Redwood Coast: Where Giants Meet the Ocean

Bitten by the travel bug, my husband and I stole away a precious week from the most chaotic months of our PhDs for a road trip along the breathtaking Northern California coast.

Our journey to the Redwood Coast started with Avenue of the Giants, a beautiful scenic drive lined with high trees on both sides. It passes through secluded forest, where every trail leads to the dense redwoods. The weather was cloudy with a little rain, and it made the whole drive even more romantic. Then came one of the quirkiest stops of our trip: the famous drive-thru tree. Oh yes, you read that right! We paid money to drive through a historic tree, and then spent way too much time watching other cars drive through the tree :) Sometimes, travel makes you do wonderfully weird things — and those are the memories that stick.

Left to Right: Avenue of the Giants, and the Drive-Thru tree

The highlight of the first leg of our journey was Redwood National Park — a place that felt like stepping into another world. We spent hours wandering through the thick woods. This park is home to the tallest trees on Earth, and being surrounded by them was nothing short of humbling. I kept craning my neck, trying (and failing) to spot the tops of those redwoods, and we spent a lot of time sitting inside their massive trunks, just… existing.

Many different trails led to different places like the little Trillium falls, the Big Tree, and the famous Corkscrew tree, whose formations literally blew our mind. We climbed into its twisted trunk, and to our amazement, it was spacious enough to sit and hang out. For a moment, I felt like a child again — the kind who believes in enchanted forests and fairies whispering from the tree trunks.

Left to Right: Trillium falls, and the Corkscrew tree

There was something beautifully protective about those towering giants. The woods felt like a secret hideaway, a quiet sanctuary where no one could find us, even if they tried. And in that stillness, we reconnected - not through deep conversations, but in the quiet joy of getting lost together. We talked about how city life had disconnected us from nature, and the vastness of the forest offered a very different kind of peace and comfort.

What truly amazed me was the contrast — that the tallest trees in the world stand right beside the largest ocean on Earth. One moment, we were driving through the densest forests, and the next, we were driving along the Pacific coast. It felt surreal, like stepping through scenes in a dream.

We escaped the forests for a little while and drove up to the gorgeous Klamath River Overlook, which had a panaromic view of the ocean. I couldn’t take my eyes off the place where the Klamath River finally meets the Pacific Ocean after a long journey. The poet in me was overwhelmed at the scene. I truly believe this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to — a place that quietly celebrates love and reunion. I know that if I return years from now, this place will mean something different to me. But in this moment, it mirrored the joy of being with my husband again after months apart — the joy, the hope, the embrace.

Klamath River Overlook

We continued chasing the coast and drove up to Crescent City, the northernmost city in California. We didn’t stay long, but we made plenty of scenic stops along the coast, soaking in the vastness of the Pacific.

After soaking in the coastal beauty, we made our way back to Eureka, our home base for this leg of the trip. The next morning, we visited the Redwood Skywalk at the Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka. It felt like walking on another planet. There’s something humbling about being among trees that have lived for centuries. No matter how many times I walk beneath them, I will never stop feeling their magic.

This first leg of our road trip was quiet and fulfilling — immersive in every sense. It made me fall in love with California and its incredible versatility. In just a few days, we wandered through enchanted forests, hugged the tallest trees in the world, witnessed nature’s quiet love story, and found a little more of ourselves in between.