Tall Trees Walking Tour Stop 6

It has been well over a century since mules, horses and wagon trains crossed this area.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

41.20924593320, -124.00699143600

Trinidad Trail

Welcome to what was once the Trinidad Trail! If you were standing here in the 1850s, you would bear witness to some of the first pack trains of mules, horses and donkeys carrying supplies from the port of Trinidad to gold miners working the Klamath, Trinity, and Salmon Rivers.  As more settlers traveled west in search of gold, many discovered the wealth of redwood trees or “red gold.” The wagon trails here were the forerunners to the logging roads that would crisscross this area in the coming years, leading to a major loss of biodiversity in the region. Of the two million acres of old-growth coast redwood forest that once stretched from Southern Oregon all the way south to Big Sur, only four percent now remains. How fortunate we all are to be able to enjoy what has been left standing, preserved in perpetuity!

The Trinidad Trail has since been reclaimed by nature and the hands of time, evidence that this forest habitat is as resilient as it is fragile. Even the trail you are now walking is constantly being encroached upon by the surrounding forest, as is evidenced by the tunnel of evergreen huckleberries a bit further down the hill.