15 Best Things to Do in Redwood National and State Parks

Redwood National and State Parks is home to some of the tallest trees on Earth, and after four days exploring every corner of the complex, here’s what we recommend most.

This is one of the easiest national parks to enjoy right from the car. Scenic drives wind through groves of towering redwoods, and Howland Hill Road was our introduction to the park. It amazed us before we’d even stepped out of the car. For those who want to go further, short, easy trails loop around some of the tallest trees in the park, and longer trails lead deeper into the forest, away from the crowds.

Tim, Tyler, and I visited Redwood National and State Parks in September 2025, spending four days exploring the parks, plus one more day at nearby Avenue of the Giants. This was our 55th of 63 US national parks.

Our visit was part of a longer road trip that also included Lassen Volcanic National Park, Crater Lake National Park, and the Oregon Coast. We started in the north and worked our way south through the parks. If you want to see how we put the whole trip together, check out our full road trip itinerary.

We thoroughly explored all four parks during our visit, but this list isn’t meant to be a complete list of everything you could possibly do here. These are the experiences we recommend the most, perfect if you are short on time or just want to see the highlights. For more of our coverage, including individual park guides and hikes, see our Redwood National and State Parks travel guide.

Redwood National & State Parks: The Essentials

LOCATION | Northern California, near the Oregon border

DON’T MISS | Howland Hill Road, Stout Memorial Grove, Fern Canyon, Grove of the Titans, Big Tree Wayside

BEST AREA FOR FIRST TIMERS | Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

MINIMUM TIME | 1 to 2 days for the highlights; 4 days if you want to see it all, like we did

BEST TIME TO VISIT | April to June and September to November

WHERE TO STAY | Crescent City, Klamath, or campsites in the parks

Table of Contents

Understanding the Layout: A Quick Geography Lesson

Redwood National and State Parks isn’t one single park, it’s a partnership between Redwood National Park and three California state parks, all managed together as one complex. This is part of what makes planning a visit here confusing: the national park’s land isn’t one contiguous block. It’s interwoven with the three state parks, stretching roughly 50 miles along the Northern California coast between Crescent City and Orick.

The easiest way to think about it is in two groups, anchored by towns.

Near Crescent City, in the north, are Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. This is where you’ll find Howland Hill Road, Stout Memorial Grove, Grove of the Titans, and Boy Scout Tree Trail, along with Damnation Creek Trail and Crescent Beach Overlook.

About an hour south, near Orick, are Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and the main visitor areas of Redwood National Park. There, you’ll find Fern Canyon, the Karl Knapp Trail, and the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, along with Lady Bird Johnson Grove, Tall Trees Grove, and Bald Hills Road.

We started in the north and worked our way south, which is the direction most people drive coming from Oregon or the Pacific Northwest. If you’re coming from San Francisco or elsewhere in California, you’ll likely do the reverse.

If you only have one day, pick one of these two areas rather than trying to cover both. The drive between them eats into time you’d rather spend on the trails.

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Best Things to Do in Redwood National and State Parks

Here are the top 15 experiences in Redwood National and State Parks, ranked from our favorites down to the ones we’d add with extra time. Everything here made the list because we think it’s worth doing. If you’re short on time, start at the top and work your way down until you run out of days. Each entry notes which park it’s in, so you can group nearby picks together as you plan.

Get Up Close with Redwoods Stout Memorial Grove

LOCATION: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 0.75 miles round trip, flat and easy for every fitness level. Budget 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how many photos you take.

The short loop trail through Stout Memorial Grove packs more old-growth redwood into three-quarters of a mile than almost anywhere else in the park. Trees here rise over 250 feet and have stood for 500 to 1,000 years, their bases wrapped in ferns that make the whole scene feel almost prehistoric.

Partway around the loop, a wooden platform puts you at the base of Stout Tree, the ninth-largest redwood in the park at 325 feet. It’s taller than the Statue of Liberty. Fallen giants along the trail, some sawed through to reveal their rings, give you an up-close sense of just how massive these trees really are.

Our Take: This was our favorite hike in the entire park. Not just in Jedediah Smith, but out of everything we did across all four parks. We started at 8 am on a September morning and had the trail nearly to ourselves, aside from one other couple. Parking is limited and fills up fast, so we recommend you do the same: get there before 10 am if you can. For a trail this short, it delivered the best “bang for your buck” hike we did the whole trip. Here’s how to do it ↓

Stout Memorial Grove

A Walk through the Stout Memorial Grove in Photos

More photos of the Stout Memorial Grove, plus how to plan your visit.

Drive Howland Hill Road Through Old-Growth Forest

LOCATION: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 5.2 miles one-way, unpaved and narrow. Allow 30 to 50 minutes for the drive, more if you stop for hikes along the way. Not recommended for RVs, trailers, or large vehicles.

This unpaved, narrow road creeps through towering redwood groves, at times barely wide enough for two-way traffic. What makes Howland Hill so remarkable is the proximity. At points, you can reach out the window and touch the trunks of trees that have been standing for centuries.

Trailheads for Stout Memorial Grove, Grove of the Titans, and Boy Scout Tree Trail all branch off this one road, connecting most of the top experiences in Jedediah Smith.

Our Take: This was our introduction to Redwood National and State Parks, and it amazed us before we’d even stepped out of the car. We entered at 7:30 am and had the road almost entirely to ourselves. By mid-morning, it fills up fast since nearly every major trailhead in the park sits along this route. If you only have time for one scenic drive in the entire park complex, make it this one.

Hike Damnation Creek Trail to a Hidden Beach

LOCATION: Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 4 miles round trip, 1,300 feet of elevation gain, moderate to strenuous. Budget 2 to 3 hours.

The Damnation Creek Trail drops through a stretch of old-growth redwood forest straight down to a secluded, rocky beach on the Pacific. It’s one of the only places in the entire park complex where you can reach the coast on foot through the redwoods themselves. The descent is steady and steep, losing about 1,300 feet over just two miles, so getting down is the easy part.

Our Take: This was our favorite hike in Del Norte Coast, and one of the best of the entire trip. We started at 8:15 am and had a fantastic morning heading down through the forest to the beach. The descent is deceptively easy. It’s the return climb that gets you, a steady 1,300 feet back up over those same two miles.

One of the things we loved most about this trail was the weather. When we started, fog gave the forest a mystical, almost otherworldly look. By the time we were climbing back up, the sun had begun to break through, casting long rays of light through the trees. It was incredible and some of our favorite photos from the entire trip came out of that hike, and readers comment on how good they are.

Trail Guide

Damnation Creek Trail: Photos, Trail Stats & Step-By-Step Guide

Everything you need to know to hike the Damnation Creek Trail.

Wade Through Fern Canyon

LOCATION: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: About 1 mile round trip, easy but slow going with several stream crossings. Budget 30 to 60 minutes. A reservation is required to drive Davison Road from May 15 to September 15, and a high-clearance vehicle is recommended for the road.

Fern Canyon is unlike anything else in the four parks: a narrow canyon with walls draped floor-to-ceiling in ferns, carved by a stream you’ll cross again and again on the way through.

The first stretch is the most scenic: wide, easy, and full of small log crossings. Deeper in, the trail narrows, the water gets deeper, and there are more downed logs to navigate.

It’s no surprise this canyon was a filming location for The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It looks the part.

Our Take: This was one of the most enjoyable things we did across all four parks, and the most different from everything else on this list. No towering trees here, just ferns, water, and a genuinely fun sense of adventure. Bring waterproof shoes; between the crossings and the deeper water further in, wet feet are close to guaranteed. If you can only add one experience to your trip that isn’t a walk through redwoods, make it this one.

Walk the Underrated Simpson-Reed Trail

LOCATION: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 0.9 miles loop, flat and easy. Budget 30 to 60 minutes.

Simpson-Reed sits along U.S. Route 199, not Howland Hill Road, which means it sees a fraction of the traffic the rest of Jedediah Smith’s trails do. That’s part of the appeal. This short loop runs through an impressive stretch of old-growth forest, past enormous standing trees and fallen giants whose exposed root systems give a real sense of scale.

Our Take: This was a close second to Stout Memorial Grove for us. The two trails are similar in almost every way, short, flat walks past upright and fallen redwoods. We gave Stout Grove the slight edge because that stretch of forest felt just a bit more impressive, but Simpson-Reed gets far fewer visitors, so if you want that same experience without the crowds, this is the trail to pick. Pair it with lunch at the Historic Hiouchi Cafe just outside the park.

Hike to the Boy Scout Tree, One of the Largest & Oldest Redwoods

LOCATION: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 4.8 miles round trip, 920 feet of elevation gain, moderate difficulty. Budget 2 to 4 hours (we finished in about 2 hours 10 minutes).

This is the longest hike on our list, and it earns that length by taking you deeper into the forest than anywhere else in Jedediah Smith. It’s quiet and secluded, with only birdsong, rustling leaves, and a distant stream for company.

Around the 2.3-mile mark, a small sign marks a short, steep scramble up to Boy Scout Tree: a massive redwood formed from two smaller trees that fused together as they grew, now standing over 230 feet tall and estimated at more than 2,500 years old, older than Alexander the Great.

Our Take: One of our favorite stretches was around mile 1.3, where the forest opens into a valley thick with massive redwoods that felt like it stretched on forever. The trail officially continues another 15 minutes past Boy Scout Tree to Fern Falls, but we’d skip it. We found the falls underwhelming next to everything else on this trail, and Boy Scout Tree is a stronger note to end on.

Hike the Karl Knapp Trail to Big Tree Wayside

LOCATION: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 2.5 miles loop (about 3 miles if you add the Cathedral Trees Trail variant, like we did), easy and mostly flat. Budget 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

Previously known as the Prairie Creek Trail, this loop winds through old-growth redwood forest and ends at Big Tree Wayside, a 1,500-year-old redwood standing 286 feet tall and nearly 24 feet wide.

From the Prairie Creek Visitor Center, you can reach Big Tree Wayside via either the Foothill Trail or the Cathedral Trees Trail, both of which loop back south along the Karl Knapp Trail to the visitor center.

Our Take: We chose the Cathedral Trees Trail over the Foothill Trail Loop. It adds about half a mile, but leads deeper into the forest. It’s a quieter, more secluded stretch we felt was worth the extra distance. The trail gets noticeably more rugged with some elevation change as you near Big Tree Wayside, but nothing technical. If you’re short on time or don’t want to hike at all, you can also just park in the lot next to Big Tree Wayside and walk the two minutes out to the tree.

Drive the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway

LOCATION: Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 9 miles one-way, paved and easy driving. Allow 20 to 30 minutes without stops, longer if you pull off for photos or the trailheads along the way.

This scenic parkway is most visitors’ introduction to Prairie Creek, and it doesn’t disappoint. Redwood groves tower over the road for the full 9 miles, with plenty of pullouts for photos.

Big Tree Wayside, Corkscrew Tree, and the Prairie Creek Visitor Center all sit right along this road, making it the easiest way to see several of the park’s highlights without leaving the car.

Our Take: This was one of our favorite scenic drives in all of Redwood National and State Parks. The grove you pass through is genuinely impressive the entire way, not just in a few scattered spots.

Hike to a Waterfall on the Trillium Falls Trail

LOCATION: Redwood National Park
THE BASICS: 2.6 miles for the full loop, easy to moderate, 525 feet of elevation gain. Budget 1 to 1.5 hours, but we’d actually recommend the out-and-back to the falls instead, which cuts that roughly in half.

This is the trail to pick if Lady Bird Johnson Grove sounds appealing, but you’d rather skip the crowds. It’s a rougher trail than Lady Bird Johnson, a root-covered dirt path that gets slippery when wet. It winds through old-growth redwoods to a small, peaceful waterfall about half a mile in.

Our Take: We hiked the full loop and wouldn’t do it again that way. Past the falls, the redwoods thin out, the scenery gets noticeably less impressive, and road noise starts creeping in. Turn around at the falls because it keeps you in the best section of the trail and leaves more time for everything else on this list. One planning note: the trailhead sits right off Davison Road, which continues on into Prairie Creek Redwoods past Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon, so it’s an easy pairing with a Prairie Creek day.

Walk to the Boardwalk Trails through Grove of the Titans

LOCATION: Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
THE BASICS: 1.7 miles round trip, 320 feet of elevation gain, easy. Budget 45 to 90 minutes. Arrive early because parking fills up fast.

Grove of the Titans is the most popular trail in Jedediah Smith, and it’s easy to see why: an elevated boardwalk leads through a stand of some of the largest redwoods in the park, with interpretive signs sharing the forest’s history along the way.

Our Take: We rated this one slightly lower than the other hikes on this list, and it comes down to the boardwalk. It protects the fragile forest floor, but it also makes the experience feel less natural than the dirt trails elsewhere in the park. It’s also the most crowded trail here: we arrived around 9 am and the lot was already mostly full, and by noon it was packed. If you can only pick one short hike in Jedediah Smith, we’d send you to Stout Memorial Grove first, but Grove of the Titans still earns its spot if you have the time.

Hike Amongst Giants in Tall Trees Grove

LOCATION: Redwood National Park
THE BASICS: 3.5 miles round trip, 740 feet of elevation gain, easy to moderate. Budget 1.5 to 2 hours. A free permit is required to drive the access road, reserved online in advance.

Reaching Tall Trees Grove takes real effort: a permit, a 6-mile gravel access road branching off Bald Hills Road, then a hike down and back up. The payoff is a flat, mile-long loop through a grove that’s home to past and current record-holders for the tallest tree in the world.

Our Take: This is the best way to experience the redwoods in true solitude, at least within the national park. The extra effort filters out most casual visitors, so expect long stretches of the grove to yourself. Reserve your permit ahead of time. You’ll get a gate combination code by email the day before your visit, and without it, you can’t get past the entrance gate. If you’re tight on time and already have Jedediah Smith and Prairie Creek on your list, this is the easiest one to skip. But if solitude is what you’re after, it’s worth the extra planning.

Explore the Tide Pools at Enderts Beach

LOCATION: Del Norte Coastal
THE BASICS: 1.3 miles round trip, easy to moderate, 245 feet of elevation gain. Budget 45 to 90 minutes.

The hike down to Enderts Beach starts at Crescent Beach Overlook, with dramatic coastal views the whole way down before the trail reaches a long, sandy beach backed by low bluffs. Low tide exposes tide pools tucked into the rocks at the southern end of the beach. It’s one of the better spots in the whole park complex to look for sea stars and anemones.

Endert Beach Trail Photo Del Norte Coast Redwoods

Our Take: We paired this with the overlook, which is only steps from the trailhead and worth a few minutes even if you skip the hike down. You can see Crescent Beach curving away toward Crescent City, with Enderts Beach visible in the distance. We did this hike in the afternoon after a morning in Jedediah Smith, and it was an easy, low-effort way to close out the day.

Watch the Waves from Crescent Beach Overlook

LOCATION: Del Norte Coastal
THE BASICS: No hike required. It’s a short walk from the parking area. Budget 10 to 15 minutes, longer if you brought a picnic.

This is one of the easiest, highest-reward stops in the entire park complex. Pull into the parking area at the end of Enderts Beach Road, and within a couple of minutes you’re looking out over Crescent Beach curving toward Crescent City, with Enderts Beach visible in the distance and the open Pacific beyond.

Crescent Beach Overlook at Del Norte Coast Redwoods

Our Take: If you’re already making the trip out here to hike down to Enderts Beach, this overlook is a must-see. It sits right at the same trailhead, so there’s no reason to skip it. But it’s just as worthwhile on its own if you’re short on time, or if conditions aren’t right for the beach hike below. This is one of the best quick, no-effort views in the entire park complex.

Walk Out to Hidden Beach

LOCATION: Redwood National Park
THE BASICS: 1.4 miles round trip, easy. Budget 30 to 45 minutes. There’s no parking at the trailhead. Leave your car at Trees of Mystery across the street instead.

The trail isn’t all that interesting. It winds through second-growth redwood forest, not the towering old-growth trees found elsewhere on this list. Hidden Beach makes up for it: sea stacks rise just offshore, and the shoreline is scattered with driftwood, a nice change of pace from a day spent hiking through redwood forest.

Hidden Beach Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park

Our Take: This became one of Tim’s favorite stops on the whole trip, and it’s stuck with him. He still sees it turn up in other people’s photos on social media more than almost anywhere else we visited. The trail won’t wow you on its own, but the beach at the end earns its spot, especially if you want a quieter coastal stop than Enderts Beach or Crescent Beach Overlook. We were here on a very foggy morning, but on a sunny day it should be stunning.

Walk the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Loop

LOCATION: Redwood National Park
THE BASICS: 1.4-mile loop, flat and easy. Budget 45 minutes to an hour.

Lady Bird Johnson Grove is the most popular trail in Redwood National Park. It’s a flat, accessible loop through a mix of old-growth and second-growth redwoods, dedicated in 1969 to honor Lady Bird Johnson’s conservation work.

Our Take: This is the most famous single trail in the entire park complex, and it’s a genuinely pleasant walk, but it’s not the one we’d send you to first. If you only have time for one redwood grove on your trip, we’d point you to Stout Memorial Grove or Simpson-Reed instead; the trees and the old-growth feel are more impressive at both. Lady Bird Johnson Grove earns its spot on this list for its accessibility and its history, not because it’s the best grove in the park. Worth knowing before you build a day around it.

Worth the Detour: Just Outside the Parks

These two experiences sit just outside Redwood National and State Parks. They are not part of the official complex, but close enough, and good enough, that we wouldn’t skip either one.

Drive the Avenue of the Giants

LOCATION: Humboldt Redwoods State Park (not part of Redwood National and State Parks)
THE BASICS: 31 miles one-way, paved and easy driving. Free. Give yourself at least 3 hours if you want to stop for the highlights.

The Avenue of the Giants is a 31-mile scenic road through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, running parallel to Highway 101 through groves of some of the tallest redwoods on Earth. It’s lined with pullouts and short trails, and even after days spent among the redwoods of RNSP, the trees here never stop impressing.

Our Take: We drove this on day five of our trip, after four full days in Redwood National and State Parks, and Founders Grove still left us amazed. The Founders Grove Nature Loop Trail is the must-do, a flat, 0.5-mile loop past the Founders Tree and the Dyerville Giant, two trees that once held the record for tallest in the world. If you only stop once along the entire avenue, make it here. For the full drive, including where else to stop, see our Avenue of the Giants guide ↓

Avenue of the Giants

Avenue of the Giants: Best Things to Do, Photos & Helpful Tips

Drive Through a Living Redwood Tree

LOCATION: Two private roadside attractions, one near Del Norte Coast, one near Avenue of the Giants (neither is part of Redwood National and State Parks)
THE BASICS: $5 to $10 cash per vehicle. A compact car is essential because SUVs and trucks often can’t fit.

Two of the three remaining drive-through redwoods in California sit right along this route. The Klamath Thru Tree, a 10-minute drive south of Trees of Mystery near Del Norte Coast, lets you drive through the carved-out base of a redwood on private property. Near the Avenue of the Giants, the Shrine Drive-Thru Tree in Myers Flat offers the same experience through the hollowed-out base of the Doust Tree, a tourist attraction since the early 1900s that’s even appeared in old photos of Ford Model Ts passing through.

Our Take: We drove through the Klamath Thru Tree in our Kia Telluride — barely. We had to fold in the side mirrors just to fit, and we watched several trucks and vans pull up, realize they wouldn’t make it, and turn around. We skipped the Shrine Drive-Thru Tree for the same reason, worried the Telluride wouldn’t clear it. Honestly, this sounds more interesting than it actually is. It’s a fun photo op and a nice one-time novelty, but we wouldn’t build a day around it. If you’ve got a compact car and you’re already driving past one, go for it.

How to Put It Together: Planning Your Itinerary

If you only have one day, pick one cluster rather than splitting your time: either Jedediah Smith and Del Norte Coast in the north, or Prairie Creek and Redwood National Park in the south. Trying to cover both in a single day means more driving than exploring.

With two days, split evenly between the two clusters: one day up north, one day near Orick. That’s enough time for our top picks from this list, plus a few extras if you move quickly.

With four days or more, you can slow down. This is what we did, and it gave us time to add in Avenue of the Giants as a bonus day and stop for a drive-through tree along the way, without ever feeling rushed.

For a full day-by-day plan, our Redwood Itinerary (coming soon) walks through exactly how to structure your time, whatever your day count. And if Redwood is part of a bigger trip through Northern California and Oregon, our Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake & Redwood road trip itinerary shows how we combined all three, plus the Oregon coast, into one 10-day loop.

Best Time to Visit Redwood National and State Parks

We visited in September and had some of the best hiking weather of the whole trip. Mornings were foggy nearly everywhere we went, with the mist usually burning off by midmorning and giving way to sun in the afternoon. We wore shorts, a t-shirt, and a light jacket most days, shedding the jacket once the fog cleared. That fog-to-sun transition gave us some of our favorite photos of the entire trip, especially on the climb back up from Damnation Creek.

Crowds were manageable almost everywhere, with the exception of Grove of the Titans and a few of the more popular trailheads by midday. That’s one more reason we’d recommend an early start wherever you’re headed in the parks.

Spring (April to June): Lush and green after the wet season, with mild temperatures and lighter crowds
Summer (June to August): Warmest, driest, and busiest — the best season for the coast and Fern Canyon, but expect more crowds and the Gold Bluffs Beach/Fern Canyon reservation requirement
Fall (September to November): Excellent hiking weather, fewer visitors, and some of the most photogenic light of the year
Winter (November to March): Quiet and uncrowded, but the rainiest season — expect muddy trails and the possibility of closed roads like Davison Road

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between Redwood National Park and Redwood National and State Parks?

Redwood National Park is just one of four parks that together make up Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP), a partnership between the National Park Service and California State Parks. The other three, Jedediah Smith Redwoods, Del Norte Coast Redwoods, and Prairie Creek Redwoods, are all state parks. The land isn’t split cleanly between them either; National Park Service land is interwoven with the three state parks throughout the region. When people say “Redwood National Park,” they usually mean the whole complex, but technically that name refers only to the national park.

Which of the four parks is the best?

For us, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is the best of the four. It’s home to some of the most impressive old-growth groves in the entire complex, including Stout Memorial Grove, our favorite hike anywhere in Redwood National and State Parks, along with Howland Hill Road and the Boy Scout Tree Trail. That said, each park has its own strengths. Prairie Creek has Fern Canyon and the most variety in one place, and Del Norte Coast pairs redwoods with a dramatic, rugged coastline you won’t find elsewhere in the complex.

How many days do you need?

Most visitors can see the highlights in one to two days. With one day, pick one of the two geographic clusters, either Jedediah Smith and Del Norte Coast in the north, or Prairie Creek and Redwood National Park in the south. With two days, spend one day in each cluster. We spent four days exploring all four parks in depth, plus a fifth day at nearby Avenue of the Giants, and never ran out of things to do.

Plan Your Trip to the Redwood Parks

Making this part of a bigger trip? → Our Lassen Volcanic, Crater Lake & Redwood road trip itinerary shows how we combined all three parks, plus the Oregon coast, into one 10-day loop.
Want the full guide to each park? → Our Jedediah Smith Redwoods, Del Norte Coast Redwoods, Prairie Creek Redwoods, and Redwood National Park guides cover trail stats, one-day itineraries, and more for each park.
Exploring more of California? → Our California travel guide covers the rest of the state.
Planning more national park trips? → Our US National Parks guide covers all 63 parks, with itineraries and hiking guides for each.

If you have any questions about visiting Redwood National and State Parks, let us know in the comment section below.

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