail and there may be no visible tread, but it’s still clear where you’re supposed to go.

Older maps show a split in the trail just before the DeMartin campground. The left branch, which bypassed the campground, no longer seems to exist. This is unfortunate since it passed by a scenic little pond, which is still visible through the woods.

The trail passes through the DeMartin Campground, which is in an attractive fir grove. Some of the sites are wooded, while others are sunny. It’s one of the nicer environmental campgrounds in RNSP, although it does get a little traffic noise. After the campground the trail descends slightly, then begins an insistent climb. There’s a noticable change in the woods; the dark spruce are gone, replaced with light-colored red alder and fir.

A cloudy June morning on the Coastal Trail

Soon the trail enters a redwood forest. This is a natural redwood boundary so the trees are on the small side at first, but soon the trail crests a ridge and enters full-blown old-growth uplands.

Over the next few miles, the trail contours through a series of shady ravines. The larger ravines host a fairly impressive, open redwood forest with good-sized trees growing amid a lush carpet of ferns and redwood sorrel. Between the ravines, the forest reverts to a typical redwood upland, with small redwoods obscured by a dense layer of huckleberry shrubs and rhododendron. Overall the redwoods gradually get more impressive as the trail approaches Highway 101. Although Highway 101 is nearby, there’s no traffic noise at all on this side of the ridge.

Old-growth redwoods on the Coastal Trail

The trail remains more or less level, but near the end it climbs to a ridgetop. The forest loses its openness as an understory of huckleberry closes in around the trail. The trail crests the ridge, where Highway 101 comes into view. The trail switchbacks down a hillside and passes through a ravine filled with big redwoods before reaching the highway.

The trail emerges at a small pullout by the side of the highway. If you’re driving north on the highway, it’s the second pullout on the right after the highway enters the redwoods; there aren’t any signs and you won’t be able to see the trail from your car. It’s just a quarter-mile south of the big Damnation Creek pullout.