We woke up bright and early in the foggy morning at Elk Prairie Campground after having a super relaxing night of sleep in the back of the Pacifica. I swear I sleep better in our camp set up some nights than I do in our bed at home.

After brushing our teeth, shaking out the bedhead, and stretching our little legs real quick, we quickly headed back down south to Redwood National Park.

We’d been there the day before to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, and today we were gonna retrace those steps and go juuust a little farther to the Tall Trees Grove.

After passing the Lady Bird Johnson Grove parking lot, the road becomes a one lane gravel situation. It was fine in the mini van but would have been such a better experience with a little bit of 4×4 on our side.

Tall Trees trailhead

The Tall Trees Grove requires a free permit that you reserve online. They only allow 50 people to visit it every day.

The day before, we’d received an e-mail from the National Park Service with the access code for the gate. They give strict instructions not to allow anyone to tailgate you, that each person has to close and open the gate independently.

The grove was named this way because from the 1960’s to 1994, the tallest tree in the world lived here. In 1994, the top of the tree died and it became the 30-something-th tallest tree.

I just have to say – this vault toilet is easily the cleanest, best, 10/10 vault toilet I’ve ever visited.

This trail is a big ol’ jungle gym of fallen redwoods. Lots of ducking and straddling along the way.

Overall, the trail is about 4.5 miles with ~800 ft of elevation gain. It’s a big lollipop – straight down into the valley where the grove is, then straight back up out of it. We started around 8:30AM and tried to make good time in order to race the rain that was in the forecast.

“Rumors of the ‘great timer’ by area loggers led National Geographic Society naturalist, Paul Zahl, to this remote creek valley in 1963. On one of his trips, Zahl stopped on the cut-over ridge just across from this group to take some pictures.

“‘While catching my breath, I scanned the treetops before me, and suddenly started. One particular redwood rose above the others like a giant candle. I had already measured its companions – all of them about 320 feet tall. But this great tree stood somewhat inland- and that explained my missing it earlier.’

“The discovery of the Tall Tree and other coast redwood giants along Redwood Creek renewed a century-old effort to establish a national redwood park. Concern over the possible harvest of these record-breakers helped lead to the establishment of Redwood National Park in 1968.”

Some of the people hiking with us had backpacked the night before a camped along the creek. How cool is that?

Everyone should visit the redwoods at least once in their life. Being there is so rejuvenating, I swear the air is healing.

I still have trouble fathoming how old they are. How long they’ve stood in that one spot. It’s fun to talk to them. :’)

Alllllll of the rings.

Hi. 🙂

It was so! dusty! California was going through a worse-than-usual drought when we were there and everything – plants, base of trees, cars, ourselves – were covered in a layer of dirt dust.

And um, how insanely adorable is this precious hiking kitten?

We made it back to the parking lot at 11:30AM – about three hours here total – and passed a seemingly endless people going down as we were going up. We had great timing and got so lucky.

Here’s a pretty good idea of the gate situation. Not gonna lie, it feels like a bit of an honor to be one of the fifty allowed inside. If only every other important place could be protected like this.

Tall Trees Grove 101 via NPS:
https://www.nps.gov/thingstodo/talltreeshike.htm

Make day use reservations for the Tall Tress trail:
https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/talltreespermits.htm

Tall Trees trail via AllTrails:
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/tall-trees-grove-loop-trail

Make campground reservations at California State Parks:
https://www.reservecalifornia.com/