Best Hiking Trails in Redwood National Park

Redwood National and State Parks protect the tallest trees on Earth along roughly 40 miles of Northern California coastline, and the hardest part of visiting isn’t finding a trail, it’s picking one. Between four jointly managed parks (Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods, Del Norte Coast Redwoods, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks), there are old-growth groves, fern-walled canyons, and coastal bluffs spread across a park with almost no cell service to help you decide on the fly. Below, we break down the best hikes by difficulty and highlight, with real mileage, elevation, and community rating data pulled from onX Backcountry’s trail network, so you can pick a route that matches your day, not just your bucket list.

Why Redwood National Park Is a Must-Hike Destination

Redwood National Park was established in 1968 and combined with three California state parks in 1994 to form Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP), a single 139,000-acre jointly managed unit that protects about 45% of all remaining old-growth coast redwood forest on Earth. The parks were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 and an International Biosphere Reserve in 1983. Coast redwoods here regularly top 300 feet, and the tallest known tree on the planet, Hyperion (roughly 380 feet), grows somewhere within the park’s boundaries—its exact location is kept off maps and out of trail guides to protect it from damage.

RNSP charges no park entrance fee, which is unusual for a destination this significant. Some of the state park units inside the boundary do charge day-use parking fees—$8 at Jedediah Smith Redwoods and $12 at Prairie Creek Redwoods’ Gold Bluffs Beach—and those fees are waived with an America the Beautiful pass or if you’re camping at Gold Bluffs Beach or Elk Prairie Campground. The terrain ranges from sea level at the coastal bluffs to about 3,163 feet at Schoolhouse Peak, so a single day here can include a flat streamside stroll and a legitimate climb. Add fog-filtered old-growth light, herds of Roosevelt elk in the coastal prairies, and a shoreline that rarely sees a crowd, and it’s easy to see why hikers plan entire Pacific Northwest and Northern California road trips around this park. (Hikers weighing Redwood against old-growth destinations further north, like Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, will find a similar temperate-rainforest feel with a very different coastline.)

Easy Day Hikes for Weekend Explorers

These routes suit hikers who want old-growth payoff without a full-day commitment—ideal for a spontaneous coastal detour or a first morning in the park.

• Lady Bird Johnson Grove Nature Trail is a 1.4-mile loop with about 99 feet of elevation gain through old-growth redwood, Douglas fir, and tanoak. It’s the most-reviewed trail in our data pull, rated 4.35 out of 5 across 43 community ratings, and its flat, well-maintained loop makes it one of the most reliable introductions to the park.
• Prairie Creek Trail runs 4 miles point-to-point with roughly 312 feet of gain along gorgeous redwood forest and coastal streams. It carries a 4.33 rating from 9 reviewers and connects easily to other trails in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park section of the park.
• Redwood Creek Trail is a gentler 1.1-mile point-to-point walk with about 87 feet of gain, following the giant coastal redwoods along Redwood Creek. It’s rated 4.17 out of 5 across 12 ratings.
• Trillium Falls Loop Trail covers 2.7 miles and about 497 feet of gain, looping past a small but scenic waterfall through misty redwood forest. It holds a 3.93 rating across 15 reviews, making it one of the more consistently reviewed easy hikes in the park.

Hikers coming from farther south who want a comparable low-commitment redwood walk closer to home can also check trail options near Fontana, CA.

Moderate Trails for Adventure Planners

If you’ve got the better part of a day and want the best return on your effort, these routes deliver without requiring backcountry-level commitment.

• Redwoods Splendor Loop is a 14.5-mile loop with about 2,503 feet of gain that stitches together some of the best of both the national and state park sections. It’s the highest-rated moderate route in our data set at a perfect 5 out of 5, though that’s across a smaller sample of 6 community ratings.
• Friendship Ridge Loop Hike runs 7.4 miles with roughly 1,157 feet of gain through varied terrain and forest types. It’s rated 4.5 out of 5 across 6 reviews.
• West Ridge Trail covers 6.95 miles point-to-point with about 1,541 feet of gain along an undulating ridgeline through old-growth redwood groves. It carries a 4.43 rating across 7 community ratings.
• Trinidad Head Trail is a short but punchy 1.24-mile loop with about 508 feet of gain, climbing a coastal headland for 360-degree ocean views. It’s rated 4.33 out of 5 across 9 reviews and sits just south of the main park, making it an easy add-on for a coastal day.

Planners road-tripping the coast can also compare regional moderate-day options near Port Hueneme, California before locking in a Redwood itinerary.

Challenging Hikes for Experienced Trekkers

For hikers who want real mileage, big elevation change, and fewer people on the trail, these routes are the park’s toughest maintained day hikes.

• Damnation Creek Trail is the highest-rated trail in our entire Redwood data pull at 4.90 out of 5 across 21 community ratings. It runs about 1.9 miles one-way (most hikers treat it as an out-and-back, so plan on roughly 4 miles round trip) with around 204 feet of gain per the trail network, though the drop to the coastal bluff and back is steeper than the net numbers suggest — old-growth canopy gives way abruptly to ocean views at the bottom.
• James Irvine Trail, Prairie Creek to Fern Canyon is a 10.86-mile out-and-back with about 1,785 feet of gain, following Godwood Creek through fern-draped forest to the famous walls of Fern Canyon. It’s rated 4.86 out of 5 across 35 reviews, the second-highest mark in our pull.
• Dolason Prairie Trail descends 4.66 miles toward Harry Weir Creek, dropping roughly 2,117 feet from open prairie into quiet old-growth forest—meaning the climb happens on the way back out. It carries a 4.25 rating across 4 reviews.
• Miner’s Ridge Trail, Prairie Creek to Gold Bluffs Beach is a 9.47-mile out-and-back with about 1,595 feet of gain connecting inland redwood groves to the coast at Gold Bluffs Beach. It hasn’t accumulated a community rating in our data yet, but it’s one of the longer, quieter strenuous options in the park for hikers who want solitude over signature views.

Trekkers who like their elevation gain paired with technical terrain can browse similarly demanding western trails near Montrose, Colorado for comparison.

Most Scenic Trails for Nature Photography

Yellowstone has geysers, the Everglades have gators, the Smokies have waterfalls, and Redwood has light. These are the routes worth planning a shoot around.

• Tall Trees Trail is a 2.27-mile route that drops roughly 665 feet down to Tall Trees Grove, home to some of the park’s tallest trees, then climbs back out the same way. It’s rated 4.52 out of 5 across 25 reviews—one of the best-reviewed hikes in the entire park—but access requires a free permit reserved at least 24 hours in advance (up to 180 days ahead) through the National Park Service, since the trailhead sits behind a locked gate.
• Fern Canyon is a short, 1.2-mile out-and-back with about 195 feet of gain into a canyon with 50- to 80-foot walls draped floor-to-ceiling in ferns—arguably the single most photographed quarter-mile in the park. It hasn’t picked up a formal community rating in our current data pull, but it’s consistently one of the most requested destinations in the park, and access via Davison Road requires a day-use permit (free for hiking, $12 for beach access) between May 15 and September 15.
• Coastal Trail: Last Chance is a 14.38-mile out-and-back with about 3,297 feet of gain, covering nearly every landscape type Redwood offers: bluff-top prairie, dense forest, and open coastline. It’s rated 4.14 out of 5 across 7 reviews and rewards photographers willing to put in the mileage for golden-hour coastal light.
• Klamath River Overlook is a short, 0.97-mile out-and-back with about 375 feet of gain to a bluff-top viewpoint over the mouth of the Klamath River—a reliable spot for whale watching in migration season and dramatic Pacific sunsets with minimal hiking required.

Photographers chasing dramatic, high-desert-meets-forest contrast elsewhere in the West might also compare trail options near Fremont, UT.

Trail Logistics: Access, Parking, and Best Times to Visit

Redwood National and State Parks has no park entrance fee, but individual state park units inside the boundary do charge day-use parking fees: $8 at Jedediah Smith Redwoods and $12 at Prairie Creek Redwoods’ Gold Bluffs Beach (which also covers Fern Canyon beach access). Both fees are waived with an America the Beautiful pass or for registered campers at Gold Bluffs Beach or Elk Prairie Campground.

Two trails in this guide require advance reservations: Fern Canyon and Gold Bluffs Beach require a day-use permit from May 15 through September 15—free for the hike-in permit, $12 for beach access — booked online in advance, since Davison Road access is gated and capacity-limited in peak season. Tall Trees Trail requires a free vehicle permit that can be booked up to 180 days ahead but must be reserved at least 24 hours before your visit; the permit comes with a gate code for the access road, emailed the day before your hike.

Backcountry camping anywhere in the parks requires a free permit, available year-round with no lottery or quota beyond standard site-specific limits. Frontcountry campgrounds like Elk Prairie and Jedediah Smith can book out in summer, so reserve ahead for peak-season trips.

For trail maps: official park maps are available at any of the park’s visitor centers, but cell service disappears almost immediately past the trailhead in most of RNSP—which is exactly the gap offline, downloadable maps are built to close. Bay Area hikers staging a trip north can also scout closer-to-home trail options near South San Francisco, California, while planning logistics for the drive up Highway 101.

Plan Your Redwood Hike With onX Backcountry

Apps like AllTrails and Gaia GPS are common starting points for browsing reviews, but once you’re actually on trail in Redwood—where fog, dense canopy, and coastal cliffs can make navigation trickier than the flat elevation numbers suggest—the tools that matter most are offline maps, accurate elevation profiles, and a track record you can trust when you’re the one navigating.

onX Backcountry gives hikers downloadable offline maps for the entire park, detailed elevation profiles for routes like Damnation Creek and the James Irvine Trail before you ever leave the trailhead, and the ability to drop waypoints and track your own path in real time. Whether you’re planning a half-mile stroll to Lady Bird Johnson Grove or a full coastal push down Last Chance, pull up Redwood National Park in the App and build your route with the same trail data behind this guide.

Frequently Asked Questions