The Redwood National and State Parks are a complex of one national park and three state parks, located in northern California. Redwood National Park is made up of 3 state parks, Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek. Located within Del Norte and Humboldt Counties, the four parks, together, protect 45 percent of all remaining coastal redwoods.
These trees are the tallest, among the oldest, and one of the most massive tree species on Earth. In addition to the redwood forests, the parks preserve other indigenous flora, fauna, grassland prairie, cultural resources, portions of rivers and other streams, and 37 miles of coastline.
In 1850, old-growth redwood forest covered more than 2,000,000 acres of the California coast. The northern portion of that area was originally inhabited by Native Americans that were forced out of their land by gold seekers and timber harvesters. The enormous redwoods attracted timber harvesters to support the gold rush in more southern regions of California and the increased population from booming development in San Francisco and other places on the West Coast. After many decades of unrestricted clear-cut logging, serious efforts toward conservation began.
By the 1920s the work of the Save the Redwoods League, founded in 1918 to preserve remaining old-growth redwoods, resulted in the establishment of Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parks among others. Redwood National Park was created in 1968, by which time nearly 90 percent of the original redwood trees had been logged.
The park is home to what is thought to be the tallest tree in the world named, Hyperion standing at 379 ft tall. Unlike most other national parks in the U.S., there is no entry fee nor even entrance stations at Redwood National and State Parks. Nearly 200 miles of hiking trails exists within the parks.
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