Hotels
Redwood Central
1968 to 1978 was a monumental period for the
Californians who had campaigned -- for many years -- for
the preservation of the state's redwood forests. On
October 2, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson created Redwood
National Park, 50,000 acres of supreme old-growth forest
land in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Then the battles began in earnest, and for
ten years the Save the Redwoods League and lumbering
interests struggled to gain the upper hand for further
preservation, or lumbering. In 1978, President Carter
signed the Redwood National Park Expansion Act, which
increased the size of the park to 106,000 acres. Redwood
National Park is an unusual combination of federal and
state interests. The national park includes three
self-contained state parks: Prairie Creek Redwoods, Del
Norte Redwoods, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods.
The whole area had been occupied for
millennia by several Indian tribes. The Karok were inland
people, living on the upper reaches of the rivers, which
flow through the park. The Yurok lived along the
shoreline and the Hupa lived where the Klamath and
Trinity rivers meet. There were Indian Wars in the area
until around 1870 with massacres and bad feeling
all-around.
The main visitor center for Redwood
National Park is to the west of the highway at
Freshwater Lagoon, south of the town of
Orick. This is a good spot to reserve campsites in
state parks and to obtain hiking trail maps for the
national park. The northern park office is located in
downtown Crescent City, just a block east of
Highway 101. Along the way there are interpretation
centers in each of the state parks.
While there are campgrounds in the three
state parks, there is no developed camping on federal
lands. There are no lodgings within the park at all, and
visitors to the park who wish to stay in motels and
lodges stay in the Eureka/Arcata area, in Orick and
Klamath, or in or near Crescent City at the northern end
of the park. There are hiking trails throughout the
forests, including the southern national park areas. The
south information center on Hwy. 101 is your best
location for trail information in the area. Bus tours
leave the center for the Tall Trees Trails, which are
southeast of Orick, as is the Redwood Creek Trail.
For those who wish to take a complete
vacation hiking the length of the national park, the
Coastal Trail begins off Hwy. 101 west of Lady
Bird Johnson Grove and follows the Pacific Coast,
ending at Enders Beach, just south of Crescent
City. There are campsites along the way, and the trail
ranges in difficulty from Class 1 (easy) to Class 5.
The state parks contained within the
federal parklands offer campgrounds and other visitor
services. These three parks have their own information
centers and have camping accommodations.
For camping reservations at state park
campgrounds in the area, call 800-444-PARK, between 8
a.m. and 5 p.m., seven days a week.
For Information on the three state parks
within the national park, go to:
Prairie Creek Redwoods
State Park
Del Norte Redwoods State
Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State
Park
For information on the Trinidad area, just south of
the parks, go to the North
Humboldt Coast Page.
