Simpson Reed Grove Trail, Redwood National and State Parks

Simpson Reed Grove Trailhead, near Hwy 199

One of the parks we visited in our Klamath Region Circle of Parks trip is Redwood National and State Parks in Northern California. From Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, we drove South to Oregon Caves National Monument ( I'll feature Oregon Caves later ) and then continued Southwest to Redwoods National and State Parks.

Coming from the North, the first Visitor Center we saw was the Hiouchi Information Center. We usually stop at every park's visitor center first to ask for more information, and also to write our names in the guest's log. Park rangers told us before that whenever we write our names in the guest list's log, we are helping the park in a way that we have been counted in the visitors list, and the funding of the park is also dependent on its number of visitors. Plus of course, it is always safe to tell people where you are, as you do not know what could happen in the trail. 

Starting from Hiuochi Visitor Center, our first destination was the Simpson Reed Grove Trail, of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The trailhead is about  1.5 miles west of the Hiouchi visitor center. The Simpson Reed Grove trail is one of the most popular trails in the park because of its accessibility. 

Simpson Reed Grove Trail,  Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

The trail is on an easy and flat 1 mile loop. We were there about 2:00 pm, yet the lighting inside the trail is very low because of the dense redwood forest. Aside from redwoods, lush green ferns are beautifully lining the trail as if beautifully landscaped by nature. Despite the trail being close to the highway, but inside is very quiet and peaceful, as if these tall trees and lush vegetation were filtering the outside noise. Simpson Reed Grove trail is one of the old growth redwoods in Redwood National and State Parks that we visited. Aside from redwoods, there are other vegetation that can be found in this forest. There were hemlock trees covered with lichens

Lichens Hanging on a Tree

and some wildflowers.

Redwood National and State Parks is a world heritage site and an international biosphere reserve protecting the ancient coast redwood ecosystem which contains some of our planet's tallest trees and oldest living things. A forest right next to the ocean, the biological diversity in this region is remarkable. Ocean life such as gray whales, sea stars, giant anemones, are at home with the world's tallest trees. 

I will have more about redwoods and the other ancient growth coastal redwoods we visited in the park. Meanwhile, I will leave you with some more of our pictures (with us in the picture to show the comparison how dwarfed we were by the tall trees).

The redwoods can reach up to 379 ft high, almost 6 stories higher than the Statue of Liberty. However, redwoods are not the only tall trees that can grow in this forest, the douglas- fir trees are at home with the redwoods as well. Despite being so tall and have shallow roots, redwoods seldom fall over, they are resistant to fire, insects, disease and fungi allowing them to live more than 20 human lifetimes. 

More about Redwoods National and State Parks to come...

♥♥