In February, 2024, for E’s birthday we flew into Arcata, CA and explored Redwoods National Park and the surroundings. February is not high season for that area, so we enjoyed cooler weather and no crowds. We debated for a while where to stay, but ended up deciding on Crescent City. All the other little towns were too far from civilization and food. Crescent City was a good base for exploring the nearby parks.

First, we stopped in Orick at the Redwood Creek Beach Park to explore the empty beach covered in driftwood. We found huge mussels shells and built a shelter.

The next day in the morning we headed to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park and drove through a magical forest of redwoods on a narrow one lane road. The sun was peeking through little openings in the canopy sending rays to the forest floor.

We got up close and personal with the park on the Grove of the Titans hike (1.7mi) – it’s an easy and well-maintained hike.

We did a few other small hikes and ended the day at a brewery in Crescent City.

The next day we wanted a challenge so we got the permit to do the Tall Trees Grove Loop Trail (3.6mi) – a moderate hike with almost 800ft elevation gain. Going down S did great, on the way back he needed a little help.

For dinner we went to Schmidt’s House of Jambalaya and got a couple of their house specialties. They were decent, but we were still hungry after we were done with them. So we went to Crescent Seafood for our second dinner. The ambiance was not fancy at all but the food was good and more reasonably priced.

We watched the sunset from Preston Island in Crescent City.

On the last day we went to the Trees of Mystery in Klamath. It was a bit cheesy, but we had fun on their canopy trail.

It was a fun little trip.