★★★★

The Brown Creek Loop

Length 3.5 mi · Climbing 540 ft

California > Redwood National and State Parks > Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

The beginning of the South Fork Trail

Background

The Brown Creek Trail runs through an exceptionally dense and lush old-growth redwood forest in a shallow ravine alongside a burbling brook. The trees aren’t especially big, but it’s a magical place, brilliant and colorful on sunny days, isolated from the outside world and with no traffic noise.

The Brown Creek Trail itself is somewhat popular, with maybe 4-6 groups of hikers per hour, but the other parts of the loop are hardly ever used.

The Brown Creek Trail

If you don’t feel like climbing a steep hill, just walk out and back on the Brown Creek Trail; this trail has the best redwoods of the hike and is the easiest to walk. However, the Brown Creek Trail is a lot more satisfying when hiked as a short loop with the Rhododendron and South Fork trails, which add a nice progression of different upland and lowland redwood environments.

Allow a little extra time for this walk because the Rhododendron and South Fork trails are rather rough, with lots of small tree roots protruding from the surface. Also, the hike may require some scrambling over and ducking under fallen trees.

The trailhead is on Drury Parkway. From the Elk Prairie visitor center, drive north past the Big Tree wayside, then park at the second pullout on your right. The trailhead is marked with a sign that says "Brown Creek".

The trail gets off to a great start. The wide path, covered in redwood needles, winds among huge redwoods alongside Drury Parkway as the rushing sound of the creek fills the woods. This part actually has the biggest trees of the entire hike.

The South Fork Trail is the least interesting part of the loop. It’s a steep climb up a hillside with such a dense understory that you can’t really see much. At one point the understory opens up as the trail approaches a ravine filled with small redwoods. The trail levels out a bit as it reaches a ridgetop dense with dull-looking huckleberry shrubs and leafy salal.

The end of the South Fork Trail

The South Fork Trail ends at a T intersection with the Rhododendron Trail. Turn left; the scenery quickly improves as the trail descends steeply into a little ravine where an open stand of good-sized redwoods grows. The lush understory is a remarkably bright green. The woods again become less open and more mundane as the trail leaves the ravine, but soon the trail contours through a second ravine that’s even more scenic than the first. After this the redwoods get larger and more scenic as the trail descends to Brown Creek. The forest is almost completely silent, but on a calm day you may hear the distant crashing of the waves as you make your way through the redwoods.

The Rhododendron Trail

The Rhododendron Trail crosses Brown Creek on a long footbridge and then reaches the Brown Creek Trail. At the four-way trail intersection, the memorial grove trail to your right is cut off by a gigantic tree (which fell in early 2006) about a hundred yards up the trail. Straight ahead, the Rhododendron Trail continues up the hillside. Turn left to follow the Brown Creek Trail.

Near the beginning of the Brown Creek Trail

The trees aren’t that big at first, but they get progressively larger as the trail winds gently downhill alongside the creek. The largest trees seem to be on the hillside a few yards off to the right. The ground is covered with a dense carpet of ferns and some redwood sorrel. The most impressive trees are about halfway back to the South Fork Trail, where the side trail to the Carl Schenck memorial grove (or Scholar Loop Trail) branches off, crossing Brown Creek on a large footbridge. Somewhat confusingly, the side trail is not marked.

As you walk down the Brown Creek Trail, the best scenery is behind you: the downstream sides of the trunks are bleached to varying degrees by salt air, producing an appealing variety of colors, while the upstream sides are a uniform drab, dark brown..

The main trail crosses Brown Creek and curves around a hillside to end at the South Fork Trail. Turn right and take the South Fork Trail back to Drury Parkway.

Big redwoods on the Brown Creek Trail