California’s Great Redwood Trail (GRT) is shaping up to become one of the longest rail-to-trail conversion projects in the country. It just hit a milestone this past March, when the Great Redwood Trail Agency board approved a master plan years in the making.
The GRT is a planned 300-mile, multi-use trail tracing the route of the decommissioned Northwestern Pacific Railroad, starting at the San Francisco Bay in the south and finishing at the Humboldt Bay in the north.
The Eel River Canyon section is one of the GRT’s most wild and spectacular stretches, following the old railroad corridor through difficult terrain previously inaccessible to the public.
Eel River Canyon
The 2026 Master Plan has greenlit the Eel River Canyon segment, which follows 70+ miles of the Eel River, as a backcountry experience.
Travelers will use rugged trails rather than paved paths through one of the most scenic, yet geologically unstable, parts of Northern California. Since the rail lines collapsed, this part of the state has been mostly cut off from public access for decades.
While some of the rail equipment and structures in this area remain intact, others will need to be repaired, replaced, or retrofitted. Landslide risk also poses a challenge for trail infrastructure in this area. The GRTA is still in the planning phase with no official opening date yet announced for the Eel River Canyon.
More about the GRT
The GRT is managed by two different agencies: The Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA), which handles the 231-mile northern segment in Mendocino, Trinity, and Humboldt; and Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART), which manages the 71.3-mile, still-active southern segment in Sonoma and Marin.
All together, the GRT is envisioned to stretch along 307 to 320 miles of trail, crossing through redwood forests, farmlands, mountains, rivers, and California’s famous wine country.
Read our article to learn more about the GRT Master Plan.
