After Jeff Clow and I reached our last stop on our Oregon scouting trip, we actually had some free time to do whatever we wanted to. Before the trip began, we resolved to ourselves that we would try to visit Redwood National Park if we had time. The hidden benefit to experiencing bad weather on the trip was that we had an afternoon to do just that. What we didn't realize was that the redwoods stretch for about 470 miles down the coast of California (there are some in the southernmost part of Oregon) and that the National Park was simply too far away to visit. We didn't know that until we reached the Jedediah Smith Redwood State ParkVisitor's Center and found out that there are several State Parks that surround the National Park and they are all run as one big park.
After talking with the Park Ranger there, we decided to visit Stout Grove, which wasn't too far from where we were. The road there has pretty narrow dirty holes with quite the number of potholes. Once there, the parking is limited but there were a couple of spots still open (good thing we weren't there in the summer). The trail is a loop trail that is a little over a half-mile long and pretty flat. There we were treated with the tallest trees in the world. The tallest redwood in Stout Grove is 342 feet tall (the tallest known one is 380 feet tall) and it is extremely difficult to convey their size through a photograph -- I know we tried. It is safe to say that you must see them in person to get a sense of how big they really are. I liked this particular tree, as the light was really nice on it, which I hopes accentuates on how tall it is.