Ants Amongst Giants: Exploring in Redwoods
Some of the best places we have found can be filed under “hidden gems.” We have found them in all kinds of places and in all kinds of varieties. We have found cave systems that pushed us past our comfort zone, coastlines in the Midwest that would make you think you’re in the tropics, fly-fishing spots with the largest cities in the world in the background, and urban landscapes that inspire you. Yes, the Oregon Coast is an amazing area, but this area’s hidden gem is found deep in the forests away from the coastline. The amazing aspect is, the forests themselves are the Hidden Gem. Just southeast of Brookings sits Jedidiah Smith State Park and some of the most amazing Redwood Trees! It took us a couple of weeks to hit all the best spots and hikes. The trees in Jedidiah Smith State Park made us feel like ants hiking amongst giants!
Mile: 91,211
Quote of the Blog: ""Redwood tree, it ain't hard to see. His love was the key that opened my skies.” - Taylor Swift
Song of the Blog: “Redwoodz” - The Movement
Jedidiah Smith State Park was one of the first places family and friends suggested we check out when we moved here. It was not long after we first got to Brookings that we decided to do our first hike there. We wanted to get some distance and also wanted to get some bang for our buck. We landed on hiking Mill Creek Trail, which included Grove of Titans. With a name like that, the expectation levels were very high. This was our first drive into the park, so we didn’t really know what we were getting into. We quickly realized that not only are these trees not like anything else we have seen, but they make our car feel small. Just driving to the trailhead is constant “ooh’s and ahh’s!” We were pretty hyped up by the time we got to the trail. The first section of the trail was fairly populated. It was a very nice, elevated path off the forest floor. Very Gucci hiking! This lasted for about a half mile before we came to the Grove of Titans. They were exactly that! The biggest trees we have ever seen! Both in diameter and in height. They had been named too. The largest is called El Viejo Del Norte, and is 324’ tall and has a circumference of around 72’. It is the 11th largest Coastal Redwood in the world. By this point, our minds were blown, and we haven’t even done a fifth of the hike. As we continued, the nice path turned into a more traditional hiking trail, and the number of people dropped to zero. We felt like we were alone in a sea of giant trees! We took some time exploring downed trees and massive stumps. We also loved walking around ferns as tall as us and massive clover fields. It was nothing less than magical and a great way to connect with the trees and forest. Even when we had turned around and started walking back along the trail, we were surprised by the new vantage points and sheer size of the trees. Even the smallest trees dwarfed most trees in the Montana forests. This was a great first hike in Jedidiah Smith State Park!
The first hike left us inspired and with a whole new level of respect and insight into the redwood forests near Brookings. It took us a couple of weeks to peel ourselves away from the beach to get back into Jedidiah Smith State Park for the next adventure into the woods. Our friends Craig and Amy Moore had told us about their adventure into the park, and how the hike to Fern Falls on Boy Scout Tree Trail was their all-time favorite. We set our sights on this area and made the quick drive south to the park. The entrance point to this area of the park was different from where we came in to do Mill Creek Trail. Once again, the trees on the drive in were enough to make us feel so small and insignificant! We weaved around trees larger than houses we have lived in. Once we got to the trailhead, we were able to find a parking spot relatively easily and hit the trail. This trail was about 5.5 miles total. We saw a couple of people here and there, but we spent most of the hike alone in the vastness of the Redwood trees. We navigated tunnels made by roots and fallen trees, through corridors of trees spread out in a way only seen in these forests, and through lush green fern beds. One of the craziest things we noticed was how quiet the forest was. At one point, it was complete silence, only broken by Amity laughing about it. We later learned that the bark on these trees is very soft and kind of spongy. This, along with their sheer size, dampens the forest’s sounds to a near silence. Once we got to the end of the trail, we came to a small waterfall. The trail worked up along the trail into higher and higher pools as the waterfall cascaded down a small canyon. After a quick lunch break and photo op, we headed back towards the car. We started laughing about how we were going to need to go see a neck specialist after spending hours staring up at these giant trees and into the canopy. It was fun finding little off-shooting side trails that worked up onto massive fallen trees. At times, we found ourselves upwards of 20 feet off the bottom of the forest floor. This just added to the enchanting feelings we got along this hike. The raw power and grace of an old-growth forest is on display at its finest here. Some of the ferns were bigger than our car, and the creeks were surrounded by bright green plants. I think the color green might be burned into my eyes after this hike! As the Moores did to us, we suggest anyone who is in the area to do this hike. It is the perfect mix of being greatly inspired and deeply humbled at the same time.
Our most recent adventure into Jedidiah Smith State Park came on a whim. We knew we wanted to do Stout Grove Trail, as it was the most suggested and first trail we learned about from my Aunt Traci and Uncle Doug. They informed us this was where a portion of the Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi, was filmed. One of the reasons we had yet to hike it was that it was the most popular and busiest of all the hikes in the park. For great reasons! The connection to Star Wars makes any area cool. Then toss on top of it 50–60-foot-tall trees all over that are wider than 90% of the cars in the parking lot. This is the recipe for an epic hike! This is a pretty short hike, and most of it is paved. Like other trails, this has tons of off-shooting trails going up stumps, into the ferns and clovers, and up to fallen trees. The difference on this hike, compared to the others, was that these trails were now filled with kids running around and exploring. It has to be wild to be a small kid getting to play in areas like this! We would both have loved it. We know this because we are currently loving it! Every time we go into these forests, something else stands out to us. On this trip, it was cool how they had worked the trail around some trees that had fallen “a long time ago,” as if it was “in a galaxy far away.” It felt out of this world. Like we were getting a chance to hop in a time machine and go back to a time where giant forests like this were found everywhere. We learned that these specific kinds of Coastal Redwoods grow in other areas around the world like Japan. Pretty crazy how biology can be connected with something so far away and so stationary. Just shows how old these trees and forests are! After spending some time looking for Yoda in the ferns, we completed the loop and had made it back to the car.
We are not done in this park, but we feel like we now have a strong understanding of what it has to offer. There are some smaller adventures and a lot of nearby zones we are going to explore while still in Brookings. The Smith River is close by, and we have become very fond of river days there. We will save that for another story. We have heard rumors of trees in the area we can drive through and areas where we can walk along the canopy of the trees, so we know we will get back here soon! For now, we are happy to have found Jedidiah Smith State Park and to have been able to take a large bite out of it. My words will never do the sheer size and majesty of these trees justice; not even the videos and photos. You just have to Live Rad & see them for yourself!!!