Day 12: U.S. and Canada West Coast Drive

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Red Wood National and State Parks and Glass Beach

This day turned out to have perfect weather for being outdoors and hiking. It was a great day; it was one of our favorite days of this trip.

The first photo I’ll share is of the friendly black and white cat we met the previous night who slept on the hood of our rental car and greeted us when we came out of our room in the morning.

Before I start telling about our day, I’ll share a little information and some links about the Redwood National and State Parks.

Click here for a link with downloadable maps for Redwood National and State Parks.

Regarding entrance stations and fees, from this link: We don’t have any entrance stations or “main gates” at Redwood National and State Parks. Most of our sights, facilities and trails are along HWY 101, the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and other county roads. The only place where there is an entrance station is for visitors driving towards Fern Canyon. Those visitors will pay a state park entrance fee at the Gold Bluffs Beach entrance kiosk.

Roosevelt Elk, “one of the largest members of the deer family,’ live in the California Redwoods. This link tells you three areas that are excellent for viewing Roosevelt Elk.

Click here for a link to information on where all of the Visitor Information Centers are for the parks.

Click here for a visitor guide for Redwood National and State Parks.

Click here for a visitor guide for Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.

Click here for a visitor guide for Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

Click here for a visitor guide for Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park.

From this link: Redwood National and State Parks is a complex of four incredible parks managed in partnership by the National Park Service and California State Parks. The four parks are Redwood National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Together, these parks contain 45% of the world’s remaining protected ancient coast redwood forests. It’s a place so spectacular, so precious that it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, alongside Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Barrier Reef.

On this trip my husband and I visited Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, Redwood National Park, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and, a pleasant drive not too far to the south, Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

The gallery below shows our first stop for the day – Crescent Beach Overlook. The views are so beautiful from not just the overlook, but the area around it as well.

As always, in the gallery below you can click on any photo to enlarge it and read the caption and then either close it or click to the right or left to see the next or previous photo in the gallery.

From Crescent Beach Overlook we continued driving south on Highway 101 through Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park to Redwood National Park.

The area we drove that morning that wove between the towering redwoods gifted us with an awe inspiring experience that no photo could ever accurately convey. The fog mixed with the sun’s light shining through the astonishingly tall redwoods created a majestic sight. We already felt so puny in comparison to the redwoods, and then those extraordinarily long, and at times super thick, sunbeams gleaming through the trees filled us with admiration for our Creator to have gifted us with such beauty.

My husband did not pull over to photograph this sight. I quickly took photos as we both admired the amazingly beautiful sight before us. The enormous, glowing sunbeams would switch from the left to the right side of view as we drove the winding road through the redwoods.

We continued on Highway 101 and our next stop was at Demartin Viewpoint, which gave us more views of Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park’s beautiful coast. You can view this in the gallery below.

Then we continued driving south on Highway 101 for about fifteen more minutes until we got to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. From Highway 101 we made a right onto the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. This ten mile scenic drive runs parallel to Highway 101.

I don’t like to say, “this is a must,” very often, but, if you’re on vacation visiting the Redwood National and State Parks and Humboldt Redwoods State Park, then Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and Avenue of the Giants are both a must. IMO, it would be a huge mistake to skip these drives if you’re visiting the area on vacation.

From this link regarding the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway: “With 95% of the world’s redwood trees having been logged in the last century, old-growth redwood groves are now only found in smaller, isolated places. Except for Avenue of the Giants (a similar road 100-miles to our south), there is nowhere else in the world a driver of any vehicle can have this kind of experience.”

Near the end of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway (if you’re driving south on it), you’ll find the Prairie Creek Visitor Center located at 127011 Newton B Drury Scenic Pkwy. When we went the power was out, so we couldn’t go inside, but two friendly employees were outside at a desk answering questions and providing maps.

As you can see in a couple of the photos below, we were gifted again with the majestic sight of sunbeams shining through the towering redwoods. The opening photo for this day’s story was taken during this part of the drive. All of the photos with the sunbeams shining through the trees were taken as we were driving.

As we drove south on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway we stopped every now and then at pullovers that interested us.

The following photo gallery is of part of Brown Creek Trail; its trailhead is at a pullover off of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. We spent about fifteen minutes on that trail. We didn’t walk the entire trail because we couldn’t figure out where it continued and we didn’t want to get lost, but we enjoyed what we saw of it.

As always, in the gallery below you can click on any photo to enlarge it and read the captions and then either close it or click to the right or left to see the next or previous photo in the gallery.

From the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway we drove back onto Highway 101 and drove south toward Avenue of the Giants. We exited in Eureka, CA to get lunch at In-N-Out Burger and to stop at Costco to get some snacks, bottled water and gas for the car.

The drive from the south entrance of the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway to the north entrance of Avenue of the Giants is about one and a half hours without any stops.

The photo gallery below shows a glimpse of our drive from the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway to Avenue of the Giants.

We were finally on Avenue of the Giants, which is in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I loved it! Even though the Sequoia National Park has wider trees (and very, very tall trees) they are not as tall as the California Coastal Redwoods. I love Sequoia National Park, but without a doubt I prefer the Coast Redwoods.

Sequoia National Park boasts the biggest tree in the world, while Redwood National Park boasts the tallest tree in the world. Though the tallest tree in the world is more than a one hour drive north of Humboldt Redwoods State Park, this park still has extremely tall and wide trees.

I felt so happy walking amidst those towering, humbling trees, breathing in the scent of the forest. And, because trees buffer noises, I enjoyed hearing that unique, quiet peacefulness only forests can create.

In all we spent nearly three hours on Avenue of the Giants, which included two hikes; I’ll talk about those later on below.

Like the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, Avenue of the Giants runs parallel to Highway 101; both of these scenic drives offer a much better experience than Highway 101.

As I said before, if you’re visiting this area for vacation it would be a mistake, IMO, to not drive Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and Avenue of the Giants. Highway 101 is quicker, but you would be completely missing the point of visiting this area for vacation if you stayed on Highway 101 instead of driving Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and Avenue of the Giants. These two impressive drives take you through areas with high concentrations of old growth redwoods, meaning the incredibly tall (and wider) ones.

If you can, get out of the car and get yourself at least a little bit into one of the hiking trail areas. It’s a very different feeling to be looking at those trees from inside the car or just outside your car near the road rather than being on the trail immersed in the forest. But if you can’t get onto one of the trails, the ride on Avenue of the Giants is still extraordinary as you gently wind around substantial, sky-high redwoods firmly planted alongside the road.

One of the trails we walked – Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail – was an easy, wheelchair-accessible trail that was very enjoyable. More information on that later on this page.

My husband and I both totally enjoyed the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, but we both enjoyed Avenue of the Giants even more.

Click here for the Avenue of the Giants Auto Tour Map. (You can click on the map in the link to enlarge it and you can click on the box that’s on the right side in the link for more information on each of the eight stops shown on the map.)

Click here for a link for a website page that has a downloadable brochure and map for Avenue of the Giants.

I hope you enjoy the following glimpse of Avenue of the Giants.

The gallery below shows a glimpse of our less than twenty minute drive from the brochure box shown above to the first trail we hiked along Avenue of the Giants. The trail in the gallery just below is stop #8 on the map in this link. It is Drury-Chaney Loop Trail.

In all we spent a little over an hour on this trail. We took our time and completely enjoyed being surrounded by those immensely tall, gorgeous trees.

Early in the hike we came across a huge, fallen tree that we climbed up onto and walked the length of. It was so cool because it gives you a feeling for how long those trees are. It’s also neat to see how dead trees help the life of the forest. You can see the tree we walked on in the photo gallery below.

From Drury-Chaney Loop Trail we drove south about twenty five minutes to stop #3 on the map in this link – the Humboldt Redwoods State Park Visitor Center.

We spent a short amount of time at the area outside of the visitor center. What interested us was that across the street from the visitor center are two hiking trails; click here for information on those two hiking trails. We hiked the Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail. It was an easy, wheelchair-accessible trail with informative signs dispersed throughout the trail explaining interesting facts about the redwoods.

Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail was not as impressive as the first trail we hiked on Avenue of the Giants (Drury-Chaney Loop Trail), but it was very enjoyable and it has a nice bonus – it takes you to Eel River.

We spent about twenty five minutes on the .62 mile Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail, and we took our time enjoying it.

The gallery below is of our drive from Drury-Chaney Loop Trail to the Visitor Center and then of our hike at Gould Grove Nature Loop Trail.

From Drury-Chaney Loop Trail we continued driving south on Avenue of the Giants. We drove to Shrine Drive Thru Tree, but we didn’t want to pay the $15 fee to drive through the tree so we continued on our way. A few minutes later we drove through the small town of Miranda, CA and shortly after that we got back onto Highway 101.

Once on Highway 101 we drove about twenty minutes south to the Grandfather Tree.

The following gallery is of our drive from Drury-Chaney Loop Trail to the Grandfather Tree.

The Grandfather Tree is over 1,800 years old and, according to this link, it “stands 265 feet tall, with a diameter of 24 feet, and has a circumference of 55 feet.” It’s a neat looking tree that’s located just off of Highway 101, so it’s very easy to access.

The gallery below is of the Grandfather Tree,

From the Grandfather Tree we walked next door to One-Log House.

One-Log House is pretty cool, IMO. The sign outside of it says it was “crafted in 1946 from a 2,100 year old redwood.” It “took eight months of labor to hollow out a room 7’ high and 32’ long.” You can zoom in and read the entire sign that’s in one of the photos in the gallery below.

I shared one photo that was taken without long exposure so you can see what a difference long exposure made when taking photos in One-Log House because it’s dark in there.

When we walked over to enter it we found it to be locked with a sign saying to go to a certain building nearby to get the code. That building was closed. However there was a dispensary next to it, so my husband asked them if they knew the code. Fortunately the gave us the code and we got to enjoy our private tour of this unique home.

From One-Log House we drove to the Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree, but I didn’t do my trip planning homework well enough because this drive-thru tree also charges $15 per auto to drive through it.

When I was kid we drove through a living tree, and I think it was this one. As a child I thought it was a really neat thing to do. And as a child I didn’t have to pay the fee to drive through the tree. As an adult I think it’s neat, but not worth $15. My husband and I both did not feel like spending $15 to drive through a tree. My husband also reasoned, “We drove through a tree in Sequoia National Park last week.” It was a fallen tree, but it was a tree, and we did drive through it … for free!

From the Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree (the second drive-thru tree of the day that we did not drive through) we drove to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA.

Below is a gallery of our drive to Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA.

This link briefly explains how the beautiful sea glass got there.

Our planet is amazing. The ocean took a huge amount of garbage that humans had dumped onto the beach and turned it into something so beautiful (sea glass) that people are taking the sea glass from the beach even though it’s illegal to take the glass from the beach. Think about that. Garbage that no one wanted. The ocean turned it into beautiful sea glass. Now people are willing to break the law to take the former garbage with them. Humans ruin the earth. The earth takes the damage and makes beautiful things with it. We don’t deserve this planet.

I couldn’t fully capture how pretty the sea glass is with my camera, so know that if you go in person it looks even prettier. You should also know one more important thing about Glass Beach. Because people keep stealing the sea glass, there isn’t much left where most people go to see it. But when I went in September 2024 there was an area where hardly anyone was at that had lots and lots of sea glass left. I’m sure in time people will take that glass too.

I’m going to say where the area with lots of sea glass is, but please don’t take even one piece of the sea glass with you. We shouldn’t take the sea glass because it’s illegal to take it. But if that’s not a good enough reason for some, then please consider the reason it’s illegal to take the sea glass. If everyone who visits takes just one piece of sea glass, eventually there will be no more beautiful Glass Beach for people to enjoy in the future.

The area where you can find lots of sea glass (at least as of the time of this writing) is to the south of where everyone is looking. Most people go from the parking lot straight to the nearest section of beach. If you continue walking south for a little while on that beach you’ll find the area with lots and lots of glass.

The area with lots of sea glass is a neat place to visit not only because of the amount of glass, but also because of a large rock you can climb that gives you a very nice view of the surrounding area. Plus it’s not crowded there. There were only two other people there besides us. And both of them were taking lots and lots of sea glass with them. But they weren’t just taking any sea glass. They were being very careful to pick the nicest looking sea glass. So thoughtful of them.

Below is a gallery of Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA.

We both enjoyed Glass Beach a lot. The glass is beautiful, as is the entire area. The whole experience was nice.

After our time in Glass Beach, we drove to get a quick dinner then got some photos of the sunset at a couple of locations on the coast. The pleasant sunset was like a cherry on top of our pleasant day … and then there was the insanely twisty drive to our motel in Santa Rosa, CA.

Part of the drive from Yosemite to Sonora, CA was on a very curvy road. In the story for that day I cautioned people who deal with motion sickness. That road was nothing in comparison to this one.

I think we took Highway 1 to Highway 128 to Highway 101. I’m pretty sure the super curvy part of the drive was through the Navarro River Redwoods State Park. We would be driving one direction and then the road would have an abrupt turn taking us in the opposite direction. The path was constantly curving.

We don’t get motion sickness; what I didn’t like about this road was that we were driving at night through a dark forest with huge redwood trees so you couldn’t see what was around the the bend in the road until you turned. I was so worried we would hit an animal. As my husband paid attention to driving the never ending abrupt turns, I kept my eyes peeled the entire time for animals; we did see a few deer right on the side of the road in a few places.

We were driving a little under the speed limit, but it felt faster to me probably because of the constant, abrupt turns coupled with me being concerned about animals being in the road around the bends. Fortunately we didn’t hit any animals and we made it safely to our motel.

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