Humboldt County, California
An extraordinary journey awaits you at Humboldt County’s Redwood Sky Walk. Nestled amidst Humboldt’s many breathtaking natural wonders lies a human-made marvel that promises a remarkable journey into one of Nature’s most awe-inspiring creations: the Californian Coast Redwood forest. The Redwood Sky Walk at Sequoia Park Zoo presents an almost quarter-mile tour of the forest, soaring up to 100 feet above the forest floor, accessible via convenient ramps. It provides an experience of the redwood forest like no other.
It has long been my passion to photograph light at night, and the redwood forest is the forest type that most dearly holds my heart. When my love of night photography coincided with a tour through the middle terrace of the redwoods at night I was in heaven.
Photography is for sharing, and it gives me pleasure to share with you this treasure that I have experienced. You must try the Redwood Skywalk for yourself, for whether by night or by day, in my experience it is spectacular.
Most of the Redwood Sky Walk is solid underfoot and accessible to wheeled devices, but there are a few swinging bridges for the more adventurous among us. Stepping onto them inevitably brings to my mind the bridge Kathleen Turner braved high above the gorge in Romancing the Stone, but that is only my mind messing with me.
The swinging portions wobble and sway, yes, and they feel like walking on a waterbed — albeit 100 feet above the forest floor — but they also feel robust and strong. I am not fond of heights, but I felt fine on the Sky Walk. In fact, loved it. And if you go at night, you can’t see the forest floor in many places, allowing the illusion that one isn’t really that far above the ground.
The Redwood Sky Walk is normally open during the day when the Zoo is open. These nighttime views were taken during the annual holiday Zoo Lights event, which has now concluded. This year, Zoo Lights included the Zoo’s towering lighted Redwood Christmas tree. At the time of the tree’s lighting, the Zoo team believed it to be the tallest lighted Christmas tree in the land at 174 feet nine inches, eclipsing even Ferndale’s mighty Sitka spruce tree, the previous tallest Christmas tree record-holder.
However, even at that, apparently it is still not the tallest lighted Christmas tree in the country because, according to the Zoo’s Special Projects Coordinator Kate Baldwin, a team in Mendocino County has lighted an even taller Christmas tree. So it goes. But there is hope that the Zoo can someday regain the record, as according to Zoo director Jim Campbell-Spickler, the tree will grow one to three feet each year. Of course, so may the others.
If you missed the Zoo Lights evening holiday viewing, the Sky Walk and Zoo are both open during the day during regular Zoo hours, and the price is included in the Zoo admission. Visit redwoodzoo.org for more information.
Cool facts: Redwood trees, Sequoia sempervirens, grow to be the tallest trees in the world. The Sequoia Park Zoo, founded in 1907, is the oldest accredited Zoo in California. In 2023, the Redwood Sky Walk was voted #1 Best Aerial Adventure Park in the nation by USA Today readers and received two prestigious awards from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The mixed-growth redwood forest in Sequoia Park is believed to be the tallest urban forest on the planet and has an average canopy height of 250 feet. The Redwood Sky Walk itself is nearly 1/4 mile long and reaches a height of 100 above the forest floor. During the 7.0 earthquake of December 5, 2024, Campbell-Spickler and another professional climber were high in the Christmas tree hanging the decorations. “It was intense,” he says of the experience. I’m sure it was!
Some daytime views…
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