Redwood: Tall Trees and Emerald Ridge

Redwood National Park

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4

Following the green line. Click for map.

The morning came with delightful bird song, but it only lasted about ten minutes. I packed up while the guy in the other tent did the same, generally in step. I spent more time on breakfast and he spent more time on gear, then he vanished down the trail and I stuffed the last things in the top and had to wait extra long for the GPS to sort out "here" and vanished similarly. The plan was many miles of Redwood Creek Trail to Tall Trees. From the trees, climb on up to Emerald Ridge to drop right back down to the creek. Once at the creek, continue upstream as far as I cared and find a camp site along the way. Online information is that there are about two miles of gravel bars before it turns to boulders along the side. I would have soggy feet by the end of the day.

metal and wood bridge on the trail, a bright ball of fire visible through rhododendron leaves at the side — The bridge over Elam Creek. The sun through the rhododendron seems a little high for early morning light, so the reds are probably from filtering through smoke.

Elam Creek empties into Redwood Creek behind moss and lichen covered maple trees — Elam Creek as it empties into Redwood Creek beside a well trod beach. There is a rough, well used trail down under these maples to get to it.

I found more campers as I hiked up the trail, their tents just visible over the undergrowth around the trail. The people tended to be in postures of enjoying being, taking in the morning light and the flow of the creek or whatever else might be catching their eyes or ears or noses at a giving moment.

A pair of tents on the gravel bar. The tan tent blends in very well.

trees with trunks bleached to white — The redwood trees up the hill happen to have very stark white trunks.

big trees in a cluster to the side of the trail — Passing a lot of pretty big trees along the trail.

raised area becomes tall, twisting branch — This tall, twisting branch caught my attention. It looks like it might actually be the top of a reiteration that is getting swallowed by the main tree growth.

The trail is along the bottom of the old growth I walked along near the beginning of my Elam Creek Loop hike. Where that was a screen of skinny, thick growth, this only has the near creek trees to hide it. It is not taking on the same jumbled and desperate look that is seen above. It's a lovely walk, but it comes to an end. Only 5% of the original redwood forests remain and even in this National Park built to showcase the trees, they are a patchwork.

big stump among little trees in profussion — Big stumps aren't quite as impressive as big trees.

bench and fire ring — I found this rather built up camp while looking to get a better look at the grass tufts in the creek. Incidentally, you are supposed to dismantle your fire rings before leaving.

blue flowers on a stem — Invasive chicory where blooming along with yellow mustard, white sweetclover, queen Anne's lace, and native pearly everlasting.

I continued along the trail in the younger forest.

pink flowers turning to purple seeds — The last of some candy flowers growing in a planter of a moss covered fallen log.

turquois colors in a deep pool — Some rocks have developed a deep pool and lovely colors around them.

Things seem distinctly less stable in the areas that were cut. The younger and more numerous trees certainly do a lot more falling over and dropping limbs. But in some areas, it seemed like the whole hillside had taken to sliding and there were clumps of unhealthy trees on top of it all.

lots of trees down across an old bridged area — One support remains from the bridge that spanned Bond Creek. Since then, steps were clearly built and are covered with numerous trees now. There's a secondary trail going toward Redwood Creek and back on the other side, but I managed getting over the logs.

Beyond Bond Creek, the trail climbs away from Redwood Creek and there are big trees below. It passes we well used track that climbs further. The broken sign beside it probably said "not a trail" but it is clearly getting use.

bigger tree below — I see a fatter tree below.

There's a lesser used track heading up the hill just short of the bridge over 44 Creek. I crossed the bridge with care. After the bridge, there is some very sad looking logged forest to hike through. There were more people on the trail as I got closer to the Tall Trees, but it was hard to expect much of them while in the nearby clutter of small trees.

tree down across signs — And there's a tree down across the junction for the trail to 44 Camp.

Tall Trees from the far side of Redwood Creek — There could be some tall trees over there in Tall Trees.

I went through the trees via the short side of the loop figuring there would be more time for it on the way back. That was a poor estimate of the length of the days, but it's a minor difference in distance anyway.

bulky trees — These trees enjoy a lot of space each.

looking up a rather large one — They've got lots of ordinary height maples an laurels down around their feet.

even bigger trees — There's bigger trees down by the creek.

There's actually a little trail up from the creek on the far side of the loop, so that would be something to aim for the following day. The sign stresses that this "trail" is just along the gravel bars and includes frequent crossing. Summer only! When I checked, the flow was about a tenth of what is considered usually safe to cross. But it was not quite time to get my feet wet and I turned to climb up the trail the day hikers were coming down. Quite a lot of them although they have to get a permit to drive down to the parking area. The trees get smaller away from the creek, but it is still old growth.

benches along the trail in big trees — Benches among the big trees. Just getting started leaving the creek.

tunnel through a tree — Tunnel through a particularly large tree near the top.

I was almost to the parking lot when I finally got to the junction for Emerald Ridge. I went and looked around. There's a toilet and shelter and information there. There doesn't seem to be a lot of parking, but it is an option for a start for backpacking. Then I started down the Emerald Ridge Trail. It almost touches the Tall Trees Trail after a short distance, but then gets going down through forest that is rather scruffy looking for old growth.

depression of a creek area with trees — The land falls off toward a stream to the right and the trees fall off with it.

mixed trees — A circle of trees are possibly reiterations from a long gone tree.

remains of roots — The roots themselves seem mostly gone on this fallen tree.

I intersected the Dolason Prairie Trail. The signs say 4.5 miles back to the road along it. If not able to get a permit, it would certainly make a nice full day hike to see the trees at Tall Trees. It said 3.75 miles back to the barn and I added that to my list of things to do after. I wasn't too keen to hike up to it right then, but hiking the short way down would be fine. Down to the creek I went.

big trees on the steep slope — Okay, the trees get better even as the slope the inhabit gets quite steep.

I found myself dropping through a little hole of underbrush into the bright sunlight on a gravel bar. A sign marks the way up and lots of ribbons were waving from a bushy tree near it to help people find it. I found the cairns more noticeable.

downstream looking — The view downstream.

signed bottom of Emerald Ridge Trail — The bottom of Emerald Ridge Trail.

There wasn't much gravel to walk on on that side of the creek, so in less than a quarter mile it was time to get my feet wet. I waded in and the water level made it quite easy. It was certainly easier than wading through the Gila River in the previous May. The frequent crossings still put me in the mind of those bits of trail. The quality of the trail had some similarities too. There actually is trail because enough people have gone there.

western toads just gaining legs — The western toads are busy replaying their evolution from aquatic to terrestrial organisms.

Just a little way up, there's more tadpoles that don't have such significant amount of leg and still have gill sacs.

I couldn't help noticing the little snails in the creek while I crossed. A tight, tall, black turban with a sharp point in numbers that scream "I have no predators", I rather suspected they might be New Zealand mudsnails. The folks on iNaturalist don't seem to have decided exactly what it is, but have suggested genus Juga on older observations.

mergansers splashing up a storm — I watched the common mergansers as they splashed up a storm in brief bouts of bathing.

four brown heads floating off — They got to floating off upstream. The current isn't exactly hard to push against.

flat gravel bar and creek — Looking up Redwood Creek.

big redwood — Nice, tall native along the way.

When I saw the raised gravel bar beside Bridge Creek, I got pretty decided that that was my camp site for the night. Well, as long as it wasn't occupied already, which it wasn't. When I saw the two fallen trees spanning the entire width of Redwood Creek up ahead, I got rather lazy about continuing up the rest of the way to the boulders that should be another mile, maybe a little more, upstream. I'd already climbed over one very large tree, although not one that was spanning the creek and I still had two hours before I would normally decide to stop to camp. I really should have continued, but somehow it just didn't happen.

long redwood logs crossing Redwood Creek — The redwood logs crossing Redwood Creek up ahead. I doubt these halt progress for intrepid hikers.

break in the trees with water coming down it — Bridge Creek is one of the larger tributaries.

I did gradually get to remembering that I had wanted a quiet spot without much creek noise. There are spots that are so calm that Redwood Creek makes almost no noise at all. Beside Bridge Creek, Redwood Creek makes a little noise an Bridge Creek makes enough to start to be too much. There is a dirt spot where the babble is a little muffled. I decided to believe it wouldn't be a problem and set out on the gravel (as I'm supposed to anyway) where I would have a view of the stars.

camp site and creek below — Camp at Bridge Creek is elevated and surrounded by some nice trees.

bird hunting at the edge of the water — A sandpiper came by to bob along hunting, I expect, toads.

There were nearly no mosquitoes out from under the trees, but I still put up the tent again. That was a mistake. I got some really good stars late in the night, but when I stuck my head out of the tent, they were so much better. Anyone who talks about a tent for star gazing is fooling themselves. Even the lightest mesh will block some of the stars and make it a lesser experience.

Continue to the next day. ⇒

©2020 Valerie Norton
Written 12 Sep 2020

Search This Blog

Moments in Dirt and Ink