The Redwood National and State Parks (RNSP) are a complex of one
United States national park
The United States has 63 national parks, which are congressionally designated protected areas operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks are designated for their natural beauty, unique g ...
and three
California state parks
California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, a department under the California Natural Resources Agency. The California State ...
located along the coast of northern
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. The combined RNSP contain Redwood National Park,
Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park,
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving old-growth Sequoia sempervirens, redwoods along the Smith River (California), Smith River. It is located along U.S. Route 199 approximately east of Cre ...
, and
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The parks' 139,000 acres (560 km
2) preserve 45 percent of all remaining old-growth coast redwood forests.
Located in
Del Norte and
Humboldt counties, the four parks protect the
endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
coast redwood (''
Sequoia sempervirens
''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995: 606–607 is the sole living species of the genus ''Sequoia (genus), Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast ...
'')—the tallest, among the oldest, and one of the most massive tree species on Earth—which thrives in the humid temperate rainforest. The park region is highly seismically active and prone to tsunamis. The parks preserve 37 miles (60 km) of pristine coastline, indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, waterways, as well as threatened animal species, such as the Chinook salmon, northern spotted owl, and Steller's sea lion.
Redwood forest originally covered more than two million acres (8,100 km
2) of the California coast, and the region of today's parks largely remained wild until after 1850. The
gold rush
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...
and attendant timber business unleashed a torrent of European-American activity, pushing Native Americans aside and supplying lumber to the West Coast. Decades of unrestricted
clear-cut logging ensued, followed by ardent
conservation efforts. In the 1920s, the
Save the Redwoods League helped create Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks among others. After lobbying from the league and the
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
, Congress created Redwood National Park in 1968 and expanded it in 1978. In 1994, the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
(NPS) and the
California Department of Parks and Recreation
California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, a department under the California Natural Resources Agency. The California State ...
combined Redwood National Park with the three abutting Redwoods State Parks into a single administrative unit. Modern RNSP management seeks to both protect and restore the coast redwood forests to their condition before 1850, including by
controlled burning.
In recognition of the rare ecosystem and cultural history found in the parks, the United Nations designated them a
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
in 1980. Local tribes declared an Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area in 2023, protecting the parks region, the coastline, and coastal waters. Park admission is free except for special permits, and visitors may camp, hike, bike, and ride horseback along about of park system trails.
History
Native Americans

Modern-day
Native American nations such as the
Yurok
The Yurok people are an Algic-speaking Indigenous people of California that has existed along the or "Health-kick-wer-roy" (now known as the Klamath River) and on the Pacific coast, from Trinidad south of the Klamath’s mouth almost to Cresc ...
,
Tolowa,
Karuk
The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...
,
Chilula, and
Wiyot
The Wiyot ( Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-'at xee-she or Wee-yan' Xee-she', Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne – "Mad River People", Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a small ...
have historical ties to the region, which has had various indigenous occupants for millennia. Describing "a diversity in an area that size that has probably has never been equaled anywhere else in the world", historian
David Stannard
David Edward Stannard (born 1941) is an American historian and Professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii. He is particularly known for his book ''American Holocaust (book), American Holocaust'' (Oxford University Press, 1992), in wh ...
accounts for more than thirty native nations that lived in northwestern California. Scholar Gail L. Jenner estimates that "at least fifteen" tribal groups inhabited the coastline.
The Yurok, Chilula, and Tolowa were the most connected to the current parks' areas. Based on an 1852 census, anthropologist
Alfred Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber ( ; June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the fi ...
estimated that the Yurok population in that year was around 2,500. Historian
Ed Bearss
Edwin Cole Bearss (26 June 1923 – 15 September 2020) was a historian of the American Civil War, tour guide, and United States Marine Corps veteran of World War II.
Personal life
On 26 June 1923, Edwin Cole Bearss was born in Billings, Mon ...
described the Yurok as the most populous in the area, estimating that there were around 55 villages. Until the 1860s, the Chilula lived in the middle region of the Redwood Creek valley in close company with the redwood trees.
They primarily settled along
Redwood Creek between the coast and
Minor Creek, California, and in summer they would range into and camp in the
Bald Hills. The Tolowa were located near the
Smith River, and on lands that are now part of Jedediah Smith State Park, an area which 21st century excavation found has been inhabited for at least 8,500 years.
Native Americans residing within the park areas relied on redwood trees as a construction material, and some featured the trees in their mythology, including the Chilula, who viewed the trees as gifts from a creator. The tribes harvested coast redwoods and processed them into planks, using them as building material for boats, houses, and small villages.
To construct buildings, the planks would be erected side by side in a narrow trench, with the upper portions lashed with
willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions.
Most species are known ...
or
hazel
Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K ...
and held by notches cut into the supporting roof beams. Redwood boards were used to form a two- or three-
pitch roof.
Arrival of European Americans
Historians believe that the first Europeans to visit land near what is now the parks were members of the
Cabrillo expedition led by
Bartolomé Ferrer. In 1543, Ferrer's ship made landfall at
Cape Mendocino
Cape Mendocino ( Spanish: ''Cabo Mendocino'', meaning "Cape of Mendoza"), which is located approximately north of San Francisco, is located on the Lost Coast entirely within Humboldt County, California, United States. At 124° 24' 34" W longit ...
and may have reached waters off Oregon as far north as the 43rd parallel.
Hubert Howe Bancroft
Hubert Howe Bancroft (May 5, 1832 – March 2, 1918) was an American historian and ethnologist who wrote, published, and collected works concerning the Western United States, Texas, California, Alaska, Mexico, Central America, and British Colum ...
disagreed, believing that Ferrer's ship did not travel so far north. Explorers including
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...
sailed past the foggy, rocky coast, but generally did not set anchor until 1775, when
Bruno de Heceta
Bruno de Heceta (Hezeta) y Dudagoitia (1743–1807) was a Spanish Basque explorer of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Bilbao of an old Basque family, he was sent by the viceroy of New Spain, Antonio María Bucareli y Ursúa, to explore the area nor ...
and
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra
Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Hispano-Peruvian naval officer operating in the Americas. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in Viceroyalty of New Spain (present ...
of Spain spent about ten days at the Yurok village of
Tsurai south of the parks.
George Vancouver
Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...
and
Francisco de Eliza followed in 1793. American fur trading ships under contract to Russians stopped at Tsurai during the early 19th century.
Prior to
Jedediah Smith
Jedediah Strong Smith (January 6, 1799 – May 27, 1831) was an American clerk, transcontinental pioneer, frontiersman, hunter, trapper, author, cartography, cartographer, mountain man and explorer of the Rocky Mountains, the Western Unit ...
in 1828, no other explorer of European descent is known to have explored the interior of the Northern California coastal region. Smith and nineteen companions left
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
, and explored what are now called the
Trinity
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...
, Smith, and
Klamath rivers, passing through coast redwood forests and trading with Native American groups. They reached the coast near
Requa, parts of which are within the parks' boundaries.
The
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
of 1848 brought hundreds of thousands of Europeans and Americans to California, and the discovery of gold along the Trinity River in 1850 brought many of them to the region of the parks. This quickly led to conflicts wherein native peoples were displaced, raped, enslaved, and massacred.
By 1895, only one third of the Yurok in one group of villages remained; by 1919, virtually all members of the Chilula tribe had either died or been assimilated into other tribes.
The Tolowa—whose numbers Bearss estimates at "well under 1,000" by the 1850s—had a population of about 120 in 1910, having been nearly extinguished in massacres by settlers between 1853 and 1855.
Redwood logging followed gold mining, and most mining companies became lumber interests. Redwood has a straight grain, making planks easy to cut. Because redwood can defy the weather and does not warp, it became a valuable commodity. Jenner says a good team of two men could saw through a redwood tree at about a foot per hour with a
crosscut saw
A crosscut saw (thwart saw) is any saw designed for cutting wood perpendicular to (across) the wood grain. Crosscut saws may be small or large, with small teeth close together for fine work like woodworking or large for coarse work like log b ...
, their preferred tool until after World War II. Because wheeled vehicles could not travel the landscape, teams of six or twelve oxen transported logs to logging roads. Rivers or railroads took them to the region's lumber mills. After the 1881 invention of the
steam donkey
A steam donkey or donkey engine is a steam-powered winch once widely used in logging, mining, maritime, and other industrial applications.
Steam-powered donkeys were commonly found on large metal-hulled multi-masted cargo vessels in the lat ...
and later its successor the bull donkey, the need to fell intervening trees so the donkeys could work spawned the practice called
clearcutting
Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...
. Caterpillar tractors began to compete with manual labor in the late 1920s.
State park preservation

After extensive logging,
conservationists and concerned citizens began to seek ways to preserve remaining trees, which they saw being logged at an alarming rate.
Stumbling blocks slowed conservation: objections and some innovations came from the logging industry, construction of the
Redwood Highway brought roadside attractions and more visitors to the trees, Congress failed to act, and voracious demand for lumber came with the
post-World War II
The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementati ...
construction boom.
Organizations formed to preserve the surviving trees: concerned about the sequoia of
Yosemite
Yosemite National Park ( ) is a national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service ...
,
John Muir
John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
cofounded the
Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...
in 1892. The
Sempervirens Club was cofounded in 1900 by artist
Andrew P. Hill who lobbied the media, and saw the
oldest state park created along with the
California state park system. In 1916, politician
William Kent
William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, b ...
purchased land outright and helped to write the bill founding the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
(NPS). In 1918,
John Merriam and other members of the
Boone and Crockett Club
The Boone and Crockett Club is an American nonprofit organization that advocates fair chase hunting in support of habitat conservation. The club is North America's oldest wildlife and habitat conservation organization, founded in the United S ...
founded the
Save the Redwoods League. The league bought land and donated funds for land purchases. Historian
Susan Schrepfer writes that, in a sixty-year-long marathon, the Save the Redwoods League and the Sierra Club were racing the logging companies for the old trees.
At first, in 1919, with Congress showing interest but no appropriations, NPS director
Stephen Mather
Stephen Tyng Mather (July 4, 1867 – January 22, 1930) was an American industrialist and conservation movement, conservationist who was the first Director of the National Park Service, director of the National Park Service. As president and ow ...
formed the NPS system with private wealth—he and his wealthy friends purchased parkland with their own money. Balancing opponents and supporters, the Save the Redwoods League saw their compromise bill pass in 1923, allowing condemnation for park acquisition with state oversight. In 1925, the league backed a bill that would authorize a statewide survey by a landscape architect and permit land acquisition and condemnation for parks. In 1926, the league retained
Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...
to make that survey. The league added to their bill a proposed state constitutional amendment authorizing up to $6 million in bonds to equally match private donations for state land purchases. After sustaining a governor's veto in 1925, the league broadened its efforts to include the whole state, mounted a publicity campaign, and gained the support of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''. A new governor signed the parks bill into law in 1927, a bond issue was approved in the 1928 election.

In 1927, Olmsted's survey was complete and concluded that only three percent of the state's redwoods could be preserved. He recommended four redwood areas for parks, including three areas that became
Prairie Creek Redwoods,
Del Norte Coast Redwoods, and
Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks. A fourth became
Humboldt Redwoods State Park, by far the largest of the individual Redwoods State Parks, but not in the Redwood National and State Parks system. Now armed with matching funds after 1928, the league bought more land and added to these parks as conditions allowed.
National park
The NPS proposed a redwoods national park in 1938. The Save the Redwoods League opposed it, highlighting a division between preservationists who preferred unembellished nature and a segment of the park service who wished to provide recreation and playgrounds for the public. Both the league and the Sierra Club wanted a redwoods national park by the 1960s, but the club and the league supported different locations. The club and the league were antagonists during the 1960s, often on opposite sides of national park arguments, until 1971 when the league backed a club position, and the late 1970s when the league became a club member.
The Sierra Club wanted the largest possible park and usually sought help from the federal government. More cautious, the Save the Redwoods League tended to accommodate industry and support the state of California. When the agency had no funds in 1963, the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
funded an NPS survey of the redwoods. In 1964, NPS released its ideas for three different sized redwood national parks. In 1964, Congress passed the
Land and Water Conservation Fund
The United States' Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a federal program that was established by Act of Congress in 1965 to provide funds and matching grants to federal, state and local governments for the acquisition of land and water, an ...
to allow federal funds to purchase parkland.
Describing a reason for the club's success, Willard Pratt of the Arcata lumber company wrote, "The Sierra Club demonstrated a basic political fact of life: Opposition to particular preservation proposals usually is local while support is national. If decision making can be placed at the national level, preservation usually can win".
Initially opposing the park in the 1960s, the Arcata,
Georgia-Pacific
Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of Tissue paper, tissue, Pulp (paper), pulp, paper, toilet and paper towe ...
, and Miller lumber businesses operated up to the boundaries being discussed. In 1965, five logging companies formally objected to any redwood national park.
Schrepfer writes that the final bill divided the impact between the lumber companies, between California counties, and tried to appeal to both the league and the club. Schrepfer says that in large part, the bill was framed on the loggers' terms. After intense lobbying of Congress, the bill creating Redwood National Park was signed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
in October 1968.
The Save the Redwoods League donated parcels in 1974 and 1976. The club found the Olmsted plan of delicately choosing sites was the wrong approach to defend against tractor
clearcutting
Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...
. In 1977, the club said that only ridge-to-ridge land acquisition around a water channel could preserve a watershed and thus the trees. Amidst both local support of environmentalists and opposition from local loggers and logging companies, were added to Redwood National Park in an expansion signed by President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...
in 1978. The purchase included lands that had already been logged, and the NPS was charged with restoring the land and reducing soil erosion. At hundreds of millions of dollars, it was the most expensive land purchase ever approved by Congress. By 1979, the league had preserved , nearly twice the area that the federal government was able to save with park legislation.
Further recognition
The
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
designated the Redwood National and State Parks a
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
in 1980. The evaluation committee noted cooperative management and ongoing research in the parks by
Cal Poly Humboldt University and other partners.
The parks are within the
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...
and their resources are considered irreplaceable. In 1983, the parks were designated an
International Biosphere Reserve
Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the 'improvement of relationships' between people and their environments.
MAB engages w ...
.
In 2017, the US withdrew them along with more than a dozen other reserves from the
World Network of Biosphere Reserves
The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) covers internationally designated protected areas, known as biosphere or nature reserves, which are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature (e.g. encourage susta ...
.
In 2023, following the lead of First Nations in Canada and Aboriginal people in Australia, three federally recognized indigenous tribes—the
Resighini Rancheria of the Yurok People,
Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation, and
Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria—announced that as sovereign governments they have protected the Yurok-Tolowa-Dee-ni' Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area.
The effort protected of territorial ocean waters and coastline reaching from Oregon to just south of Trinidad, California,
and contributed to the California 30x30 plan to conserve 30 percent of the state's land and coastal water by 2030. The tribes invited cooperation with US agencies and other indigenous nations.
Park management
Redwood National Park is directly managed by the NPS from its office in
Crescent City, California
Crescent City ( Tolowa: ''Taa-’at-dvn''; Yurok: ''Kohpey''; Wiyot: ''Daluwagh'') is the only incorporated city in Del Norte County, California, of which it is also the county seat. The city is on the North Coast of California and had a tota ...
.
The three state parks are overseen by the
California Department of Parks and Recreation
California State Parks is the state park system for the U.S. state of California. The system is administered by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, a department under the California Natural Resources Agency. The California State ...
.
The park management coordinates with tribal leaders, as the parks contain land and village sites belonging to groups including the Yurok and Tolowa.
NPS manages about of federal park land and waters that lie within the
Yurok Indian Reservation.
Redwood National Park management oversees many other details aside from the redwoods and organic species that reside within the park boundaries. They regulate areas that are off limits to motor vehicles, boats, drones, horses, pets and even bicycles. In addition, park management establishes limitations on camping, campfires, food storage and backcountry use, as well as necessary permits.
When it opened in 1969, Redwood National Park had six permanent employees. As of 2023, the combined RNSP had 96 permanent and 52 temporary staff members.
Early park managers prioritized restoring existing structures, rehabilitating the watershed, and developing wildlife management plans. Until 1980, managers assumed that the three state parks, which are contained within the boundaries of the national park, would be donated to the NPS.
The donation did not happen,
and NPS and the state signed a memorandum of understanding in 1994 governing joint management, and agreeing to the name "Redwood National and State Parks". As of 2021, the combined RNSP had 1,185,000 annual visitors.
Natural resources
The Redwood National and State Parks conserve an area which contains the largest contiguous old-growth coast redwood forest as well as habitats for endangered species.
Coast redwood

Discovered in Redwood National Park in 2006 in an unpublished location, the
tallest living tree is the coast redwood tree (''
Sequoia sempervirens
''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995: 606–607 is the sole living species of the genus ''Sequoia (genus), Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast ...
'') named
Hyperion, at . It is followed by Helios at , and Icarus at , both also in Redwood National Park.
For many years thought to be the tallest, one specimen named simply "Tall Tree" in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park was measured at . "So many people have stood on the base of the tree that the ground is hard packed", said Professor
Stephen C. Sillett of Cal Poly Humboldt university in the 1990s.
The top of the tree died in the 1970s and fell off in the 1990s.
In 2022, after documenting damage caused by visitors to the tallest living tree, NPS announced a penalty for those who approach it of up to a $5,000 fine and six months in jail,
and it shows visitors instead to views of other trees.
Mature coast redwoods live an average of 500–700 years; a few are documented to be 2,000 years old.
As of 1990, a stand in nearby Humboldt Redwoods State Park had the greatest
biomass
Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...
ever recorded. Redwood trees develop enormous limbs that accumulate deep organic soils from which new tree-sized redwood trunks emerge and in which plants called ''
epiphytes
An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...
'' can grow. Mats of epiphytic ferns well above ground are home to
invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
s,
mollusks
Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The num ...
,
earthworms
An earthworm is a soil-dwelling terrestrial animal, terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. The term is the common name for the largest members of the class (biology), class (or subclass (biology), subclass, depending on ...
, and
salamander
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...
s.
Redwoods prefer sheltered slopes, and they thrive on moist flat ground along rivers below in elevation. Coastal fog provides about 40 percent of their annual water intake.
Redwoods have existed along the coast of northern California for at least 20 million years and are related to tree species that existed 160 million years ago in the
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...
era.
About 96 percent of the world's old-growth coast redwood forest has been logged,
and almost half (45 percent) of what remains is in the RNSP. The parks protect of old-growth forest, almost equally divided between federal and state management.
The
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
named the coast redwood an
endangered species
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
in 2011.
Other flora

Coast redwood tends to dominate in places it likes but often can be found together with also-fast-growing
coast Douglas-fir
''Pseudotsuga menziesii'' var. ''menziesii'', commonly known as Coast Douglas-fir, Pacific Douglas-fir, Oregon pine, or Douglas spruce, is an evergreen conifer native to western North America from west-central British Columbia, Canada southward t ...
trees. Closer to the ocean,
red alder
''Alnus rubra'', the red alder,
is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana).
Description
''Alnus rubra'' is the largest species of alder in ...
grow in place of the salt-water intolerant redwood.
The tallest known
Sitka spruce
''Picea sitchensis'', the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to just over tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 5 m (16 ft). It is by far the largest species of spruce and the fifth- ...
grows in the parks. Sitka spruce are plentiful along the coast, better adapted to salty air than other species. Other associated trees are the
tanoak
''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is a hardwood tree that is native to the far western United Sta ...
,
Pacific madrone,
bigleaf maple, and
California laurel.
Huckleberry
Huckleberry is a name used in North America for several plants in the family Ericaceae, in two closely related genera: ''Vaccinium'' and ''Gaylussacia''.
Nomenclature
The name 'huckleberry' is a North American variation of the English dialectal ...
and
snowberry
''Symphoricarpos'' is a small genus of about 15 species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae. With the exception of the Chinese coralberry, ''Symphoricarpos sinensis, S. sinensis'', which is indigenous to western China, all species a ...
are part of the forest
understory
In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the Canopy (biology), forest ca ...
. The
California rhododendron and
azalea
Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...
are flowering shrubs common in the parks. Plants such as the
sword fern and
redwood sorrel are prolific.
In Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park,
Fern Canyon is a well-known ravine deep,
with walls completely covered in ferns—
California maidenhair,
deer fern,
California polypody,
licorice fern, and
western swordfern. The ancestors of some of these ferns reach back 325 million years.
Fauna

Various ecosystems exist within the parks—seacoast, river, prairie, and densely forested zones—offering refuge to numerous rare and endangered species.
About 66 species of land mammals have been documented, including the
black bear,
coyote
The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
,
cougar
The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
,
bobcat
The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...
,
beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...
,
river otter, and
black-tailed deer
Black-tailed deer or blacktail deer occupy coastal regions of western North America. There are two subspecies, the Columbian black-tailed deer (''Odocoileus hemionus columbianus'') which ranges from the Pacific Northwest of the United States and ...
.
Roosevelt elk
The Roosevelt elk (''Cervus canadensis roosevelti)'', also known commonly as the Olympic elk and Roosevelt's wapiti, is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk ('' Cervus canadensis'') in North America by body mass. Mature bulls we ...
are the most readily observed of the large mammals in the park.
Successful herds, brought back from the verge of extinction in the region, are now common in park areas.
Different species of
bat
Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...
s, such as the
big brown bat, and other smaller mammals including
mink
Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera ''Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": the A ...
s,
marten
A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on ...
s,
red squirrel
The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris''), also called Eurasian red squirrel, is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is an arboreal and primarily herbivorous rodent and common throughout Eurasia.
Taxonomy
There have been ...
s,
northern flying squirrel
The northern flying squirrel (''Glaucomys sabrinus'') is one of three species of the genus '' Glaucomys'', the only flying squirrels found in North America.Walker EP, Paradiso JL. 1975. ''Mammals of the World''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Universit ...
s,
shrew
Shrews ( family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to dif ...
s,
moles,
brush rabbit,
gopher
Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They ar ...
s, and
raccoon
The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...
s live in the parks, although small mammals are infrequently seen.
Inhabiting or ranging into the park are 28 species that are federally recognized as endangered, threatened, or candidates for protection; about a third of that number can be regularly seen in the parks.
The
bald eagle
The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...
, which usually nests near a water source, is listed as a state of California
endangered species
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...
. The
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...
—historically an essential food for indigenous residents—
northern spotted owl
The northern spotted owl (''Strix occidentalis caurina'') is one of three spotted owl subspecies. A western North American bird in the family Strigidae, genus ''Strix (genus), Strix'', it is a medium-sized dark brown owl native to the Pacific N ...
, and
Steller's sea lion are a few of the other animal species that are threatened.
The
tidewater goby is a federally listed endangered species that lives near the Pacific coastline that were extirpated from the parks in 1968 when shoreline alterations affected the water's salinity. The
candlefish soon followed in the 1970s.
Sea otter
The sea otter (''Enhydra lutris'') is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between , making them the heaviest members of ...
s were extirpated in the parks at the turn of the 20th century but
river otters remain.
Also endangered, the
marbled murrelet can nest high on redwood branches.
Along the coastline,
California sea lion
The California sea lion (''Zalophus californianus'') is a coastal eared seal native to western North America. It is one of six species of sea lions. Its natural habitat ranges from southeast Alaska to central Mexico, including the Gulf of Califo ...
s,
Steller sea lion
The Steller sea lion (''Eumetopias jubatus''), also known as Steller's sea lion or the northern sea lion, is a large, near-threatened species of sea lion, predominantly found in the coastal marine habitats of the northeast Pacific Ocean and th ...
s and
harbor seal
The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared sea ...
s live near the shore and on
seastacks, rocky outcroppings forming small islands just off the coast.
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
s and
Pacific gray whales are occasionally seen offshore.
Brown pelicans and three species of
cormorant
Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) ado ...
s are mainly found on cliffs along the coast and on seastacks, while
sandpipers and three species of
gull
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...
s inhabit the seacoast and inland areas. Inland, freshwater-dependent birds such as the
common merganser
The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large sea duck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The common merganser eats mainly fish. It nests in holes in trees ...
,
osprey
The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It ...
,
red-tailed hawk
The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members of ...
,
heron
Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...
s, and
jays are a few of the bird species that have been documented. Approximately 280 bird species, or about one third of those found in the US, have been documented within park boundaries.
Reptile
Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...
s like four species of
sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...
can be found offshore and sometimes on beaches.
Amphibian
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...
s can be found in the parks, which the
gopher snake,
tailed frog
The tailed frogs are two species of frogs in the genus ''Ascaphus'', the only taxon in the family Ascaphidae . The "tail" in the name is actually an extension of the male cloaca. The tail is one of two distinctive anatomical features adapting the ...
,
clouded salamander, and three species of
newt
A newt is a salamander in the subfamily Pleurodelinae. The terrestrial juvenile phase is called an eft. Unlike other members of the family Salamandridae, newts are semiaquatic, alternating between aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Not all aqua ...
s call home. Well-known
detritivore
Detritivores (also known as detrivores, detritophages, detritus feeders or detritus eaters) are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus (decomposing plant and animal parts as well as feces). There are many kinds of invertebrates, ...
s, the
banana slug and the
yellow-spotted millipede, inhabit the parks.
Invasive species
Over 200 exotic species live in the RNSP. Of these, 30 have been identified as
invasive species
An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...
, and 10 of the 30 are considered threats to local species and ecosystems. Exotic species currently account for about a quarter of the total flora in the parks. Growing in varying amounts over the parks' different vegetation areas, about one percent of plants in old-growth areas are exotic species, compared to 50 to 75 percent in the Bald Hills prairies.
Spotted knapweed and
poison hemlock were both under consideration in 2015 for addition to a high-priority watch list maintained by the park system.
Geography

The parks are located in the most
seismic
Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...
ally active area in the country. Frequent minor
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
s in the park and offshore under the Pacific Ocean have resulted in shifting river channels,
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...
s, and
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...
of seaside cliffs. The
North American
North America is a continent in the Northern and Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea, and to the sou ...
,
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
, and
Gorda Plates are
tectonic plates
Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...
that all meet at the
Mendocino triple junction, about southwest of the parks. During the 1990s, more than nine
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
6.0 earthquakes occurred along this
fault zone.
More recently, a 6.4 magnitude quake in 2022 with a hypocenter off the coast caused two deaths. Visitors' centers closed but the parks remained open. The area is the most
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
-prone in the continental US, and visitors to the seacoast are told to seek higher ground immediately after any significant earthquake.
The parks' altitude ranges from below
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
up to at
Rodgers Peak.
Both coastline and the mountains of the
California Coast Ranges
The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte County, California, Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Trans ...
can be found within park boundaries. The majority of the rocks in the parks are part of the
Franciscan assemblage.
Assemblage
metamorphic
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...
and
sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...
s of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, along with marine and alluvial sedimentary deposits of the Tertiary and Quaternary periods, are underneath the Redwood Creek basin. These sedimentary rocks are primarily
sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
,
siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.
Although its permeabil ...
, and
shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
, with lesser amounts of
chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
,
greenstone, and metamorphic rocks.
Climate
The Redwood National and State Parks have a
warm-summer Mediterranean climate (
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Csb''). They receive abundant rain during most of the year, with a peak in winter, a decrease in June and September, and two dry summer months (July and August).

The parks are part of a
temperate rainforest
Temperate rainforests are rainforests with coniferous or Broad-leaved tree, broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain.
Temperate rainforests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate ...
that runs along the western United States coast. The nearby Pacific Ocean has major effects on the climate in the parks. Temperatures near the coast mostly remain between 40 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (4–15 °C) all year.
Redwoods tend to grow in this area of steadily temperate climate, though most grow at least a mile or two (1.5–3 km) from the coast to avoid the saltier air, and they never grow more than from it. In this humid coastal zone, the trees receive moisture from both heavy winter rains and persistent summer fog. The presence and consistency of the summer fog is actually more important to overall health of the trees than the precipitation. This fact is borne out in precipitation totals of around annually,
with healthy redwood forests throughout the areas of less precipitation because excessive needs for water are mitigated by the ever-present summer fog and the cooler temperatures it ensures. The rare snow falls mostly on the hills and mountains in and adjacent to the park.
Parts of the parks are threatened by
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. Increasing average temperatures have led to reduced water quality, affecting the fish and other fauna, and rising sea levels threaten to damage park structures near the coast. The redwoods benefit from higher carbon levels and are resilient against temperature changes.
Scientists fear climate change is likely to shift the range in which coast redwoods live to outside protected areas, and many have done research on
assisted migration.
Fire
The
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, colloquially known as CAL FIRE, is the fire department of the California Natural Resources Agency in the U.S. state of California. It is responsible for fire protection in various area ...
(CAL FIRE) is responsible for fire management in the redwoods state parks, and NPS manages fire in the national park.

Because coast redwood bark—in places up to a foot thick—has no
resin
A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Commo ...
, the trees are resistant to fire and will regrow after burning. The redwood forest is foggy, humid, not generally susceptible to fire, and lightning strikes among redwoods are rare, meaning that most fires are anthropogenic. A 2003 fire was an exception; a lightning storm started fires in least 274 California locations, including the Canoe Fire in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, which burned from September through October. By about 11 percent, old-growth coast redwoods have the greatest volume of fuels of any forest type.
After they arrived and until white settlers invaded their lands in the 1850s, the Tolowa people intentionally set low-intensity
ground fires. Indigenous residents, including the Karuk and Tolowa, used fire to protect
tanoak
''Notholithocarpus densiflorus'', commonly known as the tanoak or tanbark-oak, is a broadleaf tree in the family Fagaceae, and the type species of the genus ''Notholithocarpus''. It is a hardwood tree that is native to the far western United Sta ...
trees and their
acorn
The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...
s, a primary food supply. Their fires improved their hunting grounds, reduced pests, and decreased the likelihood of larger fires. There is evidence that medium-intensity
surface fire was set regularly in the area, but today, after decades of fire suppression and resulting increased fuel density, maximum-intensity
crown fire has taken the place of surface fires when fire occurs. Near the tree's crown, coast redwood bark may be less than one inch thick.
Since its founding in 1905, and especially with its policies of the 1930s, the
US Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's ...
(USFS) has for the most part defended both human settlements and timber companies against fire using
wildfire suppression
Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the available fuel, the local atmospheric conditions, the features of the terrain, and the size of the wildfir ...
techniques intended to ''eliminate'' fire.
Repealed in 1937, the 1850 California
Act for the Government and Protection of Indians
The Act for the Government and Protection of Indians (Chapter 133, California Statutes, Cal. Stats., April 22, 1850), nicknamed the Indian Indenture Act was enacted by the first session of the California State Legislature and signed into law by ...
—for which the state apologized in 2019—provided that "Any person was subject to fine or punishment if they set the prairie on fire, or refused to use proper exertions to extinguish the fire." Recognizing that fire has benefits, the service began in the 1970s to change policy to allow fire to burn.
More recently in the 2000s, USFS embraced indigenous fire management when USFS researcher Steve Norman advocated "a modified Native American burning model".
In 2020, the Karuk tribe formed the Endowment for Eco-Cultural Revitalization to promote cultural burning in their homeland in the park region. Operating with a new perspective, park managers conduct controlled fires in the grassland areas of the parks—to control invasive species, hold back the spread of Douglas fir, and increase the availability of materials needed by local tribes for
basket weaving
Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
.
Recreation
The parks have five visitor centers, where general information, maps, and souvenirs are available; some of the centers offer activities during the summer, led by park rangers. There is no entry fee for the RNSP, though some camping areas and park areas require paid passes.
Since the 2019 closure of the DeMartin Redwood Youth Hostel, a low-amenities shared lodging facility near
Klamath, California,
there are no hotels or motels within the parks' boundaries. About north of
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, the parks are accessible by air, automobile, and public transit. NPS itself offers no lodging but for accommodations, links to each town from north to south along US 101:
Brookings, Oregon
Brookings is a city in Curry County, Oregon, Curry County, Oregon, United States. It was named after John E. Brookings, president of the Brookings Lumber & Box Company, who founded the city in 1908. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 censu ...
, and in California,
Crescent City, Klamath,
Orick,
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...
,
McKinleyville,
Arcata
Arcata (; ; ) is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, Arcata's population was 18,857. Arcata was first founded in 1850 as Union, was officially ...
,
Eureka,
Ferndale, and the counties of
Del Norte and
Humboldt.
The state parks have four frontcountry campgrounds which can be accessed by vehicle and used for a fee; the parks' website suggests making a reservation. These are at Mill Creek campground in Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and Jedediah Smith campground in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, which together have 231 campsites; the Elk Prairie campground in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, which has 75; and the Gold Bluffs Beach campground which has 26. Other nearby parks and recreation areas have additional camping options.

Hiking is the only way to reach the seven backcountry camping areas, the use of which requires a permit. Camping is only allowed in designated sites, except on gravel bars along Redwood Creek that allow for dispersed camping. Proper food storage to minimize encounters with bears is strongly enforced, and hikers and backpackers are required to take out any trash they generate.
The NPS subscribes to the seven principles of
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace, sometimes written as LNT, is a set of ethics promoting conservation of the outdoors. Originating in the mid-20th century, the concept started as a movement in the United States in response to ecological damage caused by wilderne ...
.
Almost of hiking trails exist in the parks. Throughout the year, trails are often wet and hikers need to be well prepared for rainy weather and consult information centers for updates on trail conditions. Some temporary footbridges are removed during the rainy season, as they would be destroyed by high streams.
Horseback riding and
mountain biking
Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...
are allowed on certain trails.
Kayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...
is permitted, with ranger-led kayak tours offered during the summer.
Kayakers and canoeists frequently travel the Smith River,
which is the longest undammed river remaining in California.
Visitors can fish for
salmon
Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...
and
trout
Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...
in the Smith and Klamath rivers, and the beach areas offer opportunities to catch
smelt and
perch
Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...
. A California sport fishing license is required to fish any of the rivers and streams.
See also
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List of national parks of the United States
The United States has 63 national parks, which are congressionally designated protected areas operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National parks are designated for their natural beauty, unique g ...
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Redwoods Rising
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National parks in California
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Lost Man Creek Dam
Notes
References
Works cited
Books
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Journal articles
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* Tripp is credited for contributions "on behalf of the Karuk Tribe".
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Technical reports
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External links
* of Redwood National Park
* of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
* of Humboldt Redwoods State Park
* of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Humboldt Redwoods Projectat Cal Poly Humboldt
Inventory of the Redwood National Park Collection, 1926–1980 at Forest History Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Redwood National And State Parks
World Heritage Sites in California
National parks in California
State parks of California
Coast redwood groves
Old-growth forests
Parks in Del Norte County, California
Parks in Humboldt County, California
Beaches of Del Norte County, California
Protected areas established in 1968
1968 establishments in California
World Heritage Sites in the United States
Beaches of Northern California
Temperate rainforests
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