Popular destinations like Big Basin Redwoods State Park (pictured) aren't the only spot to see old-growth redwoods in the Bay Area. Plenty of small and hidden redwood groves exist if you know where to look.
While large redwoods meccas like Henry Cowell, Reinhardt and Sonoma’s Armstrong get all the fame, the Bay Area’s full of intriguing microbursts of redwoods thanks to antilogging efforts and aficionados planting trees 100 years ago. You can be walking among scrub and eucalyptus, note a shaded gap in the trail and enter a wonderland of massive, sky-kissing redwoods – there’s nothing more magical.
These spots exist mostly in quietude thanks to stamp-sized footprints and winding setbacks that filter out a lot of tourists (often, finding your way there is half the fun). Here are a few lesser-known colonies to explore, small enough to do in under an hour but rich enough to satisfy your redwoods thirst for a long time:
Woodbridge Metcalf Grove, Berkeley
One of local nature’s most overlooked gems – and that’s not just personal bias due to this author’s name – is tucked behind UC Berkeley on winding fire trails. There are two fun ways to access the grove, which was planted by students a century ago and named for a famous forestry grad: You can take a short uphill walk along the dark creek of Strawberry Canyon, or fall into a crevice on the trail above and tumble down forest duff until hitting the soft wall of a redwood. (We recommend the first option.)
Here you’ll likely be all alone save for random survival structures built from branches, fluttering birds and the occasional fox. The sound is so dampened that if you sit still, you can hear insects chewing wood inside fallen trees.
Location on Google Maps
LandPaths Grove of Old Trees, Occidental
Bohemian Grove on the Russian River is a secretive boy’s club for the rich and powerful, whose members have included Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger; it’s also the conceptual birthplace of the atomic bomb. Low-key and nicer is the Grove of Old Trees about 10 miles south. It’s reached by a rural road so narrow, there are spots not wide enough for two vehicles. The privately owned copse is open to the public and offers a walking loop, mysterious sculpture work and a little picnic area to soak in the forest-fresh air. The preserved old-growth redwoods are immense and fire-scarred, with cavernous interiors you can do jumping jacks in. Once you’re finished exploring, it’s a short drive to lovely independent wineries, Gravenstein apple orchards and the excellent restaurants of Sebastopol and Guerneville.
Location on Google Maps
Blake Garden, Berkeley
In a residential area up hills so steep they’ll make you think about your last brake check, you’ll find this 100-year-old Eden set around the former residence of University of California presidents. Typically only open weekdays (it’s part of the UC system), the experimental garden is a hodgepodge of botanical environments and architectural styles – here a blackberry tunnel for kids to explore, there an Italian reflecting pool stocked with koi. Nestled against the wall of a Carmelite monastery is a little canyon full of redwoods, brought in from St. Helena a long time ago. It’s quiet here, with only the soft chirps of frogs and padded footsteps of local walkers to rumple the peace. Monarch butterflies sometimes flap from tree to tree, thanks to their favorite food, milkweed, planted nearby in a squirming “Caterpillar City.”
Location on Google Maps
Redwood Grove Nature Preserve, Los Altos
All right, so a place with “redwood” in its name isn’t so hidden. But while this woodsy enclave is popular in Los Altos, many folks (especially coming from up north) may have never experienced its charms. The six-acre park has a creek and more than 100 redwoods, which were transplanted in the 1920s from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Occasional fog keeps the temperature cool and feeds the trees, too, as redwoods inhale some water through their needles. The preserve is a breeze to explore – perhaps with a stroller or pup – thanks to a wooden boardwalk meandering among the giants. As one visitor recently opined, it’s a “nice place to ‘forest bathe’ without having to take a long hike.”
Location on Google Maps