Two Tall Trails - Emerald Ridge & Tall Trees Trails - Redwood National Park

Two amazing trails @ Redwood National Park are on the docket for this Mothers Day outing!
Tall Trees Grove & Emerald Ridge!
Nothing but old growth forest for the entirety of this one.
Both trails originate from the Tall Trees Grove Trailailhead,
(see bottom for trailhead reservations, access & directions).
We’ll be taking the Tall Trees Grove lollipop trail first (3.6 mi total), which will descend 700’ down to a loop by the Redwood Creek. After the loop we’ll get off trail to explore the Creek area and also get a unique vantage point to view some of the tallest trees on the planet.
After that it’s a nice invigorating climb to back to the parking lot to refresh, have a bathroom break, grab a bite & a chat before heading down another 700’ on the Emerald Ridge Trail (2.6 mi total).
This beautiful trail receives far less traffic than Tall Trees, but is a similar jaw dropping jaunt down to Redwood Creek. We’ll hear Emerald Creek for the last 1/4 mile (a quick diversion would take us to the broken bridge over Emerald Creek on Dolason Prairie Trail, if feeling ambitious…) before getting down to Redwood Creek, again, but 1.7 miles upstream of Tall Trees this time.
Bit more exploring,
aaaand it’s back up!

NOTE
When hiking these trails on 4/13 there were downed trees that needed to be both ducked under and crawled over, with a bit of a treesplosion on the Emerald Ridge Trail that needed to be navigated. All very doable, but if you enjoy more of a finely manicured trail, be aware, this is not that.

Meetup Spot
We’ll meet @ 9:00 at the
Redwood National Park - Kuechel Visitor Center
just south of Orick and carpool from there to the trailhead.
The drive from the Visitors Center to Tall Trees Trailhead is 16 miles, but takes about :45 minutes, with 1/2 of the drive being a dirt road and the other 1/2 being a paved road, which is in worse condition than the dirt one...

Trailhead Reservations
https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/talltreespermits.htm
(Info about what to expect on the the trail and reservation system, along with the link below for reservations)

https://redwoodparksconservancy.org/tall-trees/
(All day Reservation appointments. Gate code emailed 23 hrs before hiking date)
These appointments are obviously very limited, so please make all efforts to attend or cancel in a timely manner to allow your space to be utilized by others.
Make a reservation & signup on Meetup if you plan on driving from the visitors center to the trailhead & if you want to be a passenger from the visitors center to the trailhead, just sign up on Meetup.

Either way please post in the comments if you’re a,
Driver (w/ reservation) & the # of passengers you’d be willing to take
or if you’re a
Passenger
& we’ll adjust driver and rider numbers as we go.