Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is one of the four arms of the Redwood National & State Parks System, along with Jedidiah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Redwood National Park.

After finishing our meander through the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, we continued up the road to the Prairie Creek Redwoods where we had reservations at Elk Prairie Campground for the next two nights.

• Elk Prairie Visitor Center
• Karl Knapp trail to the Big Tree
• Check in @ Elk Prairie Campground
• Wilson Creek Beach
• Klamath River Overlook
• Dinnertiiiiime

Elk Prairie Visitor Center

Isn’t it so satisfying to walk up to a “campground full” sign knowing that you snagged one of the spots months ago? Hehe. 🙂

Our first order of business, as always, was to visit the visitor center to get the stamp for our National Parks passport.

We arrived just a tiny bit too early to check in to our campsite, so we figured we might as well check out the Karl Knapp trail which starts right in the parking lot and would eventually lead us to The Big Tree and the Cathedral Trees trail.

Karl Knapp trail to the Big Tree

“Karl Knapp served California State Parks for more than 45 years. He was most notably known as a teacher, mentor, leader, and friend. Karl co-created the Departments’ national recognized Trails Training Program and the creation of professional trail programs throughout the California State Park System. He was a state and national stand for trail professionals. His integrity, leadership, wisdom, vision, and ability to collaborate with all types of State Park Professionals guided significant fundamental change to California State Parks.”

Everything in this area is covered with the most delicate light-green layer of Spanish moss and other fuzzy stuff. Hoh Rainforest vibes.

I love how each bridge is intricately cut around the bases of the trees and gives a gap for it to continue growing. :’)

Look how freakin huge that bur on the stump is!

The parking lot at the visitor center was jam-packed with everyone spilling out allll the way out onto both sides of the main road along the Elk Meadow, so I was surprised that we didn’t have much company out here at all.

According to the Parks’ website, there’s 75 miles of trail in the Prairie Creek Redwoods and the trail we walked was three of ’em. It’s super flat, regular ol’ packed down dirt and redwood needles with a bunch of roots every once in a while.

The scale of the redwoods is so insane, it’s impossible to really capture in photos or grasp in general. It really puts it in perspective to walk through the middle of one of their trunks.

And not to mention the gigantic ferns that cushion the forest floor in every direction…

Lil’ troll bridge. Haha this little guy still makes me chuckle

“Cathedral” refers to the shape that happens when multiple redwoods grow into each other and kinda merge as one at their base, like the one Ike’s standing with.

The Prairie Creek Redwoods is designated as a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Preserve. From what I read, it has over 280 different memorial groves within it. When you’re driving up and down the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway – the main scenic road through the park – they’re endlessly dotted along both sides for miles and miles.

“First conceived in 1909, the Redwood Highway extends from San Francisco’s Golden Gate to Grants Pass, Oregon. The original route passed through nearly two million acres of the world’s tallest forests, ancestral Indian lands, and dozens of small logging and ranching communities. Over the past 100 years, the Redwood Highway has carried logging trucks and moving vans, scientists, and sightseers – and you – past these same big trees.

In 1918, Save the Redwoods League was established to protect ancient redwoods along the route. With the support of local communities, school children, women’s clubs, private individuals, and the timber companies themselves, tracts purchased by the League because the foundation for California’s redwood state parks.”

Once the trail crosses the Redwood Highway, the Big Tree isn’t far from there. The big ol’ thing is surrounded by a huge boardwalk platform with the iconic statistics sign at it’s base.

Nearby, there’s a couple stationery binoculars that direct you to different parts of the tree which is pretty cool.

It’s 286 feet tall, 23.7 feet in diameter, 74.5 feet around, and estimated to be 1500 years old. Isn’t that so crazy? 1500 years ago – the year 525 – was the MIDDLE AGES when stuff like the Black Plague and Crusades was going on. 525 was the year that they started keeping track of years by using A.D. And this little tree was just chilling here in this same exact spot.

Lil’ redwood pie piece.

Then for a hot second, you get spit out on the Cathedral Trees trail which was a little bit of a muddy mess.

In hindsight, it’s so good that we were too early to check in because if we weren’t, we totally would have missed out on our little relaxing tour of this mossy fern wonderland.

All the little thin scraggly trees that grow close together are the new growth, where the biiggg ones that are spread out from each other are the old growth. The rings on the old growth trunks are so dense.

Eventually there’s this small sketchy tunnel that a clear creek runs through, then voila! Back into civilization at the visitor center.

Check in @ Elk Prairie Campground

Our home for the night! We actually booked two nights here and didn’t stay for the second… but that’s a story for later.

It was a really nice spot tucked in to the back. I just loved the fact that we were able to be there. Camp in the redwoods, check. ✔️

Wilson Creek Beach

We ate a peanut butter tortilla first-dinner and hurried down the Redwood Highway to the nearest tide pools for pre-sunset low tide.

Wilson Creek Beach is a little roadside parking lot that leads to a beautiful sandy beach that’s littered with cute agates and lined with algae-covered rocks that have anemones and other squishy things living between them.

When we drove by this beach a few days later going the other direction, the water line was nearly up to those little shrubs in front of the picnic tables. Isn’t it so crazy how variable it can be?

In Maryland, our sandy beaches have shells, not rocks. I’ll never get tired of walking up and down the beach picking up each perfectly round ones like pieces of candy.

Pretty little tide pool playground.

Klamath River Overlook

On the way back from WIlson Creek Beach, we passed the sign for this overlook and I quickly skrrrrrt’d to make a U-turn, figuring it would be something quick. It’s marked on the Redwoods NPS paper map so how could it not be worthwhile right?

Buuuut the drive up to it was actually super convoluted, windy, and sketch. The road goes through actual neighborhoods and becomes one-laned with sharp drop offs at times. I personally LOVE driving crazy roads, but I know that’s not everyone’s thing.

The road dead-ends at a relatively small parking lot that overlooks where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean. We stayed for sunset and were racing the dark to get down that road before the pitch blackness swallowed everything.

Dinnertiiiiime

Our dinner set up! We’ve done this so many times that it feels like second nature and like we have the system down. These instant potatoes are theeee best for camp meals.

In the morning, I made the solo walk to the bathrooms to become human again. Sent that pic to my mom as a check in haha. I peeked my head in to the shower and it was actually not bad at all! Leagues above other camp showers we’ve seen recently.

I was actually super excited to wake up this morning because we had permits for the Tall Trees trail! The day before, we’d gotten the e-mail from the National Park Service with the code for the entrance gate and I was buuuzzzing to use it.

Cathedral Trees to Prairie Creek trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/cathedral-trees-trail-to-prairie-creek-trail

Karl Knapp trail via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/places/karlknapploop.htm

More about Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park:
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415

Make campground reservations at Elk Prairie:
https://www.reservecalifornia.com/