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Trillium Falls Trail
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California
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Why you'll love it
Trillium Falls Trail
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<strong>A Highly Recommended Walk </strong><br /> <br /> This is a family-friendly, short hike passing old-growth redwoods, maples, trillium flowers, ferns, and huge fir trees... with a small waterfall too! There are some switchbacks and an elevation gain of 200-feet to reach the falls.<br /> <br /> Trailhead parking is located at the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/places/elkmeadow.htm">Elk Meadow Day Use Area</a> - just off Davison Road, three miles north of Orick. There is drinking water, information kiosks, flush toilets, picnic tables and it has <strong>plenty of parking for vehicles of any size </strong>(busses, RV's, and trailers included).<br /> <br /> Because of the trail's beauty, and the good parking and picnic options, many rangers recommend this as the best little hike in Redwood National and State Parks. At the parking area, there is a good chance of seeing one of the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/safety.htm">Roosevelt elk</a> herds that live in the park.<br /> <br /> Trillium Falls is 1/2 mile from the trailhead and is a great photo stop and turn-around point. To protect the vegetation at the waterfall <strong>please stay on the hikers' bridge</strong>.<br /> <br /> If you want to see more of the 2.7 mile (4.3 km) loop, then continue past the falls. The trail will climb a few hundred feet again and lead you through more old-growth redwoods, past massive "chimney-trees" and you eventually will cross an old logging road. At this overgrown road, you can cut short your hike half a mile by following the grassy road downhill back to the parking lot. If you continue ahead on the trail, you will see more redwoods as you eventually drop down to in elevation. The trail will lead you north along the edge of Prairie Creek back to the Elk Meadow Day Use parking area.<br /> <br /> <span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Safety Tips</span></span></span> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">We recommend you purchase and use a good map and trail guide for your adventures in Redwood National and State Parks. Don’t rely on online maps when you are here.</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To protect the habitats, leave no trace also means staying on the developed trail. Please don’t go off-trail and make any new trails. These forests grow by the inch, and will die by your foot.</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">To protect the wildlife (and you and other visitors), pets are not allowed on park trails.</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Cell coverage is very limited and cannot be relied on in an emergency. Have a plan for checking in and checking out with a friend when you are here.</span></span></span></li> </ul>
Elk Meadow Day Use Area
~0 min drive
This is a great hub for some hiking, biking, wildlife viewing AND it has plenty of parking! This combination is rare in the redwoods.<br /> <br /> Walkers and hikers love this place because it leads to the gentle Trillium Falls Trail with its old-growth redwoods, and also to t…
Davison Trail: South Access
~0 min drive
A short trail that is part of a of "Hike and Bike" hub in the southern end of the redwood parks. You will see first-hand the legacy of 20th century redwood logging practices.<br /> <br /> This 2.5 mile trail follows an old logging road from the Elk Meadow Day Use area to the E…
Coastal Trail: Skunk Cabbage (South)
~2 min drive
Located off HWY 101 on Robinson Road, this is the southern trailhead for the 7.5 long Skunk Cabbage Trail. The northern trailhead is on Gold Bluffs Beach - just north of the entrance kiosk. The Skunk Cabbage Trail is part of the California Coastal Trail system.<br /> <br /> Th…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #8
~2 min drive
<b>Redwood Resurrection</b><br /> <br /> Commercial logging of redwoods reached into northern Humboldt and Del Norte Counties by the early 1870s. The logging industry dominated the economy of this region for three decades following World War II. The absence of tall trees in th…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #9
~2 min drive
<b>Life after Death</b><br /> <br /> Redwoods do not die easily. The dense heartwood of a living tree resists most forms of insect damage and fungal growth, thus its value in commercial uses. The ability of a redwood to regenerate from burls ensures its longevity. More often t…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #10
~2 min drive
<b>Forest from Ferns</b><br /> <br /> Many years ago, fire swept through this corner of the forest, opening large areas under the canopy to colonization by small, yet beneficial plants. Ferns, like the dominant sword fern, thrive in the all-pervading damp of the redwood unders…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #11
~3 min drive
<b>Lifeblood</b><br /> <br /> Colonial seafarers and early American adventurers cursed the omnipresent rain and fog of northern California. A discomfort to some perhaps, but the mild, wet climate of the North Coast ensures the survival of redwood forests. Wet winters soak the…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #7
~3 min drive
<b>A Forest Protected</b><br /> <br /> By the 1960s, aboriginal redwood forests that had stood for millennia vanished in less than a century. Logged, milled, and shipped elsewhere, the redwoods of northern California built the homes and infrastructure of an expanding nation. T…
Lost Man Creek: Hike and Bike Trail
~3 min drive
An Opportunity To Ride (Or Stroll) Through A Landscape In Recovery.<br /> <br /> Lost Man Creek flows through a landscape greatly changed from the 1960s when much of this area was clearcut logged. What used to be a logging road has been converted into a hike and bike trail. Lo…
Lady Bird Johnson Nature Trail Stop #6
~3 min drive
<b>Towering Patriarchs</b><br /> <br /> Gazing up the immense trunk to the highest reaches of a redwood tree gives us a powerful sense of our own smallness. Capable of ascending to heights over 360 feet, coast redwoods tower over all living things on the planet. Most of its so…
