Walking Among Giants: Our Hike Through the Grove of Titans

There are places that are beautiful in pictures, and then there are places where the pictures don't even come close. The Grove of Titans was one of those places. From the moment we started walking into the redwoods, everything around us seemed to turn greener. And I don't mean regular forest green. This was greener than green. Ferns covered the ground, moss climbed over fallen trees, and sunlight filtered through so many layers of leaves that parts of the forest almost had a tropical feel to them. It honestly felt like we had walked into another world. Into the Redwoods The Grove of Titans is tucked inside Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California, and the farther we walked, the quieter the outside world seemed to get. The trail wound through enormous old-growth redwoods, with ferns and thick vegetation growing everywhere underneath them. Some of the trunks were so big that Breezie and I standing beside them barely gave any sense of scale. You would look up and keep looking up. And then keep looking some more. That is the strange thing about these trees. You know they are huge before you ever get there, but your brain still isn't prepared for what 300 feet of redwood looks like when you're standing underneath one. One tree in particular became our favorite. We started calling him The Old Man of the North. Standing at the bottom of that tree and looking toward the top, it was almost impossible to take the whole thing in at once. The trunk disappeared upward into branches, light and sky, and Breezie and I looked tiny standing at the base of it. That photograph may be one of our favorites from this entire trip. Why They Call It the Grove of Titans There is some pretty interesting history behind this place too. These giant trees have been known to Indigenous people for thousands of years, but the group later called the Grove of Titans was brought to wider attention by researchers in the late 1990s. Once GPS coordinates and information started spreading online, more and more people began searching for the trees. Unfortunately, all those footsteps began damaging the fragile forest floor and shallow redwood root systems. National Park Service Eventually, a new trail system was built, including roughly 1,500 feet of elevated boardwalk, allowing people to experience the grove without trampling the ground around these ancient trees. The improved Grove of Titans Trail was completed in 2022. National Park Service Walking those raised sections really makes sense once you're there. The forest floor looks alive. Ferns, roots, moss, fallen timber and new growth are all mixed together beneath your feet. It isn't just a collection of big trees. It is an entire living system. Watch Your Noggin Of course, we can't go anywhere without something making us laugh. At one point a fallen tree stretched low across the trail. Breezie had the camera going and told the guy ahead of us, "Watch your noggin!" Good thing she did. He ducked just in time and nearly introduced the top of his head to a redwood. It was one of those little moments that had nothing to do with history or giant trees, but it ended up being one of the funny parts of the hike we'll probably remember forever. A Forest Built to Survive Another thing that amazed us was how tough these trees are. Coast redwoods have incredibly thick bark and several adaptations that help them survive fire and other damage. Some trees carry black scars from fires that happened long before any of us were born, yet they continue growing. Looking at those scars while standing beneath trees that have survived century after century gives you a whole different appreciation for them. They've seen fires. They've seen storms. They've seen generations of people come and go. And they're still standing. Greener Than Green What surprised Breezie and me the most, though, wasn't just the size of the trees. It was the green. I don't know how else to describe it. There were moments when the vegetation was so thick and so bright that Northern California almost looked tropical. Sword ferns crowded the trail. Moss hung from trees. Little plants grew out of fallen logs, and every opening in the canopy seemed to light up another shade of green. We kept stopping just to look around. That's probably why a hike like this takes us longer than it should. We're terrible at walking past something beautiful without stopping. Some Places Make You Slow Down We've seen a lot of beautiful country on this trip, but the redwoods have been different. You don't rush through them. You can't. There's always another giant tree around the bend, another beam of sunlight coming through the canopy or another fallen redwood with an entire little world growing on top of it. The Grove of Titans made us slow down. And maybe that's part of what makes places like this so special. For a little while, you forget about schedules, roads, phones and whatever you're supposed to be doing next. You just walk. You look up. And you realize you're standing among living things that were here long before you arrived and, hopefully, will still be here long after you're gone. We hope you enjoy the video and come walk through the Grove of Titans with us. Because this is one place where even the best camera in the world can't really show you how big, how green and how beautiful it feels to actually be there. Watch the video above and come walk among the giants with Finius and Breezie. And as always, you can follow the rest of our travels right here on The Adventures of Finius the Skinniest.