Humboldt County · Northern California
Explore California's Redwood Coast
Plan your visit to Redwood National and State Parks, the Avenue of the Giants, Arcata, Trinidad and the world's tallest trees.
Perspective
How tall is tall?
Everyone says “the tallest trees on earth.” It doesn't mean much until you put them next to something you know.
Hyperion, in Redwood National Park, is the tallest known tree on earth. Its location isn't published and the surrounding area is closed to visitors — but trees within thirty feet of it are standing in groves you can walk through.
The Dyerville Giant fell in 1991 and still lies across the forest floor at Founders Grove on the Avenue of the Giants. Walking its full length does more to convey the scale than standing at the base of a living one.
Orientation
The redwoods aren't in one place
This is the thing almost every first-time visitor gets wrong. There's no single gate you drive through, and no one grove that is “the redwoods.”
The old growth is scattered across roughly a hundred and fifty miles of Highway 101, in parks that are separately named, separately run, and hours apart. Redwood National and State Parks sit at the northern end. The Avenue of the Giants runs through Humboldt Redwoods State Park in the south.
Get the geography right and you'll see far more with far less driving. Get it wrong and you'll spend a day of a three-day trip discovering that the two famous groves are two and a half hours apart.
Where to go
Choose your redwood experience
Six distinct places, each worth a day. Start with whichever fits the trip you're imagining.
Northern end
Redwood National & State Parks
The tallest trees on earth, across a national park and three state parks. Old-growth groves, Roosevelt elk, and a wild coastline.
Plan the parksSouthern Humboldt
Avenue of the Giants
Thirty-one free miles of scenic road through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, past Founders Grove, the Dyerville Giant and Rockefeller Forest.
Drive the AvenueNorthern end
Prairie Creek & Fern Canyon
A fifty-foot canyon walled in ferns, reached on foot or by a gravel road with a summer permit.
See the canyonMinutes from town
Arcata Community Forest
790 acres of city-owned redwood with eleven miles of trail, bordering Cal Poly Humboldt.
Walk the forestThe coast
Trinidad & the coastline
Moonstone Beach, Scenic Drive, Houda Point and a cliffside fishing village.
Explore the coastThe gateway
Richardson Grove
Where Highway 101 runs straight between old-growth trunks. Driving up from the Bay Area, this is where the trip starts.
Stop at the gatewayTrip planning
Plan your visit
The practical layer — how long you need, what to drive, and when to come.
Getting here & the airport
Which airport to fly into, why Santa Rosa often beats San Francisco, and honest drive times from the terminal to every redwood park.
Flying inFern Canyon
Permits, the $12 cash-only fee, what your car can handle on Davison Road, and the route in that needs no reservation at all.
Plan the canyonOne, two & three-day itineraries
Ready-made routes that don't repeat a drive, whether you have an afternoon or a long weekend.
See the itinerariesScenic drives
The Avenue of the Giants, the Newton B. Drury Parkway, and Scenic Drive from Trinidad to Moonstone.
Best drivesBest hikes
From half-mile grove loops to Fern Canyon and the James Irvine Trail, sorted by effort.
Find a trailWhere to stay
Five bases compared, from Arcata to the Avenue, and what each one costs you in driving.
Compare the basesArcata & the Plaza
The farmers market, the marsh, where to eat, and the town most visitors use as a base.
Explore ArcataCal Poly Humboldt
Graduation, move-in and campus visits, and where a group can stay together three miles from campus.
Campus visits
Featured place to stay
A home base near Arcata
If the midpoint is the right call and you need room for a group, this is ours.
Bayside · 3 miles from Arcata
Redwood Retreat
A spacious home base for families and groups exploring the redwoods, the coast and Cal Poly Humboldt. Tri-level and newly renovated, backing onto the golf course with redwoods behind — twelve hundred square feet of patio, an outdoor kitchen, a fire pit, a seven-person hot tub, and room for sixteen.
- 7 bedrooms
- Sleeps 16
- 3 baths
- Hot tub
- Outdoor kitchen
- Fire pit
- Game room
Campus visits
Visiting Cal Poly Humboldt?
Graduation weekend, move-in, a campus tour, or a family visit — the university is ten minutes from Bayside.
Cal Poly Humboldt sits at the top of Arcata with the community forest directly behind it. For graduation and move-in weekends, rooms in Arcata book out months ahead and a group can end up spread across three hotels. Staying together in one house is usually cheaper and always easier.
Staying near Cal Poly HumboldtReading
Latest redwood guides
One, two & three-day itineraries
Ready-made routes that don't repeat a drive, built around the fact the two famous groves are two and a half hours apart.
ReadBest redwood groves near Arcata
Six groves within an hour, from a ten-minute stroll to a full day.
ReadWhere to stay near Redwood National Park
Every base from Orick to Eureka, and what each costs you in driving.
Read