Parking
Crescent Beach Picnic Area on Enderts Beach Road off US 101; parking, picnic tables and restrooms are available.
Overview
About Coastal Trail: Crescent Beach Section
Why go
- Flat, family-friendly walk to a wide sandy shore
- Sitka spruce and prairie elk add variety to a beach stroll
Heads up
- The park’s 3.5-mile figure has no published endpoint or distance convention
Map & elevation
The route
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 Coastal Trail: Crescent Beach Section, 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
Crescent Beach Day Use Area0:00 / 0:29
“Up ahead is Crescent Beach Day Use Area, an easy stop for a picnic and a walk along miles of sand. Bring your own lunch for the picnic tables, then look for sand dollars along the shore.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Redwood Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Mill Creek Watershed via Hamilton Road
- The Elk's Second Chew
- Crescent Beach Overlook and Enderts Beach
- The Spruce Beside the Sea
- 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 Coastal Trail: Crescent Beach Section
An easy walk along Crescent BeachThis easy out-and-back starts at Crescent Beach Picnic Area and follows the sandy Coastal Trail…
This easy out-and-back starts at Crescent Beach Picnic Area and follows the sandy Coastal Trail along the shore. The park lists 3.5 miles but does not name a turnaround or say how that figure is measured. The mapped sandy path runs just under two miles one way; follow it to its mapped north end and return for about 4 miles round trip. Allow around 1¾ hours of walking, plus time to beachcomb.
Beach, spruce and prairieThe walk is flat and meandering, with colossal Sitka spruce and open prairie beside the…
The walk is flat and meandering, with colossal Sitka spruce and open prairie beside the shoreline. There is no climb to a summit; the payoff is a long, open stretch of sand for strolling and beachcombing. Roosevelt elk regularly graze in the nearby prairie. Give them room: an elk that feels threatened can become defensive.
Starting outPark at Crescent Beach Picnic Area on Enderts Beach Road off US 101.
Park at Crescent Beach Picnic Area on Enderts Beach Road off US 101. The area has parking, picnic tables and restrooms. Dogs, bicycles and horses are not allowed on this section. The official route description does not mark the turnaround, so the mapped end gives a practical point to turn back; the park's 3.5-mile figure remains unexplained.
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.
