Every Trail Tells a Story
Tall Trees Grove
Experience the most iconic grove in Redwood National Park, once home to the world’s tallest measured tree.
Enjoy a rare sense of solitude and reverence – permits keep visitation low, and the trees do the rest.
Unlock the gate, walk the trail, and step into what feels like a natural cathedral where the “bouncers” are 300-foot giants.
A visit to the majestic colonnades of redwoods that form the heart of Redwood National Park is apt to be a humbling experience. Voices hush, children shush, eyes lift skyward in reverence. It’s little wonder some hikers feel they’ve entered a natural cathedral and regard their time with the Tall Trees as a kind of spiritual experience.
This grove sits at the center of one of the great conservation dramas of the 1960s. Loggers had been working the surrounding slopes hard, clear-cutting ridges above Redwood Creek. Erosion and silt threatened to choke the creekside flats where the tallest trees in the world rooted themselves. Conservationists rallied, politicians wrangled, and eventually Congress established Redwood National Park in 1968 to save the grove and its watershed.
For decades the Howard Libbey Tree, standing 367.8 feet tall, was celebrated as the world’s tallest measured tree. Later, even taller redwoods were discovered elsewhere in the park – Hyperion, Helios, and others whose exact locations remain secret – but Tall Trees Grove retains its aura of distinction. Here you can stand among giants that once defined the world record and still rank among Earth’s greatest living things.
While the 16-mile adventure up Redwood Creek to reach the grove remains an all-day outing for hardy backpackers, Tall Trees Grove Trail offers a more approachable pilgrimage. Easier to hike, that is – getting there is another matter. Access is tightly controlled to preserve the solitude and protect the grove. You need a free permit, available at Kuchel Visitor Center near Orick. With it comes the gate code for the gravel access road, which you’ll unlock yourself before bumping 5.5 miles down to the trailhead.
The ritual has its own charm: drive up Bald Hills Road, enter the code, open the gate, drive through, close the gate behind you – like sneaking into an exclusive club, only the bouncers are redwoods and the dress code is hiking boots. By the time you’ve made it to the trailhead, you already feel like you’ve been admitted to a very special place.
Once there, don’t rush. Wander the loop beneath fern-draped colossi. Watch shafts of fog-filtered light slip through the canopy. In summer, step onto the bridge across Redwood Creek for a different vantage of the grove. Tall Trees may have ceded its title as the tallest, but not its power to awe. You will leave feeling both small and very much alive.
From Kuchel Visitor Center near Orick, drive 3 miles north on Highway 101 to Bald Hills Road. Turn right and continue 6.5 miles to Tall Trees Grove Access Road. Use the code provided with your permit to unlock the gate (remember to close it behind you), then follow the gravel road 5.5 miles to the trailhead. A pavilion and sign-in book await at road’s end.
From the parking area, descend 0.1 mile to a junction with Emerald Ridge Trail, then continue downhill on Tall Trees Trail. The path drops steadily through a lush forest of old-growth redwoods, huckleberry tangles, and rhododendron that splash color into the shade.
At the bottom you arrive at the giants themselves, immense redwoods grouped like pillars around Redwood Creek. A summer footbridge spans the creek, giving hikers a chance to view the grove from across the water. The 1.3-mile loop highlights several record-holders, including the former tallest measured tree. After completing the loop, retrace your steps up the long but steady climb to the trailhead.