Night Light of the North Coast: Redwood Skywalk

Across the chasm: Michaele Whiteley,, Special Projects Coordinator Kate Baldwin, and Zoo Director Jim Campbel resting on one of the Redwood Skywalk landings at a massive redwood tree. Eureka, Humboldt County, California. March 14, 2024.

An extraordinary journey awaits you at Humboldt County’s Redwood Skywalk. 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 Skywalk 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.

The giant redwood Christmas Tree illuminated for Zoo Lights at Sequoia Park Zoo and Redwood Skywalk. December, 2024.

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 Skywalk 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.

Visitors enjoying the night light pass by a huge burl in one of the redwoods on Sequoia Park Zoo’s Redwood Skywalk. December, 2024.

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 Skywalk. 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.

Zoo Lights event happens now through January 5:

The Redwood Skywalk is normally open during the day when the Zoo is open. But between now and January 5, 2025, the Sequoia Park Zoo will also be showing off its 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 and 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 lit 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.

That’s a long way down… a view from the Redwood Skywalk during Zoo Lights at Sequoia Park Zoo and Redwood Skywalk. To the unaided eye, it is actually too dark to see the forest floor from here well at night, but using a long exposure I was able to capture detail on the ground. December, 2024.

Between now and January 5, the Sequoia Park Zoo will be holding its Zoo Lights evening viewing of the lighted Christmas Tree on select nights from 5:00-8:00pm. Tickets are cheap at $5.00. Location: 3414 W Street in Eureka, California. Zoo Lights includes the Redwood Skywalk. Visit redwoodzoo.org for more information. 

Should you miss the Zoo Lights evening holiday viewing, you can visit the Redwood Skywalk during regular daytime Zoo hours, included in the regular Zoo admission price.

One of the swinging bridges at the Sequoia Park Zoo’s Redwood Skywalk. December, 2024.

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 Skywalk 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!

A gentle incline takes up onto the Redwood Skywalk. Photographed during Zoo LIghts at Sequoia Park Zoo and Redwood Skywalk. December, 2024.

To read previous entries of “Night Light of the North Coast,” click on David’s name above the article. To keep abreast of his most current photography or purchase a print, visit and contact him at his website mindscapefx.com or follow him on Instagram at @david_wilson_mfx . David teaches Art 35 Digital Photography at College of the Redwoods.