May 25th, again we ventured north to explore the Redwood National Park and hike in the old forests. We drove past Lady Bird Johnson Grove along Bald Hills Road to the Tall Trees access road where we needed a permit to enter through the locked gate, with a secret combination. The difficulty of getting to the Tall Trees Grove only adds to the grove’s mystique, it feels like you are entering some secret hideout. After locking the gate we drove 6 miles along a dusty logging rode to the trailhead. The trail descends steeply immediately, it is a 1.3 mile hike down to the Tall TreesGrove. There were many pink rhododendrons along the trail nestled among the redwoods rising tall and straight from the steep hillside. We reached the bottom of the trail at the Tall Trees Grove and it was beautiful, uniquely special, a reserved magnificence with dark-trunked monster redwoods set among 5 ft tall ferns. This grove is well-known for the Libby tree, which at one time was the world’s tallest known living thing. Although taller redwoods have since been found the Libby tree is still interesting because it’s the only one of the former tall trees that you can actually see. After walking around the loop and marveling at these magnificent redwoods, we took a trail that leads to the Redwood Creek and came out into the sunshine. The broad creek glittered in the sunlight and with its gravel banks and expansive views of the surrounding redwood-covered hillsides, it is a beautiful scene to experience. We stayed for awhile to soak up the beauty. With a permit you can camp anywhere along the creek banks and we saw some backpackers arriving to spend the night as we hiked the steep long grade back up to our car.
On our way back to Trinidad we stopped to hike another trail out to the beach. It was about an 8 mile hike there and back and the views were not very good at all. We returned to the RV exhausted and happy to have seen such a fabulous area of the Redwood National Park.