Howland Hill Road
Bright, open, and lush, Jed Smith’s redwood groves are the most scenic in existence. The park has trees of truly stupendous size: not as tall as the redwoods to the south, but bigger in diameter. Somewhere in the park is the largest coast redwood by volume, a tree that’s exceeded in size, and not by much, by only seven giant sequoias. And with exceptional variety in the color, texture, and size of the trees, and even in the understory vegetation, the woods are an interesting place to hike.
With its huge swath of uninterrupted old growth, Jedediah Smith is also the most unspoiled redwood park. The downside is that there aren’t a lot of trails that explore the magnificent redwood scenery in the park’s interior, and the few trails that do tend to be kind of busy.
One of the best redwood drives anywhere, this single-lane gravel road runs through an otherworldly landscape of monster trees.
A short dirt road through a lush and dense lowland redwood grove.
An extraordinary out-and-back hike through a showcase of the world’s best redwood scenery.
A famous grove with some of the world’s largest known redwoods by volume.
This small grove by the side of the Smith River is has an otherworldly cathedral-like majesty, but it gets somewhat crowded on summer weekends.
Connects Stout Grove and the Grove of Titans, two of Jedediah Smith’s best groves. Although the trail between the groves is less impressive, it’s a nice alternative to the more popular access routes.
Climbs a hillside above Highway 199 into sun-dappled redwood uplands. The scenery is great, but there’s traffic noise throughout.
Runs along the banks of Mill Creek to an impressive lowland redwood grove just across the road from the Boy Scout Tree Trail.
These little-used loops start at scenic Walker Road and pass through remarkably lush old-growth lowlands before climbing a hillside into more mundane uplands.
A short roadside loop with an unusually dense, jungle-like look.
Branching directly off of busy Highway 199 is a forgotten, little-used trail that doesn’t have an official name. There isn’t even any way to safely pull off the road at the trailhead.
Follows the Smith River, mostly through uninteresting mixed-species forest at the edge of the old growth redwoods.
Mostly unattractive second-growth, but with two short sections of old growth, one of which is actually pretty magnificent.
Climbs out of Jed Smith’s old-growth redwoods and through lush fir groves before entering a sparse hilltop pine forest.
A little-used trail in the Six Rivers National Forest that rises and falls through an interesting variety of woodland before descending to the confluence of two rivers.
Climbs through unspectacular redwood uplands, then descends through dense non-redwood forest. Located across Highway 199 from the campground.
This is the only place in Redwood National and State Parks where you can actually camp among old-growth redwoods.
A cheap place to stay in the redwoods that usually has spots available.
A small campground in a thin strip of second-growth redwoods between a road and the Smith River.
This isn’t actually a campground, but in the Six Rivers National Forest, you can camp anywhere that’s away from a road, trail, developed area, creek, or meadow. Tent camping only.
This is a nice campground on a quiet, remote hilltop, but unless you just want a quiet place to camp there isn’t much reason to hike up here.
The Del Norte Titan, one of the largest coast redwoods by volume
© 2007, 2008, 2009, 2021 David Baselt