Hike the Redwood Groves

The 7,472-acre Headwaters Forest Reserve  was established in 1999 after a decade-long grassroots effort to protect the world’s last unprotected, intact, old-growth redwood forest ecosystem. Several threatened species call the Reserve home, including coho salmon, the northern spotted owl, and the marbled murrelet. 

Deep in the heart of the Headwaters, old-growth forest is the beginnings or headwaters of the South Fork Elk River and Salmon Creek. This is how the area got its name. 

Ladybird Johnson Grove Trail is located an hour north from the property. This trail is one of the few areas where you can walk in just a few steps through a second-growth forest into an old-growth redwood forest.

Only 5% of the world's old-growth redwood forest remains - and nearly half of that (40,000 acres) is in Redwood National and State Parks. Once you cross the hikers' bridge you will be immersed in old-growth redwoods that have never been logged. You can see, feel, and even hear the differences between these two kinds of forests.

The Grieg-French-Bell Grove is a short 30 min. drive south from the property. This grove is the prettiest grove in Humboldt Redwoods, mainly because of its incredibly thick and dense groundcover of redwood sorrel.

 The unusually lush groundcover might result from the grove’s location at the fog-prone northern edge of the park. The sorrel completely covers a forest floor that, unusually, consists of little rolling mounds, and also covers fallen logs.