Ma-le'l Dunes, south and north, for the wallflowers

Arcata Field Office BLM

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge

(map link)

The wallflowers are blooming and maybe it's time to make a wander over the Ma-le'l Dunes once more. We spotted them on the way to pulling the invasive marram grass last week, little yellow pompoms in a large depression and spotting a few other places in the dunes. Since I seem to be using flowers as motivation to document a place again, the critically endangered Erysimum menziesii, Menzies' Wallflower, was as good an excuse as any. It really is just an excuse. I wanted to wander the dunes. Beware. There has been some rabies found in grey foxes in the northern dunes.

Information signs about trails in the south section of dunes are at both ends of the long parking area.

I like the forest portions of the trails here, so I headed past a rabies warning on a less obvious trail that climbs up the old dunes hosting the trees. It follows a long and narrow crest between valleys of surprising depth considering the substance of it all is sand.

The ocean from up with the trees looking across the lower buckwheat and more covered dunes.

The narrow canyon west of the sandy ridge. Everything is covered in trees.

The trail leaves the trees to drop in a broad ramp of sand. Wallflowers can be found at the edges. I followed ramp and then narrower trail down to the beach near where the most recent destruction of invasive marram grass has been. The trouble with participating in such things is that now the waving grasses are no longer pretty. They are choking out the native plants. There will be loads of flowers in the coming months, but only a struggling few can be found among the marram grasses and then only if you look hard enough.

The wide ramp with a couple people lounging in the middle of it down near the bottom.

A patch of wallflowers on the side of the sand ramp.

There's not a lot of other flowers yet. Oddly, it's miner's lettuce that I find tucked onto the sides of little dunes that is blooming. Are these really so wet?

Blooming miners lettuce in the sand.

The last couple volunteer days' worth of marram grass in a couple piles with tufts of work to do in the distance and American dune grass putting in a start near the front.

It's not all that long from where the last trail exits the south dunes to where the first trail enters the north dunes. As part of the wildlife refuge, there's no dogs or horses allowed on this part.

Still enough beach to find sanderlings scurrying among the foam.

Look for the signs to find the entry to Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge from the beach.

Panorama of Ma-le'l Dunes North from the top of the foredunes near the sign.

There are many biomes in the dunes: foredunes, wetlands, and looser sand dunes, for a start.

Some more wallflowers beside the wetland ponds. Looking from wetlands to mountains to the northeast.

Finding the path is easy in the foredunes and wetlands, but not so easy across the sand. You've got to look for the posts with red markers at the top and they seem to be fewer each time.

From the high tops of the sand dunes where there's more marram grass. There's a small trail marker in the sand toward the left.

From the top of the dunes, trail is impossible to miss. I dropped down to the old railroad grade and followed it out to the now end.

On the far side of the dunes, the Mad River Slough, a northernmost piece of the bay.

Flat trail on the old railroad grade.

The end of the old railroad grade for walkers today.

Then I turned back to wind through the trails among the trees between slough and dunes. The dunes are in a slow motion collision with the trees since a large earthquake hundreds of years ago, according to the interpretive signs along the trail. It is the same high wall of sand rising above some less healthy trees that is visible along these trails. I take them all to take in natures slow but inevitable fury.

A miniature forest of two lichens and a liverwort. Vasculature is overrated.

The sand wall with a few suffocated trees that can't run off no matter how slowly it arrives.

More of the sand wall.

All the trails just means going along a second spur trail. It ends at a red puddle that is Iron Creek. It pours out of the sand dune area and it is hard to understand where all the water comes from.

Iron Creek flowing out into the salt marsh. It is audibly flowing today.

There's a few more flowers than just the wallflowers and the miners lettuce, although the rest are just getting started. I found a few of what will be more numerous later.

Evergreen huckleberry blooming.

The forest a little further from the slow moving impending doom.

Then I crossed the mighty dunes once more. As usual, I went off in not quite the right direction to meet the trail on the far side. It is a mighty adventure, traveling this vast expanse of featureless sand!

The impending doom of the forest from the sand point of view.

Vast, featureless sand! Try not to step on the verbena roots.

Down to pines and wetlands once more.

An enthusiastic patch of beach strawberries were blooming.

The bearberries, a mat growing manzanita, were starting to bloom.

Find the correct trail from the dunes and there's narrow boardwalk to cross right over the top of the wetlands.

The end of the trail before arriving back at the beach.

I turned for a much longer walk along the beach back to the southern part of the dunes and the more direct walk inland from the beach to the parking lot. It's harder to see the signs for the trails along here, but many more feet make the spaces easier to find and there are no seemingly empty large dunes.

The sea was especially foamy on this windy afternoon.

Foam along the beach.

Godwits along the water interface this time.

The way back with snowy mountains now visible.

Willows in the wetlands.

I dropped the little bit of trash I had found along the beach into the trash can and headed out on my way, happy to have wandered over the dunes once more.




*Ma-le'l Dunes album*


©2023 Valerie Norton
Written 29 Mar 2023