Aldergrove Marsh

Arcata City Park

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Aldergrove Marsh isn't exactly a park and gets a special call out along with the Arcata Community Forest and Arcata Marsh when the city lists its open spaces. It is the smallest of these areas and only has trail along one side which might be as much as a quarter mile long. The rest of the area is marsh, so not all that inviting for stepping out.

The rules of the place are on the side of the trail with parking.

The alder (which are probably ash) have all lost their leaves, but the birds that are a star attraction for coming were still hiding away somewhere and singing. I didn't see them. At first I didn't even see marsh, but it quickly became clear that the area really is quite soggy.

First a little puddle on the road side of the trail.

Then a large pond surrounded by cattails. The cattails were really the earliest visible hint of a marsh.

Trail improvements!

And then I was already done hiking the trail. It does seem to continue on across the road, but the fact that the bridge for that trail was made of pallets made me suspicious it isn't official. As I gazed down the corridor of trees, I came to suspect that it comes to the Arcata Ridge Trail at a gate marked "no public entry" in an area where the trail passes through private property.

It is clearly a well used path that follows this old, grassy road.

I decided not to continue along it, so turned back and quickly found a bright flower. A thing so delicate and unique this time of year and I had missed it on the first pass by on the trail!

iNaturalist suggests that this is some sort of geranium. A real one, not something I often call geranium.

I didn't spot anything more surprising than that spot of pink, but I did tend to admire the way the winter trees stack up in the view on my way back along the short path.



©2020 Valerie Norton
Written 27 Dec 2020