Redwood National Park road closures are mostly weather or access-rule checks rather than one park-wide winter season. Howland Hill Road is a normal year-round drive; the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway has vehicle-free first Saturdays from October through May. Driving Davison Road to Fern Canyon has a separate reservation season and vehicle restrictions. Check NPS conditions and Caltrans before setting out, even if a road has no listed seasonal closure.
NPS alerts last checked
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Straight from NPS
A road with no listed alert is not confirmed open.
Howland Hill Road
Newton B. Drury Parkway
Parkway Bike and Hike Day
Vehicle-free access rule on Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway; check the rule even when no alert is listed.
Bald Hills Road
Davison Road
Fern Canyon vehicle reservation
Day-use vehicle reservation rule on Davison Road; check the rule even when no alert is listed.
That read is behind our 15-minute schedule, so roads without an alert show Not checked.
We check NPS alerts every 15 minutes.
Read park conditions and alerts before driving.
Check the reservation season, exemptions and vehicle rules.
Check Bike and Hike Days and winter driving guidance.
Howland Hill Road is near Crescent City, the Drury parkway runs through Prairie Creek, and Davison Road reaches the coast. Bald Hills Road climbs east from Highway 101 near Orick.
The Bike and Hike and reservation rows are access policies on their parent roads, not extra roads or seasonal openings.
| Road | Vehicle season or access rule | Destinations & limits |
|---|---|---|
Howland Hill Road | Normal year-round drive, weather permitting | 10 miles, mostly unpaved. Spring repairs can close parts. |
Newton B. Drury Parkway | No fixed seasonal closure stated | Ten paved miles. Vehicles of any size; separate Bike and Hike rule and weather closures apply. |
Parkway Bike and Hike Day | Normal first Saturday, October through May | Vehicle-free policy on Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, not a separate road. Check the event and road notices. |
Bald Hills Road | No fixed seasonal closure stated | Winding, narrow, part gravel. RVs and trailers not recommended. |
Davison Road | No fixed seasonal closure stated | Eight miles of single-lane gravel, two stream crossings. No trailers; conflicting official RV limits need confirmation. |
Fern Canyon vehicle reservation | Normal reservation window: May 15 to September 15 | Vehicle day-use policy for Davison Road to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon, not a road opening season. Booking page dates differ from other NPS pages. |
Choose a drive around the vehicle-free calendar, permit rules and weather.
The dedicated NPS booking page gives May 15 through September 15 for day-use vehicles reaching Gold Bluffs Beach picnic parking or Fern Canyon on Davison Road. Reservations are online only, in advance or the day before; there are no same-day reservations. Bring the named holder and photo ID.
Visitors with a current Gold Bluffs Beach or Elk Prairie campground reservation are exempt from the day-use reservation and must show their current campsite tag. Walking access has no vehicle reservation requirement. The James Irvine Trail route from Prairie Creek Visitor Center is about 10.4 miles round trip.
The booking page and Gold Bluffs Beach page give May 15 to September 15. The scenic drives and Fern Canyon trail pages give May 1 to September 30. Use the dedicated booking page and check your dates before relying on access.
The normal rule closes the Drury parkway to motor vehicles on the first Saturday of each month, October through May. In the 2026 calendar, the autumn dates are October 3, November 7 and December 5. Storms, fallen trees or ice can interrupt access on other days too.
The paved parkway takes large vehicles; the narrower side roads have different rules.
A ten-mile drive east of Crescent City, mostly narrow and partly unpaved.
Ten paved miles through Prairie Creek old-growth forest.
The easiest approach is Highway 101, about a mile north of Orick.
GPS can misdirect visitors through isolated towns such as Weitchpec. Check the park directions.
Eight miles of single-lane gravel to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon.
For an RV, confirm the rule with the park before using Davison Road.
Check the route to the trailhead as well as the main park drive.
The scenic drives page describes Cal-Barrel as closed to vehicles in winter and prohibits motorhomes, RVs and trailers. On Coastal Drive, the former section south of Alder Camp toward Carruthers Cove is a nonmotorized route. The northern loop has a one-way northbound section between High Bluff Overlook and Klamath Beach Road; beyond High Bluff is unsuitable for RVs and trailers.
The parks follow Highway 101 for about 50 miles between Crescent City and Orick, without entrance stations along that corridor. Check Caltrans QuickMap for highway work and the NPS directions before following GPS onto a narrow back road.
Park-wide recreation visits provide seasonal context, not road traffic or an access guarantee.
In the 2021 to 2025 monthly averages, April has 43% of June's recreation visits and May 68%. June is the peak. September has 76%, October 52% and November 30%. Reservation rules and weather are separate checks; lower visits do not establish access. See the October guide.
Quick answers to the practical questions below.
Check NPS Current Conditions for road and day-use access today. A missing alert or an absent seasonal closure is not confirmation that a road is open. Fern Canyon reservations, the parkway's Bike and Hike Days and weather notices are separate checks.
The ten-mile Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway is a forest drive that NPS allows for vehicles of any size, subject to Bike and Hike Days and weather closures. Howland Hill Road is another ten-mile drive, but is partly unpaved and too narrow for RVs, trucks and trailers. Check each road before setting out.
Howland Hill Road is listed as a year-round drive, but other roads have their own weather and access rules. Cal-Barrel has a winter vehicle closure in the scenic drives guidance. Fern Canyon has a day-use reservation season, and the Drury parkway normally closes to cars on first Saturdays from October through May. Check official notices for your trip.
Access and services depend on the applicable official contingency plan and local safety decisions. Check Department of the Interior shutdown information and park notices before travelling. An older plan or a normal road season does not establish access during a funding lapse.
An independent guide using official data. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Park Service.
Road status, Davison Road stream crossings, Cal-Barrel Road's listing, and the Caltrans pointers come from the NPS current conditions page (updated September 10, 2026); Cal-Barrel Road's winter closure, Coastal Drive, and the May 1 to September 30 window from the NPS scenic drives page and the NPS Fern Canyon trail page; the reservation window, who needs one, booking rules, the hike-in alternative, and Davison Road's length and vehicle rule from the NPS Fern Canyon reservations page (updated August 21, 2026); the other Davison Road vehicle rule from the NPS Gold Bluffs Beach page.
The parkway's length, vehicles, exits, Bike and Hike Day, and winter closures come from the NPS Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway page; Howland Hill Road from the NPS Howland Hill Road page; Bald Hills Road from the NPS Bald Hills Road page; the 50-mile corridor and entrance stations from the NPS directions page. The Bike and Hike Day dates apply the park's first-Saturday rule to the calendar.
Shutdown access should be checked against the applicable DOI contingency plan and park notices; the September 2025 plan is historical context, not a current access assurance.
The road lines on the map are OpenStreetMap geometry between the end nodes of each named road, routed by OSRM (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL); they show where each road runs, not its gates.
Park-wide monthly comparisons use NPS recreation visits averaged over 2021 to 2025, divided by the peak monthly average. These are park visits, not road traffic or an access forecast.
Operational source check: September 10, 2026. Design and emphasized source review: 2026-10-27. A design review does not refresh every underlying record.