We traveled from Oregon to California via U.S. Route 199 (US 199) today. The highway is the northern portion of the Redwood Highway. In Oregon, US 199 is officially known as Redwood Highway No. 25. The majority of the road in California is the Smith River Scenic Byway, a National Forest Scenic Byway. It was winding and beautiful. One interesting fact we noticed was that when we were in Oregon, the trees were green and the rivers along the highway had a lot of water, however, once we got in to California, what we saw were burned trees and rivers along side the highway had very little amount of water. Not sure what all these means.
After we got in to Crescent City, we found the Redwood National and State Park Headquarter. We went in for our National Park Passport stamp and got some information and recommendations regarding to what and where we should visit. To our surprise, the ranger there told us to pay more visits to the trails in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and Prairie Creek Elwood’s State Park and less for the Redwood National Park. He did not mention anything regarding Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. We had car permits for Tall Trees Trail and the Fern Canyon. He told us that the Boy Scout Tree Trail in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is better than the Tall Trees Trail, and to visit Fern Canyon we would definitely get wet. Therefore, we took his recommendation and canceled the car permit to Fern Canyon, but we kept the permit forTall Trees Trail and just want to wait and see.
He also gave us detailed recommendations regarding attractions in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. Therefore, we followed his recommendations to Howland Hill Road to visit Grove of Titans, Stout Grove and Simpson Reed. The Boy Scout Tree Trail is a 5.5mi 3-4 hours hike, therefore we decided to skip it.
Howland Hill Road is an unpaved dirt road and most parts are single lane for car. We had to be very careful to avoid incoming cars, however, the drive was beautiful and exciting. The parking spots at the trail head are hard to be found. However, we found a spot for parking.
The Grove of Titans gave us wow factors with a lot of old-growth redwoods.
Next stop was Simpson Reed trail. However, we drove pass the trail without noticing it until we got to Lieffer Loop Trail (0.8mi loop trial). Since this trail is short and we decided to add one more hike for today. However, it is a normal hiking trail without any wow factor. Then, we got back to the trailhead of Simpson Reed. It is a 0.8 mi loop trail. However it has a lot of wow factors and a lot of signs to give explanations regarding the redwood we saw. It was an interesting and educational trail, no wonder it is the most recommended trail in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park.
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