Closure Alert: The Shadow of the Giants Trail was heavily damaged by the 2017 Railroad Fire and is currently closed.
The Shadow of the Giants Trail is a loner, a mile away from the trailheads clustered in and around the Nelder Grove Campground, and is also the most serene of the hikes in the grove, featuring a trail crowded with dogwoods, pines, cedars, and sequoias, and accessorized with a brook (Nelder Creek) that runs through the middle of the narrow loop. Though the dogwoods will garner the most attention when they're blooming, I've seen Striped Coralroots, a variety of orchid, flowering in large numbers in some of the shadier areas along the trail.