I spent the last week driving down the Oregon coast. My nominal destination was Redwood National Park in northern California. I realized I had a week of nothing planned, and I’d never been to the redwoods before, so I packed up some stuff and took off. Let me tell you, the Oregon coast is gorgeous. As far as scenery goes, it ranks up there with the South Island of New Zealand and the northern shore of Lake Superior. Truly spectacular. I’ll be using a review of one of the guidebooks on Oregon to talk about that portion.
Anyway, I got to Redwood National Park and spent a day and a half traipsing around the area. First thing I found out is that Redwood National Park isn’t really the best place for redwoods. The nearby state parks are older and better developed. I didn’t have extensive time for hiking, but I also don’t like the canned photo-op spots either. I spotted this book in the visitor center and had my solution. Shorter than day hikes, I could follow the routes in the book and still get in the sense of nature that I enjoy.
The authors list 64 short hikes in five different parks. Looking at the handy guide, I selected three from the category hikes in old growth redwoods
. First I walked on was the Lady Bird Johnson loop. This 1.3 mile walk circles the site of the dedication of Redwood National Park in the late 1960s, attended by Lady Bird Johnson. The area, well it looks like Endor from Return of the Jedi.
The second hike I took was to Trillium Falls. I picked it because I love waterfalls. Now, the book calls this a small waterfall. The Rohdes were being generous. It’s just a bit of a brook falling over some rocks. Not even a creek. Still, it looks pretty. But then I noticed something. In the upper right of the waterfall it looked like the water was coming out of the rock itself. So I zoomed in with the camera (pic). Hmm … A piece of white pipe? Yup. It doesn’t even appear that the waterfall is natural.
The last hike I picked was the Cathedral Trees-Big Tree-Foothill Trail loop in Prairie Creek State Park. This was a nice walk. The trail dips in and out of a meadow before plunging into the forest where the cathedral trees actually are. Elk often forage in the meadow, but that’s normally in spring. Nevertheless, I nearly bumped into one just as the trail headed into the forest for good. I had to take a step back and in fact back up as the elk headed down the trail toward me. I got to watch it scrape a small tree with its antlers, and pick the bark off. Must have been tasty. The Big Tree was certainly impressive. All in all the best of the three walks I picked.
I wish I had more time to try out some of the other hikes listed. Perhaps I’ll get a chance to return. The guide was invaluable to figuring out what I could do while on a short trip.
Title: Best short hikes in Redwood National and State parks
Author: Jerry Rohde, Gisela Rohde
Series: Best short hikes
Imprint / publisher: Mountaineers
Format: Paperback
Length: 237 p. (includes index)
Publication date: January 2005
ISBN-10: 0-89886-716-9
Subject: Hiking — California, Northern — Guidebooks
Subject: Hiking — Redwood Natinal Park — Guidebooks
Subject: California, Northern — Guidebooks
Subject: Redwood National Park (Calif.) — Guidebooks
LC classification: GV199.42.C2R64 2004
- The file Lady Bird Johnson Loop.JPG identified by urn:sha1:6QC6AGZ4Q4MXEWDRWENTH3S3TYWKH5TA is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.
- The file Trillium Falls.jpg identified by urn:sha1:X7CFL2YMOIY2E4E6JPMR2MMPELMQM77K is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.
- The file Trillium Falls Closeup.jpg identified by urn:sha1:LSZOEUJDWHD26IEW5OSQDVPQHE6EMDF3 is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.
- The file Elk on Cathedral Trees Trail.jpg identified by urn:sha1:QW2BJX4VY3MCQFBP6QS7IL75MIEBUB7P is licensed to the public under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States license.
