Picnic area · Redwood National Park
A shaded roadside table with a view into Redwood Creek country.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Redwood Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Redwood National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Redwood audio tourRecorded for this place
Dolason Prairie Picnic Area“Dolason Prairie Picnic Area is coming up, a simple roadside break beside a hilltop meadow overlooking Redwood Creek country.”
Plays as you drive up to Dolason Prairie Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Redwood Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
This is a roadside picnic stop and the marked start of the Dolason Prairie Trail on Bald Hills Road. The parking area sits beside a grassy hilltop meadow looking across Redwood Creek. There is a picnic table, an information kiosk and a vault toilet, so it works well as a simple break on the drive.
The trail drops from high prairie toward Redwood Creek. It is 5.9 miles one way and strenuous, with steep grades and switchbacks, so it is a serious hike rather than a short wander from the tables. Farther along, the route passes a 19th-century barn left from a sheep ranch that operated in the area for nearly a century. Check current trail conditions before setting out beyond the picnic area.
Across Redwood Creek, many hillsides were clearcut in the 1960s and 1970s. The park expanded in 1978 to protect most of the watershed, including much of that logged land. The remaining old-growth groves show up as dark green patches among lighter second-growth forest.
Wildlife
256 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
2,389 sightingsElkMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
62 sightingsCalifornia CondorMost seen around 1 PMSighting map
60 sightingsCalifornia Sea LionMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
216 sightingsHarbor SealMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
13 sightingsMountain LionMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Redwood. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ChallengingDolason Prairie Trail9 mi · 6 hr · At the trailheadPrairie views and a historic barn lead down to a redwood grove.
ChallengingTall Trees Trail3.7 mi · 4 hr · 2.2 mi awayTall redwoods reward the steep descent and the long climb back.ModerateEmerald Ridge and Tall Trees Loop4.3 mi · 4 hr · 2.2 mi awayA steep old-growth loop with a rough, low-water creek crossing.
ModerateLyons Ranch Trail4 mi · 2.5 hr · 5 mi awayOpen prairie, oak groves and a historic barn at the far end.Parkwolf’s Redwood ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
