Exploring Redwood National Park (again)
We drove through Redwood National Park in December 2023 on our first trip out to Florida. It did not go great. It rained almost the entire time we were there and we had some other mishaps (our Starlink stopped working and we knocked our macerator off) but the park itself was beautiful! If you want to check that out, be sure to watch our video here.
When we started planning our trip to spend the winter down in the South West, I knew I wanted to redo Redwood and give it the trip it deserved. So we booked the exact same campground (Elk Country campground) and at the beginning of November we headed South from Washington with hopes of a better time.
Thankfully those hopes came to fruition and we had a GREAT time this go around. We arrived late in the day on our first day and just settled in and wandered the campground. One of it’s draws for us was the herds of wild elk that regularly just wander through. If you haven’t woken up, opened your RV shades and been greeted by 50+ elk grazing on your front lawn, have you truly experienced RV life? 🤣
The next day we set out to explore the park, starting with the Newton B Drury scenic drive. This is a 10-mile drive that takes you through groves of Redwood trees on a single lane road. Plan to take at least 20 minutes if you’re driving straight through or a couple hours if you want to stop at the many pullouts and wander into the forests. This is also a cycle friendly road so be sure to watch out for cyclists and drive slow. There is also a 9 mile hike from the visitor center that takes you part way down the road and then back on the other side.
We stopped many, many times on this road and every time it’s just stunning. We were super lucky with the weather that it had just stopped raining and the sun was trying to come out so it was very foggy. It was a whole MOOD. After about 2 hours of driving and stopping and driving and stopping we drove all the way down to the end of the road and jumped back on 101 for our next stop.
Since it was nearing lunchtime and we’d brought sandwiches, we headed up to Klamath River Overlook to eat our picnic with a view over the point where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean…..or we would’ve if the earlier mentioned fog wasn’t blanketing the entire section leaving it looking like the area was covered in snow.
We still stayed up there and ate our lunch in the sun before heading back to the RV to relax for the rest of the day.
For day two we started by driving up to Lady Bird Johnson Grove. During peak times (I believe May to October) you need a permit to go up here because the parking lot is small. We were there in November and no permit was needed. We had a lazy morning so we didn’t get to the trailhead until 11:30. The trail is a mostly flat 1.4 mile loop and has some signs along the way to educate you on the lady it was named after. You’ll see a lot of gorgeous old-growth redwoods including some fallen ones that you can walk alongside.
After leaving Lady Bird Johnson Grove, we decided to try Fern Canyon again (the spot where we lost our macerator in 2023) and since we had the car this time, it was much easier. It also helped that the rain was a little lighter this year so the two stream crossings weren’t quite as high. Since we were there on a weekend, the trailhead parking lot was almost full and the canyon was packed with people. If you’re hoping to get a good photo of yourself in the canyon with nobody else around, you want to get here early.
This time around we were able to do the entire hike but instead of doing the loop we went out and back to see the canyon from both directions. Our feet got wet on the way out so we didn’t mind going back around and getting them wet again. After getting back to the car we drove the long, long road to get out and just before we joined back up with 101 we turned off to the Trillium Falls trailhead.
The hike to Trillium Falls is a relatively easy 1.2 mile out and back trail with under 300ft of elevation gain. It takes you right into some beautiful forested area and at the end you can cross the bridge with the falls off to the side and the river underneath you. It was a nice easy hike and we only saw 2 other people the entire hike! Quite the contrast to Fern Canyon.
While this trip to Redwood was a much better experience than our first time, we still feel like we have so much left to explore still and we will definitely be planning future trips to Redwood National Park.
