Biggest Redwoods around

Coppertone and I stopped here on our way back home after a weekend in the Santa Cruz area.  The main park entrance is abuzz with tourists, which really lowers the solitude factor.  Typically, the farther from a trailhead you go the more solitude you'll get, and you need not really go THAT far.

For being closer in to Santa Cruz than some other parks, it's amazing how many huge Redwoods are here.  The park signage and brochure explains why generous benefactors were able to save these for us.

The Redwood Grove Loop trail was about as easy as could be and despite the large number of people here it's still possible to enjoy a bit of quiet now and then.  The trees are, of course, magnificent and the main draw of the park.  An interpretive guide for this trail provided a few facts on Redwoods we had not yet known.

Heading south of the Redwood Grove loop we Rincon Fire Road down to Cathedral Redwoods, one of the nicer rings of trees we'd seen all weekend.  The best part was that we had it all to ourselves until just about the time we were getting ready to head back.

The return trip to the trailhead included the Big Rock Hole Trail and the River Trail that roughly parallels the fire road.  But being hiking only the path is more narrow and for us more fun.  Be aware of the poison oak though!