Berry Picking at its Best

White flowers of thimbleberry turn into spectacular red berries in the summer. Are the berries ripe in your neck of the woods?
White flowers of thimbleberry turn into spectacular red berries in the summer. Are the berries ripe in your neck of the woods?

In the redwood forest, one of the most fabulous transitions every year is seeing spring flowers give way to sweet berries. While I know that I should probably leave the fruit for wildlife, I simply can’t help but taste the summer’s bounty. From huckleberries to thimbleberries, these splashes of color ripening on shrubs under the redwoods are the best seasonal treat.

At Redwood National Park, you can learn from the park staff where the best places are to pick berries. Before you go however, check out their online resources to see beautiful fruit identification cards, instructions on how to make your very own Pro Picker’s Pail, and a blackberry coloring page for entertaining your littles ones on the road trip to the park.

To plan your next trip to the Redwood National and State Parks in search of summer’s berries, check out our interactive park map.

icentification cards
Redwood National Park’s Berry Identification Cards show you which berries to salivate over.

About the author

Emily Burns, the League’s former Director of Science, led the research program that includes the Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative. She holds a PhD in Integrative Biology on the impacts of fog on coast redwood forest flora from the University of California, Berkeley.

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