Patrick's Point SP and the CA Coastal Redwoods

We stopped just north of Trinidad, CA, to begin our side trips into this land of the redwoods.







Azalea Glen RV Park was close to the Patrick’s Point SP and offered a quiet, small park with manicured, grassy RV sites, lovely gardens and privacy created by planted hedges and vines between sites.  

We spent a morning walking around Patrick's Point SP, talking to staff about the redwoods, and the rugged northern CA coast.  During a coastal rim hike we got some great views of the ocean, and could hear the barking of seals below. However, their location remained hidden from the cliff-top. To desert-dwellers, trees around Patrick’s Point seemed large to us. And, then we found those trees were, for the most part, not the redwoods!  Still they were impressive.

Patrick's Point Coastline

This state park has camping and trails, woodlands and beaches.  But it also has the Sumeg Village – built in 1990 by the Yurok Nation people. This village demonstrates the historical village structures of these people.  Open for all to tour, this area is a great learning experience.  But more significant, it is still used for local tribal cultural and educational activities to help preserve their heritage.  Well worth the visit.

You don’t have to go very far north of Trinidad to begin entering sections of the Redwoods National and State Parks.  This notation of national and state was new for us.  Learning more about the development of the park, and the conservation of the redwoods was very informative. Actually, the state of CA began preserving coastal redwood lands in the early 1900’s and established several state park areas at redwood groves in the 1920’s.  Congress created the Redwood National Park in 1968, and added more lands to the park in 1978. And, as a last and enduring step for conserving the redwoods, in 1994, the national and state park services began cooperative management of these set-aside redwood lands.  And, none to soon – only an estimated 5% of these wonderful trees are still around for us to admire.

There are several visitors’ centers within the redwood park lands.  We visited the Kuchel and the Prairie Creek centers and found very helpful staff available to direct us to trails, etc. One bit of advice from all the rangers and volunteers, was to make sure to take the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway (rather than the 101) going North.

Coastal Redwoods

While touring some of the old groves along scenic parkway, we decided this route was RV-friendly and planned to head back up it as we departed the next day for the Oregon coast.  Imagine our surprise when we got to the parkway the next morning and found it closed for construction!  (The rangers were, apparently, as surprised as we were). Oh, well, the 101 alternative was now our only choice and it proved to be more curves and steep grades – doable, but not what we anticipated.

More info on the redwoods:

The coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, are found along the NW coast of California and are listed as the world’s tallest trees.  If you placed the Statue of Liberty within an old grove of these trees, the Statue would be hidden by trees reaching close to 400-foot heights. Two other species of redwoods exist, the dawn redwood (central China) and the giant sequoia (Sierra Nevada’s western slope in CA).

The ancestors of these 3 trees were around during the Jurrasic Period (think dinosaurs).  Redwoods are cone-bearers and have small seeds.  However, the coastal redwoods, with no deep tap root, but an extensive root system, can also produce sprouts. And, they form large burls near the trunk base, which can, when the “mother” plant needs to, produce sprouts from the burl area.  This is a plant designed to survive.