Humboldt Redwoods State Park

Featuring the Avenue of the Giants

California > Southern Humboldt County

The Eel River

For the sheer size of its trees, no redwood park can beat Humboldt Redwoods. The world's densest and most impressive stands of big trees grow here, along Bull Creek and the Eel River. Many of the most iconic images of the redwood forest come from Humboldt Redwoods - roads meandering through tall narrow canyons formed from huge trees, dark cathedral-like groves, plush carpets of redwood sorrel. Surprisingly, these monster redwoods grow well inland, in an environment that's much drier than the other Humboldt County redwood parks. A 3,000-foot-tall ridge to the west shields the park from ocean breezes, making for hot and dry summer days, but a tendril of ocean fog creeps south along the Eel River valley most summer nights to sustain the redwoods.

Humboldt Redwoods' main attraction is the Avenue of the Giants, which follows the Eel River for 30 miles. The Avenue passes through a string of old-growth groves interspersed with hardwood forests, open fields, and the deteriorating remnants of logging towns. Because the summertime fog creeps in from the north, the groves on the north end of the Avenue tend to be lusher and more attractive than the groves to the south. The trees also seem to be larger in the north, although the difference is subtle. The best groves on the Avenue include the Founders' Grove, at the confluence of Bull Creek and the Eel River, and the strikingly plush Grieg-French-Bell and Drury-Chaney groves.

Branching off from the Eel River is Bull Creek. The broad alluvial flat created by this small creek is the most pristine and impressive part of the park. The bumpy, narrow Mattole Road follows the flat through five miles of old growth and is one of the world's best redwood drives. The largest trees in the park are found here; of the world's ten tallest trees, three are on Bull Creek Flats, although their exact location is a secret.

Serious hikers looking for an all-day walk among the serenity of old-growth redwoods might find Humboldt Redwoods a little disappointing. Traffic noise from Highway 101 and the Avenue plagues the many short trails along the Eel River. Bull Creek is a lot more rewarding, but many sections of trail have been re-routed away from the flats where the big trees grow, and now they mostly skirt the edges of the flats. The bits of trails that remain in the flats are spectacular and very enjoyable, but hikers today can only imagine what it must have been like to take an entire 10-mile stroll through a redwood flat.

Mattole Road and the Lower Bull Creek Flats

History

Between 1909 and 1923, the Redwood Highway was built as part of a new statewide highway system. The road, together with the strong 1920s economy, accellerated logging of the previously-remote Eel River valley. In 1917, three natural scientists drove up the Redwood Highway from San Francisco and into Bull Creek Flats to investigate the extent of the logging. Dismayed at the rapid destruction of the magnificent roadside groves, they started the Save-the-Redwoods League, which quickly became the foremost organization devoted to preserving North Coast redwoods.

Relations between preservationists and timber companies were mostly good at that time, and the League soon purchased pristine groves in the future Prairie Creek and Del Norte parks. However, Pacific Lumber, the biggest owner of the future Humboldt Redwoods parkland, was not willing to sell. With the incomparable groves along the Redwood Highway being rapidly logged, in 1924 the League convinced Humboldt County to use its power of eminent domain to acquire the old-growth groves along Bull Creek and the Eel River. However, despite matching funds provided by the state, the acquisition was not free and relied on donations from private citizens whose names now adorn numerous plaques throughout the park. Most notably, John D. Rockefeller donated $1 million to purchase Bull Creek Flats and the Founders' Grove, which today is the largest contiguous stretch of old-growth redwoods in the world.

The slopes above Bull Creek remained opened to logging, and clearcutting during the post-World War II construction boom lead to catastrophic floods in 1955 and again in 1964. Also in 1955, construction began on Highway 101. Incredibly, this four-lane freeway was originally intended to pass through the most scenic feature of each North Coast redwood park. The League couldn't stop the freeway but did convince the Highway Commission not to bulldoze the Founders' Grove. As built, the freeway mostly skirts Humboldt's old-growth redwoods, but the traffic noise permeates all the groves along the Eel River.

Despite the traffic noise, the logged groves, and the limited old-growth hiking, Humboldt Redwoods today is a absolute must-see for anyone interested in the redwoods. Bull Creek Flats in particular remains matchless for its serene cathedral-like groves, which have a dark, stately character unlike any other.

Bull Creek Flats from Mattole Road

Old-growth redwood hikes

Northern Avenue of the Giants

The Avenue of the Giants is at its best to the north of Founders' Grove, where a lush landscape of impressive redwoods lines the road.

**** The Grieg-French-Bell grove (0.3 miles)
This little grove features a network of unofficial trails that cut through an extraordinarily plush carpet of redwood sorrel. One of the highlights of Humboldt Redwoods.

*** The Drury-Chaney loop (2.4 miles)
Adjacent to the Grieg-French-Bell grove, this trail also has extraordinarily lush sorrel groundcover, especially near the trailhead. Further in, the sorrel is not as plush but there are some large redwoods.

*** The Allens Trail (2.3 miles)
This trail, also known as the Five Allens Trail, climbs steeply through uninteresting redwood uplands and eventually reaches a little valley that shelters an attractive redwood grove.

*** The High Rock River Trail (closed)
This trail leads through some very nice redwoods next to the Avenue of the Giants. The best redwoods are near the parking area at the north end of the trail. The trail has unfortunately been closed since several bridges were washed out.

Bull Creek

The best and most unspoiled part of Humboldt Redwoods, the large alluvial flat of Bull Creek has some of the world's most impressive redwood groves.

**** The Homestead and Big Tree loop (2.4 miles)
This superb hike around Upper Bull Creek Flat starts on the Homestead Trail, which runs along the edge of the flat through lush but relatively small redwoods, then cuts through the center of the flat, passing through an outstanding lowland redwood grove.

**** The Big Tree area (0.6 miles)
The Big Tree Area features the Giant Tree and the fallen Flatiron Tree. It doesn't have the huge trees and the open, cathedral-like look of the Rockefeller or Homestead loops, but in some ways it's more attractive.

**** The Rockefeller loop (0.7 miles)
If you want to see big trees, this is a great place to do it. The trail passes through a very dense stand of large redwoods that grow on an alluvial flat alongside Bull Creek. The grove is not far from the Avenue of the Giants, yet traffic noise is minimal, so you can actually appreciate the serenity of the grove.

*** Bull Creek Flats (10 miles)
This grand tour of the Bull Creek lowlands loops between the sublime groves of Upper and Lower Bull Creek Flats, and is Humboldt Redwoods' best long-distance hike. Unfortunately, much of the trail between the upper and lower flats has been re-routed away from the most impressive redwoods. The hike can only be completed in the summer.

Central Avenue of the Giants

The area around the visitors' center includes the very impressive Founders' Grove and Canoe Creek areas, plus some smaller and less scenic groves.

*** Founders' Grove (1.3 miles)
This is Humboldt Redwoods' largest and most impressive grove and is by far the most popular attraction in the park, but it's unfortunately filled with the constant roar of traffic from a 4-lane freeway that skirts the grove.

** The Nature Trail (0.7 miles)
Located in a small patch of old growth just across from the visitors' center, this short, level loop is nice but doesn't have a whole lot of big trees.

** The Kent-Mather Loop Trail (0.9 miles)
This loop passes through a thin strip of old growth next to the Avenue of the Giants. The trail starts in a heavily-logged area but then passes some big trees. The woods have a dry, scraggly appearance.

**** The Canoe Creek Trail (closed)
The magnificent alluvial flat along Canoe Creek is comparable to Bull Creek Flats, but unfortunately the trail has been closed since a fire burned the area in 2003 and toppled a large jumble of trees onto the trail. It's not clear whether the park has plans to clear the trail.

Southern Avenue of the Giants

Between Phillipsville and Miranda are a few scattered old-growth groves.

** The F.K. Lane Trail (0.4 miles)
Humboldt Redwoods' southernmost redwood grove is surprisingly lush. There are a few big redwoods near the beginning of the loop, but most of the other trees here are small and embedded in a dense understory.

** The Stephens Grove Loop Trail (0.7 miles)
A somewhat worn and disheveled grove. The area near the trailhead has some good-sized trees but is very dry-looking, with no groundcover. Further in, the grove is lusher but the trees are smaller, with some signs of logging at one point.

*** Bolling Grove (no trail)
This grove has an impressive collection of perhaps half a dozen huge trees just off the Avenue of the Giants. It looks like a very short loop trail might have once wound through the grove, but the loop is now cut in two by a densely-vegetated creek and there is no way to walk the entire loop. There's also a lot of poison oak along the trail.

Southern portion of the Avenue of the Giants