Parking
The marked access is on the east side of Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at mile marker 133.50; use the short paved stub. Parking is limited, especially for RVs and trailers.
Overview
About Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail
Why go
- The signs make hillside restoration easy to understand
- Merriman Grove adds a mature-redwood payoff
Heads up
- The rehabilitated road corridor stays broader and more open than an intact forest trail
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Redwood map
Full mapElevation813–878 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
6 active Redwood alerts
- CautionU.S. 101 construction traffic controlsExpect construction-related traffic stops and one-way controlled traffic on U.S. 101; allow extra time and drive cautiously. - NPS reports multiple stops between Orick and Crescent City; delays vary.Official details
- CautionU.S. 199 construction traffic controlsExpect 24/7 one-way controlled traffic on three U.S. 199 segments because of construction. - 6–6.2 miles north of Gasquet: through 6:00 p.m. December 15, 2026; delays up to 10 minutes. - 9.6–9.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Redwood Tour Guide
Your drive to Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail, narrated.
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 trailhead
Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail0:00 / 0:26
“Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail is coming up, a half-hour walk showing how an old logging road becomes forest again.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Redwood Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Carruthers Cove
- The Anemone Under the Shells
- Hope Creek and Ten Taypo Loop
- How Cold Water Feeds the Coast
- 85 audio storiesacross Redwood’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Black Bear, Elk, California Condor, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 83 trails, 48 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“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!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail
What this walk isAh-Pah Interpretive Trail is a 0.
Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail is a 0.6-mile out-and-back from a small paved road stub on the east side of Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway to the Merriman Grove sign. The path follows an old logging road down through redwood uplands, then returns the same way. Allow about half an hour if you stop at the signs. It is a good short choice when you want to see how a logged hillside recovers, rather than spend hours on a longer redwood hike. The grades are uneven but not steep.
A road becoming forestThe former logging road was rehabilitated in 1995.
The former logging road was rehabilitated in 1995. The first tenth-mile is relatively level, with three interpretive signs explaining the road removal and hillside recontouring. A broad, open strip still cuts through the surrounding redwoods; young trees and brush along it make the restoration visible, including where mature trees have not returned. Sword ferns, salal, rhododendron and berry shrubs edge the path.
The groves and the turnaroundAround 0.2 mile in, the route passes Chas L. McKelvy Memorial Grove and several fallen trees.
Around 0.2 mile in, the route passes Chas L. McKelvy Memorial Grove and several fallen trees. A small red alder grove comes before the Merriman Grove sign, about 0.3 mile from the start. The forest opens there, with a view down to large redwoods below the trail. Turn back at the sign: a steep informal path continues beyond it but fades into a ravine; it is not part of the maintained walk.
Getting to the startThe marked access is on the east side of Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at mile marker 133.
The marked access is on the east side of Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway at mile marker 133.50; park on the short paved stub. Parking is limited, especially for RVs and trailers. Pets are not allowed on park trails.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Redwood
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.
