Redwood National and State Parks: A Comprehensive Guide for Tourists

The world’s tallest known living tree stands somewhere inside Redwood National Park, and the National Park Service will not tell you where. Hyperion, a coast redwood measured at just over 116 meters, had its exact location made public knowledge after its 2006 discovery, and the resulting foot traffic through fragile understory habitat got bad enough that the Park Service closed the area entirely in 2022. Trespassing to find it now carries fines up to 5,000 dollars and potential jail time. It is a strange kind of protection, one built entirely on secrecy rather than fencing, and it tells you something about how thin the margin is between these trees thriving and these trees getting trampled to death by their own admirers.

Overview

Redwood National and State Parks is technically four adjoining parks under one cooperative management umbrella: Redwood National Park, run by the National Park Service, alongside Del Norte Coast Redwoods, Jedediah Smith Redwoods, and Prairie Creek Redwoods, all run by California State Parks. Together they protect a substantial share, though not literally half, of the world’s remaining old-growth coast redwood forest, most of the rest having been logged through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before conservation efforts caught up.

Location and Getting There

The parks stretch along the far northern California coast between Crescent City and Orick. Contrary to older guides that point visitors toward Sonoma County, the genuinely useful regional airports are much closer: Del Norte County Airport in Crescent City sits only a few miles from the park boundary, though it has limited commercial service, while California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport near McKinleyville, about 25 miles south, has considerably more flight options through carriers like United, American, and Avelo. Most visitors still drive up from the San Francisco Bay Area, a trip of five to six hours along Highway 101.

Climate

Expect a genuine Mediterranean pattern: mild, wet winters and dry summers, though “dry” is relative here, since the coast redwood ecosystem depends heavily on summer coastal fog rather than rainfall. Redwoods absorb fog moisture directly through their needles and bark, and the runoff, called fog drip, saturates the forest floor enough that it can sound like rain falling under a completely clear sky. Annual rainfall runs 45 to 60 inches, concentrated almost entirely in the winter months, and summer temperatures generally sit in the 50 to 70 degree Fahrenheit range along the coast, cooler than most visitors expect for July.

Activities

Hiking options range from short boardwalk loops to serious backcountry routes. Fern Canyon and the Boy Scout Tree Trail remain the two standout hikes in the park system, the former a narrow, fern-draped gorge with walls rising 50 feet on either side, famous enough to have been used as a filming location for parts of Jurassic Park 2. Note that Fern Canyon access via Gold Bluffs Beach now requires an advance day-use permit between May 15 and September 15, reservable online up until 11:59pm the night before, plus a 12 dollar cash or check day-use fee collected at the entrance kiosk. Cards are not accepted there, which catches visitors out more often than it should.

Drive-through redwoods are a real Northern California attraction, but the specific claim about a drive-thru tree in Oakhurst is simply wrong; Oakhurst has no such tree. The three actual drive-through redwoods still standing are the Chandelier Tree in Leggett, cut through in the late 1930s and named for limbs that resemble a chandelier fixture, the Shrine Tree in Myers Flat along the Avenue of the Giants, whose opening formed mostly through natural processes rather than deliberate carving, and the Klamath Tour-Thru Tree, the newest of the three, cut in 1976 and wide enough for larger vehicles than the older two can accommodate.

Visitor centers throughout the park system offer exhibits on redwood ecology and ongoing restoration work, much of it focused on removing old logging roads and re-establishing natural stream channels in areas logged before the parks existed. Gold Bluffs Beach and Agate Beach offer the best coastal scenery, and wildlife watchers should keep an eye out for Roosevelt elk, which graze openly in the Elk Prairie area near Prairie Creek and are considerably more visible, and more habituated to human presence, than the black bears, bobcats, and cougars that also live in these forests but stay well hidden.

Tips for Visitors

Check current road and trail conditions before setting out, since sections of the park close periodically for erosion repair or storm damage. Dress in layers regardless of season, since fog can drop coastal temperatures 15 degrees within a mile of driving inland. Stay on marked trails both to protect the shallow, wide-spreading redwood root systems, which are easily damaged by foot traffic, and because off-trail terrain here is genuinely disorienting under the dense canopy. Keep a respectful distance from elk during the fall rutting season, when otherwise placid bulls become unpredictable and occasionally aggressive toward visitors who get too close for a photo.

An $80 annual America the Beautiful pass makes sense if this trip is part of a broader national park itinerary for the year, though Redwood itself charges no general entrance fee, a detail that surprises visitors expecting a Yosemite-style gate.

Accommodation and Food

No lodges exist inside Redwood National Park proper, though the adjoining state parks maintain several developed campgrounds, including Elk Prairie and Jedediah Smith. Crescent City, Orick, and Klamath offer the closest hotels, motels, and restaurants, none of them large towns, so booking ahead during peak summer months is worth doing rather than assuming same-day availability.