Azalea State Natural Reserve

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I probably ought to have visited this little postage stamp sized piece of the state park system. There is no entry fee, but it does only offer a small, rough parking lot, a pair of picnic tables, and a pair of loop trails that don't quite make a mile together. It is suggested that one should visit in April or May, the same suggestion that didn't work out for me so well in visiting the rhododendrons in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. (Azaleas are also genus Rhododendron.) I expect June would be better, but I've noticed a few buds on the plants in way too much sunshine, so thought I might as well see it now. It is easy enough to come back.

Signs direct traffic to the right road, but the parking itself is only signed at the far end.

I picked the trail heading west past the sign to start. There's some nice trees along the way, but past the first big one, I was immediately struck by how much ivy has been allowed to run over the area. It is everywhere and climbing some 40 feet up the trees. It's been allowed to go for a long time.

A little bit of trail and bridge as it crosses over the small creek. The green cover below the trail is ivy where it is not so bad.

I didn't see so many azaleas. Really, none. They aren't being showy at the moment, of course. Probably none of the areas are quite as sunny as those spaces where cultivated species are starting to bloom.

Even where the vegetation is thick, it is all kept well back from the trail.

The nude deciduous trees leave the more distant nice evergreens visible.

I crossed another bridge over the little creek, already swinging back toward the parking lot. There does seem to be quite a wide variety of plants in the area.

Mushrooms in the leaf litter.

Now under the evergreen trees.

The trail split with the right going right back to the parking lot. I kept left, but it just delayed getting back to the lot by a few feet. I was already done with the first loop.

Back to the parking lot. Quite a lot of cars considering no one else was on the trail.

The second loop is across the road, so that's where I went.

There is a small sign just behind the brush on the left to mark the second loop on the far side of the road.

The trail quickly split and I took the left side. There is a bit more hill on this side of the road and the trail makes a few little switchbacks to climb into the forest of large evergreens and worse ivy.

The trail through a gradation of plants.

It's always fun to see the new growth and the deciduous trees are budding.

Looking back out from under the high evergreens that were the background layer in the view at the start.

I found the only bit of trail in need of work at the top. A large tree (covered in vines, but not all ivy vines) came down across the trail recently, but is easy to pass around to the left. There is also one bridge that has lost 75% of the railings it once had. Other than that, there is not even so much as a blackberry reaching out to scratch passers by.

Something bad happened to that bridge. There's a couple trees bushy with vines, too.

A little elevation gives a view, if an open spot can be found. Looking out on the flats across the Mad River.

The trail has some more little switchbacks as it drops back down.

A nice laurel tree below the switchback.

I paused on the way back to examine the firs that cluster near the junction a little more closely. They have particularly long needles that vary with size along the branch, getting shorter near the branch points and tapering off significantly at the end. They need some iron, but I'm not sure of anything else about them.

A young grand fir at the edge of the trail space? It has a drooping Brewers spruce behind to the right.

©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 23 Jan 2021