Redwood Creek

Mileage: 3.0 total

Elevation Gain: 360 ft

NOTE: Do not leave any valuables in you car, frequent break-ins are reported at this trailhead.

Want to know the water level of Redwood Creek? Check the Water gauge here.

The gauge will help you decide whether or not you want to ford the creek and continue on for another 6-7 miles to get to Tall Trees Grove. When the top chart on that page (water discharge rate) reaches 400ft, the park service stops fording the creek as that supposedly signifies that the creek is 18 inches high and could be difficult to cross.

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While planning our trip to Redwood National & State Parks, we seriously considered backpacking Redwood Creek, but to do so you have to ford the creek to get to the two main camps (Elam and 44 camp). We monitored the water gauge and the discharge rate appeared higher than 400ft, so we revised plans. However, the water level dropped before our trip and we saw a couple able to cross the creek while only getting wet up to their mid-shin (and that was only in one deep spot, mostly the creek was ankle high). We don’t regret revising our plans because it allowed us to see more areas of the park, however, the Redwood Creek area did look like a beautiful spot to camp.

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For this hike, we just took the short, flat, 1.5 mile stroll to the creek to see what it looked like. Redwood Creek feeds some of the tallest trees in the world, so it was a special feeling being able to see the creek. Surprisingly, the hike to the creek doesn’t really have many redwoods, but once you start to get a good view of the creek about a half mile into the hike, it’s cool to look across and see the redwoods on the other side. They definitely appear large and in charge.

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The trail does have a lot of big pine trees and some oaks covered in moss, which are beautiful in their own right. Once we got to the end of the trail, where the seasonal footbridge would normally be in the summer, we scrambled down the embankments, rock hopped, and walked across a few logs to get onto a rocky shoal in the middle of the creek. The shoal provided a fantastic view of the creek and the redwoods in the distance. We refilled our Katadyns since the drinking fountains in Redwood NP were turned off during our trip (which made getting water a real hassle) and sat down to take in the sights. Since we were near the end of our trip we reminisced about the great adventures we had (Stout Grove and James Irvine) as we listened to the rushing water next to us.

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Eventually, we headed back to our car down the remarkably flat trail and were happy to find that our car was intact at the trailhead.