Calaveras Big Trees State Park Camping
We’ve been wanting to visit Calaveras Big Trees State Park for years, so we finally made it a point to do so on our trip to this area. The park is large and has two different groves of giant Sequoia trees. Each grove of trees has a trail through it. Calaveras Big Trees State Park is located 4 miles northeast of Arnold, California, off of Highway 4. There are two different types of redwoods in California, the coast redwood along the northern and central coast, and the giant Sequoia scattered in the Sierra Nevada western slope. The trees can reach a height of 325 feet tall and can be up to 33 feet around. It’s hard to show the massive size in the photos, but we tried. Some of these trees are assumed to be around 2,000 years old. This park was established in 1931 as a State of California park in order to preserve these stunning giant sequoias, starting with the North Grove, with the South Grove being acquired later.
Visiting the Park
Calaveras Big Trees State Park
is a large park, and we decided to start with a hike. We chose the North Grove as it
was ADA accessible (easier for John) and less than 2 miles long. This loop has the famous Pioneer Cabin Tree, which fell in 2017. The loop contains 158 Giant Sequoias and was the original discovery site of the big trees.
The South Grove is a 5-mile trail, which contains 1000 giant Sequoias in over 445 acres. This area contains the biggest trees in the park.
Calaveras Big Trees Camping
The park has two large campgrounds for RV or tents. RV sites accommodate 30’ or less, so I guess that leaves us out, although it looked like there were large enough sites. The campground is open from March to November – closed for winter due to snow. There are also rental cabins available. Of course, there are picnic areas.
Wildlife – yes there is wildlife. When we were driving from the north to south groves, we saw a bear with two cubs running off the road! Got the best picture I could from the car.
Further into the park is the Stanislaus River – beautiful! The Stanislaus River runs through
the park, with areas for swimming and fishing.
What is Calaveras County famous for?
Calaveras state park is a definite MUST SEE when in the area. So many beautiful areas to discover in California!
