Founders Grove

Founders Grove delivers more in half a mile than almost anywhere in the redwoods. The loop is flat, hardened and officially wheelchair accessible, and it holds two things worth the stop: the Founders Tree, standing near 350 feet, and the Dyerville Giant, lying down.

The Dyerville Giant fell in 1991. State Parks puts it at 370 feet, which made it one of the tallest trees ever measured here. It now lies full-length beside the trail with its root plate standing on end like a wall, and you can walk the whole trunk. Seeing a redwood horizontally, close enough to touch the bark, does something that looking up at one doesn't.

The grove is named for the founders of Save the Redwoods League — John C. Merriam, Madison Grant and Henry Fairfield Osborn — who came to see the redwoods in 1917, found them being logged, and started the League the following year. Nearly every protected grove between here and Crescent City traces back to that trip.

Practically, this is one of the few trailheads on the Avenue with restrooms right at the parking lot, and there's a self-guided nature brochure at the trailhead. It's free, open 8am to sunset, and because the surface is hardened it works in the wet season when dirt trails turn to mud.

It's also the most visited stop on the Avenue, and the lot fills in the middle of the day in summer. Early morning or late afternoon, you can have it nearly to yourself.

Dogs aren't allowed on the trail, only in the parking area.