Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is approximately fifty miles north of Eureka in Humboldt County. Visitors to Prairie Creek can enjoy various amenities, including trails, a visitor centre with exhibits, a nature store, and opportunities to watch wildlife. Forty-five per cent of California’s remaining old-growth redwood forest is found in these parks.
Prairie Creek is a 14,000-acre haven for old-growth coast redwood protected in the early 1920s because of the Californians’ foresight and the Save-the-Redwoods League’s generosity. The park features approximately 280 memorial groves planted by the Save-the-Redwoods League and is recognized as a World Heritage Site and Man in the Biosphere Preserve.
Things To Do At Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Prairie Creek has a nature store, a visitor centre with exhibits, and plenty of hiking opportunities, studying nature, wildlife watching, camping and beach combing, fishing, and picnicking.
Hiking At Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
Over 70 miles of paths wind through beautiful forests and untamed shores. Since the park is a natural forest reserve, all hiking paths take you past some of the tallest trees. The beauty of a mature redwood grove can’t be fully appreciated anywhere else. Enjoy a stroll along one of the many pathways. There are long, strenuous hikes, and there are also short, easy strolls. An 800-foot rise across the entire park makes the terrain easygoing.
Camping At Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
There are two established campgrounds in the park. You can simultaneously park as many as 24 trailers or 27 motor homes at Elk Prairie’s 75 campgrounds. The Elk Prairie Campground may be found on the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, just 6 miles north of Orick.
You may reach the 25-site Gold Bluffs Beach campground by taking Davison Road off Highway 101, three miles north of Orick. Both campgrounds provide fire pits, picnic tables, and bear-proof food storage. Bathrooms have flush toilets and hot showers. Both campgrounds are year-round. Gold Bluff Beach Camp does not take reservations.
Backcountry camps
The park also features an environmental camp and two backcountry sites. Campers in the backcountry are reminded to check in at the visitor centre, park in designated areas, and set up camp only at the Ossagon Trail or Miners Ridge camps. Registration and fees are necessary for both camps, which are open continuously. Gold Bluffs Beach and the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in the plains include Roosevelt Elk. A grey whale, squirrel, raccoon, mink, otter, fox, mountain lion, bobcat, or bear may appear.
View wildlife At Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.
There are a plethora of wildlife-viewing options at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Many kinds of creatures live in the park, from black bears and Roosevelt elk to deer, coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, skunks, foxes, squirrels, chipmunks, and more. Visitors may experience what it’s like to be in the same environment as these unique animals and learn about their habits firsthand. The park offers a captivating experience for wildlife fans, whether they come to see the majestic elk grazing in meadows or to get a glimpse of a fox scurrying through the trees.
Trails At Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
A few of the best hiking trails in the area are Fern Canyon, James Irvine, Clintonia, and Miners Ridge. There is a 500-foot elevation rise during a 6.5-mile round-trip from Gold Bluffs to Gold Bluffs Beach via the Gold Bluffs Trailhead and the Fern Canyon Loop. The redwoods provide a canopy over a damp, strange world shrouded in solitude and mist. The park’s routes wind through verdant landscapes, where walkers can enjoy the shade of trees and the scent of nearby streams.
Address: 127011 Newton B. Drury Scenic Pkwy, Orick, CA 95555, United States
Open: 24 hours
Phone number: +1 707-465-7354
Email: Redw_Permits@nps.gov
Management: California State Parks
Established: 1925
Area: 56.66 km²
