About Trees in the California Redwood Forests
The California trees that people call “redwoods” are actually two distinct species, both of them best described in superlatives.
Sometimes called simply the “big trees,” giant sequoias grow only in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains near the state’s eastern border. The most massive living things, they can reach 280 feet tall and 23 feet across. The largest rise a little more than 300 feet tall and spread almost 30 feet across. The oldest have been around more than 3,000 years
Coastal redwoods (sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living things on our planet, growing 300-350 feet tall and 16-18 feet across, with record specimens soaring to 360 feet. You can find them in redwood forests along the California coast from the northern border down to Big Sur.
Redwood forests are so plentiful in California that you’ll find almost a dozen parks with “redwood” in their name, along with a national park and quite a few regional ones. Any of them will give you a glimpse of the magnificent trees and the forests they grow in, but we think the redwood forests listed below are some of the best places to see them. They’re listed in geographic order from north to south.
Best Places to See California’s Redwood Forests
We recommend reading a little bit about the redwood forest before you visit so you can better appreciate it. This list is in order from north to south.
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park: Located between Crescent City and Eureka, this redwood forest park is also home to a herd of Roosevelt Elk.
Redwood National Park: Several redwood forest parks in one, it preserves almost half of the remaining old-growth redwood forests.
Muir Woods National Monument: Just 12 miles north of San Francisco, Muir Woods is an easily accessible redwood forest with well-groomed trails most anyone can manage.
Yosemite National Park: The Mariposa Grove is Yosemite’s largest redwood forest, home to specimens of giant sequoias. It’s 4 hours’ drive east of San Francisco.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park: In the mountains south of San Francisco, it’s less crowded than Muir and has some nice tent cabins where you could spend the night in the middle of the redwood forest.
Petrified Redwood Forest: Nature turned this redwood forest to stone. It’s located just west of Calistoga at the north end of Napa Valley.
Sequoia National Park: This is the place to go if your goal is to see the very biggest giant sequoia trees.
There are also quite a few drive-through trees and tunnel trees in California, if you like that kind of thing.
If you like the sequoia trees, you may also like the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest off Highway 395 in eastern California, where the oldest specimens have been around for about 5,000 years.
Preserving the Redwood Forests
If you’re interested in supporting the preservation of California’s redwood forests, check out Save the Redwoods Fund and the Sempervirens Fund.
The redwood trees at Prairie Creek are coast redwoods, the tallest living things on earth. They’ve existed along the northern California coast for about 20 million years, fed by winter rains.
Prairie Creek seems almost magical. On summer mornings, it’s often cloaked in fog, the old growth trees soaring through it. In Fern Canyon, seven kinds of ferns drape the walls, giving the impression of a flowing,
green waterfall.
This park is also home to a herd of Roosevelt Elk. During their mating season, their calls echo through the forest as the bulls challenge each other for mating rights.
Prairie Creek is close to Redwood National Forest in northern Humboldt County, between the towns of Arcata and Crescent City. Get more detailed information, hours and fees at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park website.
Some people say Big Basin is a much better place than the more-popular Muir Woods to see the coastal redwood trees. It’s much less crowded than Muir and has some nice tent cabins where you can spend the night in the middle of the redwood forest.
Big Basin is located in the mountains about 65 miles south of San Francisco, between San Jose and the town of Santa Cruz.
If your goal is to see the very biggest of the giant sequoia trees, you need to go to Sequoia National park. This one national park contains 18 of the 30 largest specimens of sequoiadendron giganteum in the world.
This is where you’ll find the world’s most massive tree, the General Sherman and the only-slightly-smaller General Grant Tree. Not only are they big, but scientists estimate they’re between 1,800 and 2,700 years old.
The General Sherman Tree is – in my opinion – not only the largest but also the most impressive-looking giant sequoia tree. You’ll find it in Giant Forest, where you’ll find 9 more of the 30 largest giant sequoias. The famous drive-through Tunnel Log is also in Giant Forest, cut through a fallen tree which is on Crescent Meadow Road.
The General Grant tree is in Grant Grove near Lodgepole Village.
After the snow is cleared in mid to late spring, you can drive on a dirt road to The Redwood Mountain Grove near Grant Village, the world’s largest grove of giant sequoias.
Many San Francisco visitors who want to see California’s “Big Trees” go to Muir Woods. It’s a pretty, easily accessible redwood forest, with three well-groomed hiking trails most anyone can manage. Rangers also give frequent guided walks that will help you learn about the redwood forest.
Know this before you go: Muir Woods’ trees are coastal redwoods. They’re tall, but not the massive trees you may
be looking for. Muir Woods can also be overcrowded and at the busiest times, you’ll have to take a shuttle bus from Sausalito to get there.
If you’re looking for the big, massive sequoia trees, you’ll have to go to Sequoia or Yosemite National Parks, described on the previous pages. Yosemite is about a 4-hour drive from San Francisco.
If you want to see the coastal redwoods in a less-crowded setting, try Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz or Armstrong Redwoods north of San Francisco near the Russian River.
The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is Yosemite’s largest redwood grove. It contains about 500 mature trees. You can see some of them from the road and parking area, but it’s more fun to get out and walk among them. Most visitors choose a 0.8-mile hike from the parking lot to the Grizzly Giant and California Tunnel Trees, which has about 500 feet of elevation gain.
The grove is located near the south
entrance to Yosemite, about an hour’s drive south of Yosemite Valley. From November through April, the road to it may be closed because of snow.
The most famous California “tunnel tree,” with its heart cut out so automobiles could drive through it was the Wawona Tree. It was often seen on early twentieth century postcards. You won’t find it here today, though. During a storm in 1969, it fell down.
On summer days, the small parking closes periodically when full. To avoid that, you can take the free Wawona-Mariposa Grove shuttle.
Yosemite is about a 4-hour drive east of San Francisco. Get more detailed information about visiting in the Yosemite National Park Travel Planner.
The coast redwood is the tallest living thing on earth. More than 35 percent of all the old-growth trees left standing are in this park.
Several easy, flat hiking trails give you a chance to walk through a redwood forest full of the tall trees. The parks also protect prairies, oak woodlands, wild rivers, and close to 40 miles of coastline.
Quite a few threatened animal species also live in the Redwood
National Parkpark, including the brown pelican, Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl, and Steller’s sea lion.
The park is one of only two World Heritage sites in California (the other is Yosemite National Park). It’s also an International Biosphere Reserve.
At the north end of the Napa Valley, west of Calistoga is a redwood forest of a different kind. The trees in this one are made of stone. Toppled and covered with volcanic ash during an ancient eruption, these trees slowly petrified (turned to stone).