Every Trail Tells a Story
Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park
Stroll among towering redwoods in one of California’s smallest and least-visited parks.
Wander Cheatham Grove, famous as a filming site for Return of the Jedi.
Picnic or camp beside the Van Duzen River, complete with swimming holes and summer sunshine.
Some parks are famous. Some are beloved. And some, like Grizzly Creek Redwoods, are for completists-collectors who simply cannot pass up a redwood park, no matter how small or oddly placed.
Grizzly Creek is one of the tiniest redwood preserves in the state system, just a few hundred acres tucked into the Van Duzen River Valley. It’s also the farthest inland of California’s coastal redwood parks-nearly 30 miles from the fog and sea. The result is a redwood forest with a different feel: drier, quieter, and somehow more fragile than its coastal cousins.
Tranquil it is not, at least not in summer when Highway 36 delivers a steady rumble of cars and the occasional eighteen-wheeler close by the campground. Let’s just say the soundtrack is not quite cathedral hush. But slip onto one of the six short trails, and the park reveals itself in a more intimate key. Ferns fringe the paths, light filters down through second-growth and old-growth, and the trees still rise to 300 feet, as if to remind us that grandeur doesn’t require grand acreage.
Hollywood noticed. George Lucas and crew filmed scenes for Return of the Jedi here, making Cheatham Grove-three miles west of the main campground-briefly famous as a stand-in for the Forest Moon of Endor. (No word on whether the film crew simply dubbed in the Ewoks’ squeals later to cover the sound of trucks downshifting on the grade.) A short loop trail explores Cheatham Grove, and if you want to sleep among the giants, six primitive environmental campsites are tucked into the grove as well.
The main park unit sits at the confluence of Grizzly Creek and the Van Duzen River, with summer swimming holes, shady campsites, and that rare thing in redwood country: hot inland sunshine. A seasonal footbridge spans the Van Duzen, allowing hikers to reach the park’s best footpath, the 1.25-mile Memorial Trail, and its spur, the Baird Trail, which wanders into one of the park’s loveliest old-growth stands.
Grizzly Creek may not have the grandeur of Humboldt Redwoods or the marquee fame of Muir Woods, but for those who seek out every redwood grove, it offers a leg-stretcher, a picnic, and a story to tell-whether that’s about conservation, climate, or Ewoks.
From Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park is located at 16949 Highway 36 near Carlotta, 17 miles east of Highway 101. Turn right past the entrance station and park in the picnic area lot. Cross the Van Duzen River on the summer footbridge and follow a dirt road a short distance to Memorial Trail on your left.
Memorial Trail leads into a redwood forestdrier than the fern-choked groves nearer the coast, but no less impressive when the light catches the cinnamon bark of the trunks. After about 0.25 mile the path splits. Bear right into a woodland of tanoak, maple, and bay laurel, then continue east to the short Baird Trail, which loops through a particularly fine stand of old growth along the Van Duzens banks.
When youve lingered long enough, return via the rest of the Memorial Trail, completing the loop back to the picnic area.