Redwood Nature Trail And The Chetco River

This is a series of posts about our Southern Oregon Coast road trip in November, you can start here if you would like.

Originally in planning I thought we would stay two nights along this road in search of several hikes I had scouted online before we would eventually drive back up HWY 101 along the Southern Oregon Coast towards home. However, we decided to head back after one night so we could be home on Sunday and avoid typical long weekend traffic jams on the I-5 corridor through Portland and the Seattle area.

The alarm went off at 6am and I slowly got out of my snuggly sleeping bag and the car. My husband had been up for several hours already wandering the vicinity by headlamp and we began our morning ritual of coffee and breakfast. Today was yogurt, grain free granola and blueberries.

The sun was just starting to come up and we walked down to the river bank while sipping our hot beverages to see what the area looked like with the benefit of daylight. Turns out there were a few campers way down the beach, you might be able to see the speck of white camper in the distance past my husband. Unfortunately the daylight was not enough to keep my pictures from being just a little blurry.

We both agreed we didn’t want to know how busy it was in the summer but it was calm and beautiful right now. With the early light of day, I could see that driving down on to the beach would have been possible but I am glad I didn’t attempt it in the dark. Our spot up above was just fine.

If there had been other people it might not have been the best location for our overnight but because it was just us, it worked out. And I don’t think I mentioned it earlier but there was no reception here.

I am going to spare you the picture that my hubby took but the privy had the most obnoxious cluster of spiders gathered way up at the top of the ceiling that I thankfully did not look up to see until today. I would NOT have slept if I had seen them last night. The creepy crawlies are happening now even as I just write about it.

Leaving Miller Bar, we first drove deeper into the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest along the Chetco River to check out some of the other dispersed camping areas along the road. As we passed by Nook Bar I could see more than a handful of vehicles parked out on the river bank and then Little Redwood Campground went by (which was gated and closed due to paperwork, my interpretation). At Redwood Bar we turned left and down its entrance road to come out along the Chetco. No one was here and it didn’t have the length of Miller but there were several nice campsites to be had for those who drive out onto the sand and rock.

I say the bank was shorter but I am sure if you had a real off-roading vehicle you could continue further. The forest service does advise against winter camping out on the bank due to the unpredictability of the river during these months but with a mild forecast like we had this weekend you would probably be okay.

There was evidence of the wildfires that are frequent in this area, I wondered if the dead snags we saw were a part of the Chetco Bar Fire of 2017 that threatened the town of Brookings and is reportedly one of the largest wildfires in the nation, let alone Oregon State.

About 7:30am we began our way back down North Chetco River Road towards our first hike of the day at Redwood Nature Trail. This little gem made a 1.7 mile loop through the northernmost grove of naturally-occurring redwood trees and was .5 miles from Alfred A Loeb State Park. The trees here are smaller than in Jebediah Smith State Park that we visited in 2020 but we were still quite impressed by the giants we saw today. Plus we lucked out and had the popular trail to ourselves!

We would see on our way out that there was a self-guided tour of sorts posted on the kiosk at the trailhead but there were cars parked in front of it when we started so we missed it. We weren’t really sure what the two people with the cars were doing but they did not look like they were there to hike so we didn’t pause long and headed up the trail. No matter, we thoroughly enjoyed the hike without a guide.

There was a privy at the beginning and a bridge crossing over a bubbly stream.

It wasn’t long before we were walking with our necks straining as we tried to take in the tree canopy so far over our heads. Some of the redwoods here are 290 feet tall! What was also impressive was how many of them still had their tops and weren’t sheared off from wind damage.

Here is one with what looks like lightening damage, though.

Look at that beauty, the picture really doesn’t do it justice. You can see it is tall but it hard to see just how wide the diameter of the trunk was.

There was another footbridge near the top of the loop which gained about 520 feet from the parking lot.

Belle Barbie was impressed, too.

My hubby tried to show just how wide this tree was (#9 on the kiosk map) but you don’t appreciate how deep the trunk is until the trail wraps around and you see it from below. It is believed that this grove of redwoods continues 2 miles north so it is easy to imagine there might be larger trees than the ones we see on the loop.

The loop comes back down along the road where there are some large Douglas fir like we had seen at Humbug Mountain. We might have been more impressed if we had come here first.

The loop took us about an hour and a half and the parking lot was empty when we got back to the car.

As we headed for HWY 101, we did take a drive through the state park which did have a fair amount of campers (mostly RVs). There was also a nice day use area along the Chetco which was a striking jade hue.

Tomorrow’s post will carry on from here as we find one more “secret” hike and a few more stops on the Wild Rivers Coast Food Trail!

You can find out more about the Chetco Wild & Scenic River Recreational Area here. People visit the area for a multitude of activities like camping, fishing, hiking, kayaking and just floating the river. Some day I would like to return to hike some of the other trails I had seen on Oregon Hikers like Chetco Gorge Trail or Vulcan Lake Trail. If the little taste we had was any indicator, it would be a rugged and wild area to experience.

This recreation area is on the homelands of the the Chetco people, you can find out more about them here. There is a memorial in Brookings I would read about later dedicated to the displacement of the Chetco tribe who once thrived in the valley and mouth of the Chetco River.