Best Short Hikes in Redwood National and State Parks [Paperback]

Jerry Rohde (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best Short Hikes | Publication Date: March 2005

When the redwoods are what you came for: a guide to the best short hikes in five renowned northern California parks.

*More than 60 hikes-from half-hour to half-day-with camping and park facilities information *Handy quick-guide for selecting hikes by difficulty, mileage and features (flowers, water, views, etc.) *Little-known gems as well as world-famous Founders Grove and Fern Canyon trails

A stand of towering old-growth redwoods, where sounds are dampened to near silence, where only the dimmest rays of light penetrate...or are you looking for redwood hikes with beaches? Redwood hikes known for wildflowers? You'll find those, too, in this guide devoted to the best hikes in Redwood National Park and the state parks-Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith and Humbolt Redwoods State Parks.

Most trailheads are adjacent to paved roads, accessible within five miles of Pacific Coast Highway 101. This guide includes many short hikes off Avenue of the Giants and Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. It will take you to the Boy Scout Tree and to the Tallest Tree, a 367.8-foot skyscraper. But it also includes trails for solitude even at the height of the tourist season. Background information on redwood biology rounds out your experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

[N]ot only describes all kinds of short, manageable walks, it also gives the history of each area. -- North Coast Journal

About the Author

Residents of Humboldt County, California for more than twenty-five years, Jerry and Gisela Rohde have led frequent guided hikes in redwoods country. They have presented numerous slide shows for audiences including the Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Association, the California Native Plant Association, and the Sierra Club.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898867169
• ISBN-13: 978-0898867169
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #199,846 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerry Rohde has been writing guidebooks to the Northwest for the last 20 years. He'd like to keep at it for at least another 20. Rohde coauthors many of his books with his wife, Gisela. She specializes in the natural history and he focuses on the human history. When doing trail guides, Gisela wears the pedometer and Jerry carries the notebook, which is small. That's OK, because Jerry writes small, too.

The Rohdes love hiking, researching, and helping readers gain a sense of place. "We feel it's our job to be Place Rangers," says Jerry. "We don't care if we make much money at it, but we do care that we inform, entertain, and inspire readers. We love it when someone tells us that they've used one of our books to get out of the house and explore nature. We wouldn't trade jobs with anyone."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Super Hiking among the Northern California Redwoods, April 16, 2005

By 

Fritz R. Ward "dayhiker" (Crestline, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Short Hikes in Redwood National and State Parks (Paperback)

One would be hard pressed to find better authors for a hiking guide to the Northern California Redwood Forests. Jerry and Gisela Rohde have already published two excellent travel guides to the area and their works are a delight to read. Perhaps the single best feature of this book is that the authors actually limited themselves to describing only short and easy walks in the region. (This is in sharp contrast to some of the other Mountaineers Press "Short Hikes" guides which have been known to include 22 mile hikes!) Of the sixty-four hikes included in this book, twelve are less than a mile, and only seven exceed 5 miles. Literally anyone can find a walk suited to them among those listed in this book.

This book has several other nice aspects as well. Mileages for trails are accurate to within 1/20 (.05) miles. The Rohde's also provide graphic representations of the amount of elevation you can expect to gain or lose over the course of a hike. Finally, each hike includes a sketch map of the trail and most include stunning black and white photographs that are almost worth the price of the book alone.

If I have any complaint at all about this book, it is that I would have begun coverage of the North Coast Redwoods at Richardson Grove State Park rather than Humbolt Redwoods. Richardson Grove appears right after you cross the Humbolt County line while traveling north on Hwy 101. It is at this point you truly know you are in Redwood Country. The many beautiful trails there merit a visit if you are coming into Humbolt county from the south.

That said, the authors are to be commended for including Humbolt Redwoods State Park since it is outside the boundaries of the National Park and often overlooked. I personally think the F.K. Lane Grove walk (Hike 1 in this book) is the single best stroll among redwoods in the state. Humbolt Redwoods State Park is also the location of the tallest redwood trees, National Park claims to the contrary notwithstanding. Prarie Creek Redwoods State Park also receives much needed attention in this volume. I hope to spend several days there the next time I go north.

This book is simply a "must buy." Any trip to the Northern California Coast without it is incomplete. Also be sure to pick up the authors' other two books. They contain delightful local histories of the region and are a joy to read.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide to Redwood Country, August 18, 2006

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D. Violette (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Short Hikes in Redwood National and State Parks (Paperback)

Written by longtime area residents, this handy guide reads south to north, has small but good trail maps, includes interesting historical details, and contains a healthy number of good-quality (alas, B&W) photos. An appendix lists Park and Campground information but the book does not cover lodging and dining facilities. The book concludes with a helpful index.

The front of the book features several pages of tables grouping hikes according to whether they feature Rivers, Creeks and Ponds, or Lots of Wildflowers, Old Growth Redwoods, Beaches and/or Coast, and even hikes for Terrific Fall Color. Also included are miles and difficulty.

Trail and hike descriptions list the essentials: length, difficulty, elevation; and for the photographers among us, indispensable details such as areas rich in spring wildflowers, as well as areas with concentrations of deciduous trees that lend themselves to good fall color, also riparian scenes, and of course old-growth stands of the most stunning Giants themselves.

I'm in the planning stages of a trip to Redwood Country and after just reading this book cover-to-cover, it may be the only guide I need.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hikes for everyone!, September 20, 2005

By 

Helen Lee (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Short Hikes in Redwood National and State Parks (Paperback)

This book highlighted the best short hikes that anyone can do. What's so great about the book is you can select a bunch of short hikes that you can do in one day. You'll feel like you have gained a great overview of each of the parks by going on these short hikes because they're all quite different. Plus the book is small and light enough that you can take with you on the hike. It's great to read the passsage as you embark on the start of your hike to refresh your memory of what you'll encounter along the way. We even saw a black cub on one of these hikes. Not too scare anyone off, but we thought it was pretty cool since we're city folks. Happy hiking!