After spending a week in Flagstaff in August of 2020 and absolutely enjoying the reprieve from the Las Vegas heat, we decided to up our game in 2021 and travel 14 hours away from Las Vegas to camp in the Redwoods in northern California.
Our campsite
In April, we booked our camp site at Gold Bluffs Beach Campground, a popular spot with travelers from around the world right on the beach that is also within minutes of the most popular Redwood hiking trails. Despite sand getting everywhere and the caltrop-esque grass pricking us whenever we touched, it was a really beautiful campground with great views of the cliffed coastline.
The trees
Massive is an understatement when describing the sheer size of the tallest trees in the world. We must have seen dozens of Redwoods that were easily 10-20 feet in diameter and well over 300 feet tall, and those were the ones on the trail.
The first hike we went on was on the Redwood Creek Trail, a flat meandering trail that isn’t known for having the largest Redwoods but does have a variety of tree species along Redwood Creek. The next hike we ventured on was in the very popular Lady Bird Johnson Grove. This grove has a collection of old-growth Redwoods and an open understory making it possible to take pictures of an entire tree.
The next day, we packed up and headed to Tall Trees Grove, which was about an hour away and only accessible with a gate code I had to apply for before our trip began. On this trail we witnessed the tallest trees in the world and were blown away by the girth and height as we strained our necks walking by them.
Fern Canyon
After a couple of hours wandering through the Tall Trees Grove and the hour long drive back to camp, we decided to end our camping trip with a leisurely stroll through the sublime Fern Canyon. Banked on both sides by fern-covered walls and a trickling stream bisecting it, Fern Canyon is known for its beauty and its part in a scene in the movie The Lost World (Jurassic Park 2). The trail up the canyon is flat and requires you to cross the stream several times on foot bridges.
