Trillium Falls

Mileage: 2.6 total

Elevation Gain: 433 ft

NOTE: If you look at this trail on a map, you’d say “it’s so close to the road, forget this.” While you can hear road noise on the second half of the loop, this is a trail worth doing. The setting for the tiny waterfall (really it’s a cascade) is absolutely magical and the scenery throughout the trail is breathtaking.

Right next to the 101 North in the Elk Meadow Picnic area, you’ll find the Trillium Falls Trailhead. It offers a fair amount of hills to climb as you make your way through a lush, breath-taking Redwood forest. The waterfall is not particularly grandiose, it’s not huge, hell it’s not even medium-sized, but the setting of the waterfall is absolutely magical. The backdrop is a wonderful bridge next to an ancient, arcing, moss-covered tree. It’s a setting I have just never seen before and it’s truly spectacular. When we looked down the hill and saw the falls it was amazing.

The waterfall is right near the beginning of the trail if you go counter-clockwise, so you can make this a really short hike by turning back there – but we suggest you continue on and soak in the numerous redwood groves and beautiful environment that continues for several miles.

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The parking lot has space for 20ish cars, pit toilets, trash/recycling, and a water fountain that had been turned off due to Covid.

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NOTE: During Covid, water was incredibly hard to find in Redwood National and State Parks, I believe they turned off all public spigots and water fountains. During our stay, Emily and I resorted to filtering water from creeks and using spigots in the front-country campgrounds.

If you choose to go counter-clockwise, you’ll start off going uphill, almost immediately working your way into a classic redwood setting with red needles on the ground and moist, dense foliage like ferns. Just look at the light filtering through the trees below, it’s breathtaking. And we just took these photos on a regular Pixel 3 smartphone!

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There are a plethora of redwoods throughout the hike, they’re really just everywhere you look and it seems like every tenth of a mile there is another plaque dedicating a grove to a charitable conservationist. There had to be at least ten dedicated groves on this trail.

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Very quickly, you’ll find yourself at the falls and the combo with the bridge, falls, and moss-covered trees is just drop dead gorgeous.

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As you continue up through the redwood covered hills, you won’t be disappointed as the redwoods remain huge and the environment lush and scenic. Will you hear the traffic noise at the end of the loop? Yes, but wow the scenery on the trail really makes it worth it.

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As you round the loop and descend the hillside you’ll find yourself on the bike path back to the parking lot and you can walk next to the creek and meadow while enjoying a few glimpses of the forest covered hills to the east.

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Overall, the Trillium Falls trail is deceivingly beautiful, and we highly recommend it if you are visiting Redwood National and State Parks. It’s one of our top 3 things to do in the park and we think it offers more than many of the more popular hikes you will see listed for Redwood (i.e. Tall Trees, Lady Bird Johnson).