This week I was talking with a friend who travels a lot but has never been to the Redwood Forest in Northern California.

I had so much fun telling him what he he MUST do there, that I decided that would be a great Better Traveling show!

The redwood forest is tied with Sedona for my favorite place on earth, so I had a lot of fun making this podcast!

I have presented the information as a road trip from Southern California or San Francisco, but you can rent a car from Southern Oregon and go the opposite direction.

(Side Note: There are redwoods near San Francisco but those are not the ones that we are going to talk about today.)

REDWOOD FOREST LINKS:

http://avenueofthegiants.net/: Avenue of Giants is where the southern redwoods are of Humboldt County. It is essentially Rt 101, which leads to the biggies on the coast, which are my favorite,  but you could spend ages exploring the Avenue of Giants just in itself.

Going to Shelter Cove is not part of the Avenue of Giants, but still beautiful. I stayed in a Best Western in Garberville and then moved on to Eureka and Crescent City for the next couple evenings. It took me a full day to get to Eureka and then another full day to get to Crescent City.

Garberville can be pricy in terms of hotels.  If you are into camping, there are some good ones in the Avenue.

http://avenueofthegiants.net/Zoom/map.htm

Eureka is the other end of the Avenue of Giants.  You will arrive to Eureka before you get to Crescent City.  They have good restaurants and hotels. They also have a great natural foods co-op, cute shopping, and a few historical landmarks.

YOU MAY WANT TO STOP THERE IF IT IS GETTING DARK SO THAT YOU DON’T MISS ANYTHING AWESOME AS YOU DRIVE IN THE DARK. The next leg of the trip is also beautiful and along the water… It’s very beautiful and you miss all that beauty at night because it is very dark.



http://www.treesofmystery.net/ looks like a tourist trap which it is but it’s worth the stop. Take a gondola through the forest with several trees highlighted on the way to the gondola and a beautiful look out at the top of the mountain. You can hike down if you like.

Between Trees of Mystery and Crescent city there are a lot of little turn offs to go explore and lookout points along the coast.

One of my favorite spots is the REDWOOD HOSTEL which is closed for renovations right now. Across from the Redwood Hostel is a parking lot which a beautiful spot to watch a sunset over the water.

http://www.redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=4583  This is a link to an article about “10 must see trees”, but once you are in the area you will see so many amazing and huge trees that, to me, it didn’t matter whether I got to see every one on this list. Trees of Mystery had a lot of big ones.

http://www.redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=2464&source=Favorites

The drive through trees were ok, and this is the link that tells you about it. I did it my third time there, with my mom, but we also needed to have lunch and it was a good place to picnic. Not terribly expensive. Small cars only. There are a few of drive through (“Drive-thru”) trees. We did Chandler Tree.

REDWOOD FOREST TRAILS:

http://www.redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=3637

Trails. Many are accessible only by dirt road and if there are heavy rains these roads get washed away. These roads are narrow, but worth going if you can deal with being inches from the side of a road that drops off rather severely and slides around because of mud.

Lady Bird Johnson Trail

http://www.redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=3637

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is dirt road accessible with many trails leading off the sides. My favorite area in the redwoods.

Boyscout trail is one of my favorites 5 miles. Go with a friend.

Stout grove is about a half mile . Brought my mom there and she loved it.

• 
  
• Every time you walk on the ground it can disturb the root system so walk gently and do not tread anywhere that has been blocked off
  
• Don’t climb down trees because there is a whole fertile ecosystem on ever inch of down tree that serves the rest of the community
  
• Obviously  no litter and don’t take anything or cut anything
  
• Always hike with other people.
  

www.savetheredwoods.org/

http://rcci.savetheredwoods.org/ This page discusses the effect of climate change on the redwood forest.

Happy Travels!

Leslie

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The post TBP 0007: The Redwood Forest’s Sacred Peace and Beauty appeared first on Travel Better.