Redwood National Park gets the fame, but the largest old-growth redwood forest left on Earth sits a few hours south in a California state park most travellers drive straight past. Humboldt Redwoods State Park covers more than 53,000 acres in the state's far north, and roughly a third of it is ancient redwood forest — the biggest surviving collection of these trees anywhere.
The park traces back to 1921, when the Save the Redwoods League began buying land to protect it from logging. Today it's one of the best places in California to stand beneath trees that top 300 feet, without the tour buses and parking scrambles of the national park.
The easiest introduction is the Avenue of the Giants, a 32-mile road that parallels Highway 101 and runs through a corridor of towering redwoods. You can drive it in about an hour with photo stops, which makes it a quick but memorable detour on any West Coast road trip. The park itself sits about 35 miles south of Eureka and 20 miles north of Garberville, so it slots neatly into a northern California itinerary.
Hiking is where the park really earns its keep. The Mahan Plaque Loop is a popular short route that passes a rare albino redwood, while the Rockefeller Loop drops you into the heart of the Rockefeller Forest — a walk that feels like stepping into a storybook. For something more demanding, the Grasshopper Trail is a 15.3-mile out-and-back to Grasshopper Mountain, the park's highest point, with 100-mile panoramic views from the top.
A few stops deserve deliberate time. Founder's Grove, on the nature trail of the same name, is home to the fallen Dyerville Giant, which measured 362 feet, plus the Hearthstone erected by the California Federation of Women's Clubs. The visitor center is worth a pause too — its exhibits include the Kellogg Travel Log, an RV carved entirely from a single fallen redwood.
The park isn't only about trees. The Eel River runs along its eastern edge, offering kayaking, canoeing, swimming and fishing, and framing plenty of the trails. Runners get a shot at something genuinely unusual: two marathons are held here each year, the Avenue of the Giants Marathon in spring and the Humboldt Redwoods Marathon in autumn, both routed beneath the world's largest trees.
Who is this for? Anyone who wants the redwood experience — the scale, the shade, the silence — but would rather not share it with crowds. It works as a half-day drive-through, a full day of hiking, or a low-key base for a northern California road trip, and state park access means fewer permits and less planning than the national park next door.
