Avenue of the Giants

The road is the former US 101, left in place when the freeway was built alongside, and it runs about fifty kilometres through Humboldt Redwoods State Park - which holds the largest remaining contiguous old-growth coast redwood forest anywhere, around seven thousand hectares of it. The trees were saved piecemeal from the 1920s by the Save the Redwoods League, which bought groves as memorials, one at a time, from donors; many groves still carry the names of the families who paid. Rockefeller Forest off the avenue is the largest single block. Coast redwoods reach over a hundred metres and live two thousand years. Several roadside attractions offer drive-through trees, which are cut and old.

What you actually see

• Fifty kilometres of old highway - between the trees rather than round them.
• The largest old-growth redwood block - about seven thousand hectares.
• Memorial groves - bought one at a time by named donors.
• Rockefeller Forest - the largest continuous stand.

When to go

April to October; the forest is dark and wet in winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The road is narrow and slow with logging traffic. Rain is heavy from autumn to spring. The forest floor is dark, which frustrates photographers. Drive-through trees are cut trees and predate current thinking.

Nearby

The Lost Coast is west; Eureka is north.