Zig Zag Trail

Prairie Creek Redwoods National and State Parks

This area of California contains some of the largest redwoods on Earth and holds extensive old-growth forests, protected as a national park in 1968. This particular walk, using the Zig Zag Trails and Prairie Creek Trail, is entirely in old growth. It offers an enigmatic temporal departure into a rare forest type. In addition to redwoods, other conifer specimens like Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and Sitka spruce are coupled with clandestine western redcedar and Port-Orford cedar—be sure to look carefully and learn your conifers well. Watch for grand firs that occur infrequently along the road, particularly at the south end of Elk Prairie.

Getting there: From Highway 101, 4.5 miles north of Orick, take a left on the Newton B. Drury Parkway. Travel north 4.7 miles and look for the Edward C. Wagner Memorial Grove on the left. The Newton B. Drury Parkway reconnects with US 101, 5 miles south of the town of Klamath. You may also access the grove this way, traveling 5 miles south looking for the Wagner grove on the right.

Find more on the Zig Zag Trail in all three of these books!