Redwoods Itinerary
 

We are spending the last 4 nights of our 2 week vacation in the Redwoods area. We will be traveling to CA from Crater Lake and catching a flight home from Medford, OR. We are a family of 4 with 2 daughters, age 6 and 9. We are staying at Elk Meadow Cabins near Orick.

We want to spend time in various Redwoods Parks, getting some light hiking in, we also want to visit Ferndale, Eureka and Trinidad, Patrick Point State Park, visit some beaches etc...

I am just looking suggestions on how to spend our 3 days in the area and any not to miss hikes, destinations, restaurants, fun things for the kids etc...

Thanks,

To see more of the coast and not backtrack, leave Crater Lake by the north entrance and go west on 138 to Roseburg. 1 exit south on I-5 is rt. 42 and 425 into Bandon. Take US101 south through Brookings to Crescent City. There are 2 sections of Redwood National Park. Check with the NPS site to see where you want to hike among the nice Coast Redwoods.
When you leave for Medford you will travel US 199. Take the side trip over to Oregon Caves National Monument. http://www.nps.gov/orca/index.htm
If this trip is before July 4 you may not be able to use the north entrance of Crater Lake due to snow covered road.

We did a camping trip in that area last summer - camped at Prairie Creek redwoods state park, which is just north of Orick. It is a great park with some good, easy hiking through the redwoods. It is also famous for the Rosevelt Elk herd there, which your kids would probably really enjoy seeing.

There is another area of that same park that has a beach - the road in is dirt, but it is well-maintained. We have a Mazda3 and had no problems with the road. Just beyond the beach area at the end of the road is a fern canyon. This is really neat - one of the coolest places I have ever been. Basically a creek has carved a canyon with vertical walls about 50 feet high - and those walls are covered by ferns. The creek is only full of water in the winter - in the summer it is much smaller so you can hike up the canyon.

Patrick's Point was another highlight of the trip.

If you are in Eureka around breakfast time, head out to the Samoa Cookhouse - this is an old cookhouse from a logging camp and they serve great breakfasts. The building is old and crooked. Service is family-style, so there aren't menus - they just bring whatever is for breakfast to your table and you dish out what you want.

My 11 year old nephew and I spent 3 days in the Redwoods last summer. We did some tidepooling at Patricks Point State Park. I believe this was at Palmers Point(in Patricks Point State Park). We also liked Agate Beach. Be sure and check tidepool tables and arrive an hour before low tide and stay for a couple of hours. Tons of starfish, mussels, etc.

I have been to the Redwoods twice and hiked a pretty good bit there(25 miles). What I would consider the best two hikes in the trees would be The Stout Grove Trail and James Irvine Trail. The drive to get to Stout Grove is on a nice dirt road that is very scenic. This one is super easy and short hike. It is in Jedediah Smith section and is in the north end. The other hike that I really like is James Irvine Trail. It is 4 miles(one way) and isn't hard. It doesn't have much elevation gain or loss and is in shade the entire way. This hike begins right behind the Prarie Creek Visitor Center. The last mile of it is Fern Canyon and then ends at the ocean-Golds Bluff Beach. Even if you don't hike this trail you can still drive around and just hike the Fern Canyon for 1/2 mile or so. It can be accessed by just driving to it or hiking the 4 miles to it. Don't miss Fern Canyon. This is where Jurasic Parks was filmed, btw. And if your kids hike much at all consider doing the entire James Irvine trail. Another option is for one of you to drive the car and three of you hike the trail. This would require just hiking it one way. You might even get lucky and be able to swap cars with someone that is staying at Elk Meadows. I bet the owner there would even give you a shuttle, allowing you to park your car and then hike it one way. But we made an all day hike of it(probably 5 hours) and really enjoyed it. Just take food and water. We didn't see a single person until we got to Fern Canyon.

I agree with Tom that Oregon Caves is worth the side trip. I am really into the historic lodges and Oregon Cave Chateau is a fantastic one that is little known. I enjoyed it as much as the cave.

They call it Elk Meadow Cabins for a reason. First it's in a meadow, second expect to have Elk within 20 feet of your front door. At least thats the way it was when we were there.

Don't miss the chance to swim in Crater Lake. It is allowed at a couple of spots. You will never swim in anything that blue or that pure. The first glimpse of Crater Lake has as much shock and awe as say The Grand Canyon or Yosemite Valley.

Mosquitoes were horrible at Crater Lake and were horrible in Jediah Smith. But not bad at all on my last trip to Prarie Creek. So, just go prepared.

Thanks for the feedback. Tom, we will already have driven the 138 route from Newport to Crater Lake and I do realize we are doing some backtracking on the 199 but our Crater Lake lodge reservation sort of dedicated our schedule. Otherwise we would have driven down the coast of OR to the REdwoods and over to Crater Lake...

As for Oregon Caves, we actually have a reservation there, originally we had thought to do 3 nights in the Redwoods and our last night at the Chateau... but it seemed like I found so much to do in the Redwoods that I thought better of it...


What do you think 3 nights in the Redwoods and 1 night at Oregon Caves or 4 nights Redwoods... Do you really think we would have enough time to make it to the Caves before our flight out of Medford, it leaves at 3:30pm... I wish we had one more night and I would definitely stay at the Caves but our flights are booked...

Sprio: So I take it you liked ElK Meadow Cabins? I like the hikes you suggested and we too love the National Park lodges and try to stay in them when we can... but our children don't seem to appreciate them as much as we do :- I tried to look at your photos from your Oregon and Redwoods trips but the link didn't work...

November I had read your trip report a while ago and it got me very interested in Prairie Creek State Park, especially Gold Beach and Fern Canyon!

I would not try to take a tour of the Oregon Caves and try to make a 3:30 flight from Medford on the same day.
Near the town of Klamath CA if the weather is nice, make a stop and tour the "Trees of Mystery". There is a good gondola ride to the top of the mountain.

If you do decide to stay near the Oregon Caves, an interesting alternative to the Chateau are the treehouses in Cave Junction:

http://www.treehouses.com/treehouse/...t/prclst0.html

Glad you enjoyed my trip report. We had a terrific trip and can't wait to go back to that area again.

Oregon-includes Portland(Chinese Garden, Japanese Garden, Rose Garden, Mt. Hood, Columbia Gorge, Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake, Coast, Sand Dunes, Redwoods-Stout Grove, Oregon Cave, Jet Boating,
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsXbA

Oregon-Canyoneering
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsXfQ

Lassen is the first half,Burney Falls, Redwoods trip 2-Prarie Creek, Patricks Point
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsXgg

The treehouse has a two night minimum. I would do the 3 day at Redwoods and 1 day at Oregon Cave.

The major hike we did in Columbia Gorge was Eagle Creek Trail. Very easy, but it is 12 miles. You pass 6 or 7 major waterfalls. The last is Tunnel Falls which you actually pass behind the falls. Another cool looking place that we didn't visit is Silver Falls State Park- they have a couple of falls you go behind there too.