Redwood Mountain Loop

Redwood Mountain Loop is a 10-mile loop from Redwood Saddle that combines the Sugar Bowl and Hart Tree routes through one of the park’s largest old-growth sequoia groves. The mapped line here takes the Sugar Bowl ridge first, crosses to the Hart Tree trail, then returns to Redwood Saddle; it can be walked either way. Allow about 5–8 hours of hiking, plus longer stops. It’s a moderate, full-day outing, not a quick grove stroll. This circuit leaves out the separate Big Springs spur. Overnight camping requires a wilderness permit, and pets aren’t allowed on park trails.

The Sugar Bowl trail climbs Redwood Mountain in switchbacks. Near 1.5 miles, an overlook opens toward Big Baldy; another sits near the ridge high point around 2 miles. The path then drops into the Sugar Bowl, a dense grove of mature and young sequoias, and reaches Redwood Creek before joining the Hart Tree route. The ridge gives this loop a second kind of payoff beyond the giant trees below.

The Hart Tree section passes Hart Meadow and Tunnel Tree, a hollowed giant sequoia, before the spur to Hart Tree, the grove’s largest tree. A small waterfall and Fallen Goliath, a named downed sequoia, are along this part of the route. The 2021 fire scorched Hart Tree’s crown, but it was still in good shape with green branches in 2022.

The 2021 KNP Complex Fire reached all of Redwood Mountain Grove. About 40 percent of the grove burned at moderate or high severity, killing many mature sequoias; estimates put the loss at roughly 974–1,574 large trees. The effects vary across the route: recent prescribed burns moderated fire severity in the northern grove, while parts of the south and Redwood Canyon burned much more intensely. Fire also clears ground that helps giant sequoias reproduce, so seedlings and resprouting plants are part of the grove’s recovery.

At Barton’s Post Camp, the route passes remains of an 1800s logging site. It’s a useful reminder that this old-growth landscape has a working history as well as a natural one.