If you haven’t found the perfect California Coastal Redwoods guide and especially a map yet, let me attempt to tell you a few things we wish we knew before our trip that we know now.
First off, the Redwoods were glorious and trouncing about, we saw many wonderful things. But I couldn’t find the classic tourist pamphlet online before our trip to better plan, but found one in our first hotel. So you can prepare better, here you go, the full pamphlet map with highlights, roads, restaurants, and attractions.
The main thing to note is that the majority of the Redwood items of interest are along Highway 101. There is a road that rides along highway 101 called the Avenue of the Giants. Thats a showstopper road. Everything you see on it will be amazing. There are lots of little spots to pull off to either hop out and explore or to let faster cars pass you. From the South, the show seems to start at Leggett. We only went as far north as Redcrest. By the way, the Eternal Tree House appears to be dead.
The Chandelier Drive Through Tree in Leggett was wonderful. Its still thriving at 2400 years old. Our rented Chrysler Pacifica Minivan slipped through with the mirrors tucked in with no more than millimeters of clearance on both sides…so it was a tight fit. You pay 15$ per car to enter the grounds, and the entrance road takes you straight to the drive through tree. In mid June, 2023, we waited for 5 cars and it was out turn. Most people drove through, got their front doors past the tree, a passenger hopped out, ran in front and took their picture.
Other highlights were the One Log House that was on the side of the road in the same parking lot as the Grandfather Tree. You can go in to the shop to get a code for 2$ in 2023 to unlock and walk into the house. It was worth 2$ for our group of 6 to see it. No crowd. The Shop to get the code is also a big Weed Dispensary, so it stunk pretty skunk in there.
Grandfather tree is awesome at 1800 years old. It has a hobbit hole in the back that our kids quickly walked into.
Something to note about the roads… Highway 101 is a pretty good road that you can keep some pretty good speed on. But most other roads, twist and turn, dodge and weave. On those roads, you’ll see speed limit signs that exceed what most people can accomplish. Since GPS apps like google maps use the posted speed limit to tell you your eta, you may find it takes up to 2 times the GPS estimate to get somewhere. If the road says 55mph, but you can only average 30, then you’ll take twice as long roughly. So account for that.
If you make it to Fort Bragg, the Skunk train was a great time. There is an open air car that you can walk about on. We spent the whole time on it. There were 3 cars that had seats, and one had a bar with snacks, beer and wine. Skunk train doesn’t mean weed either, its a nice family train. And it takes you to a spot in the woods that is flooded with ferns and a great little 0.9 mile trail. It was possibly one of our favorite trails. If you don’t get the last train, you can skip your return ride and stay and hike about. We brought a picnic and did the trails.
Maybe the best thing we noticed about June in the Redwoods…NO MOSQUITOS, maybe we lucked out?
Overall, I’d recommend you get a hotel on the 101. We stayed on the 1. It was glorious to stay on the ocean, but it took a lot longer to get to the highlights than anticipated. There are not many towns with food or gas, so plan ahead. And if you see a grocery store in a small town, expect to pay huge prices for things. Like a frozen pizza for 16$. Fort Bragg had a Safeway with normal California food prices. And they even had a Dollar tree where you could get snacks, plates and plastic ware for 1.25$. That was the best game in town. My treasured find in the California grocery stores were these little pudding cups that didn’t have pudding, but instead had really good Salami. I’ll be hoping these come to my part of the country some time soon.
I hope at least something here was of some use for your planning. I sure wish I had that map up there to start with. You all have fun. Cheers!
