Every Trail Tells a Story
Brown Creek
Experience a classic loop through redwoods, rhododendron, and a lively creek.
Visit memorial groves that honor two giants of conservation.
Escape the crowds while still enjoying an easy-access trail in the park’s heart.
Brown Creek, a tributary of far-better-known Prairie Creek, flows past stands of mighty redwoods. In the right light (a sunny day), the redwoods and the green creekside flora combine to create a magical forest.
By magical I mean both the ancient trees and the profusion of understory – ferns, mushrooms, moss, and redwood sorrel – that spring from enormous “nursery” logs. Oh, those towering redwoods! You can’t quite see the tops of the tall trees and often you can’t see end-to-end along one of the fallen giants, engulfed as they are by greenery. The forest seems intent on reminding you that in the redwoods, nothing is wasted – death itself fuels new life.
The trail offers history as well as scenery. Near Brown Creek are two memorial groves named for big-time conservationists: Trees of the Great Grove, dedicated to Carl Alwyn Schenck (1868-1955), founder of America’s first forestry school, and a grove honoring Frederick Law Olmsted, famed landscape architect of Central Park and a co-founder of the Save-the-Redwoods League. These men worked to save trees; in naming groves for them, the park reminds us that the redwoods needed friends in high places to survive the logger’s saw.
A trio of trails forms this engaging loop. South Fork Trail wastes no time, climbing briskly into the redwoods. Rhododendron Trail, as the name suggests, features the bright pink and red blooms of rhododendron in mid-spring and early summer. The flowers seem to glow all the more vividly against the dark redwoods. Brown Creek Trail brings you down to the watercourse itself – an intimate companion, with burbling waters and the largest redwoods of the loop standing like guardians along its banks.
What’s not to like? The loop is easily accessible yet far removed from Highway 101 traffic. It’s long enough to feel like a real hike but short enough to fit into a half day. It’s uncrowded compared to other short redwood trails – perhaps the stiff ascent on South Fork discourages the flip-flop crowd. Lucky you: the fewer the people, the more the forest feels like your private cathedral.
From Highway 101, about 5 miles north of Orick, exit onto Newton B. Drury Parkway. Drive 2.7 miles to a pullout (just past the Big Trees pullout) and the signed trailhead for South Fork Trail.
South Fork Trail ascends 0.2 mile before passing a junction with Brown Creek Trail (your return route) on the left. Short, steep, and sweet, South Fork climbs a mile to meet Rhododendron Trail. Turn left and descend through a redwood-filled ravine, cross a footbridge over Brown Creek, and reach a junction with Brown Creek Trail.
Turn left to follow the creek, where the redwoods seem to grow larger with every step. About halfway down, a spur crosses the creek to a memorial grove. Stay on the main path as it curves and crosses the creek again, eventually rejoining South Fork Trail. A short 0.2 mile returns you to the trailhead.