Azalea Nature Trail on Stagecoach Hill

Humboldt Lagoons State Park

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With time left in the day and it being practically across the road, I went to visit the azaleas on Stagecoach Hill even though I didn't expect much of the azaleas themselves. There's a couple rhododendron on a fence beside the freeway in Trinidad that have started to throw off color and there's even one or two trees so big they stretch over a house roof that are already dripping with flowers, but there's not a lot to be seen of azaleas or rhododendrons in the more natural settings. I turned up Kane Road because I knew that's where to turn. It was signed at the next junction, then I stopped where things just start to look like driveway instead of road way, but there's enough room to park head in. Across the road, I found a small sign next to a large trail. If the flowers are showy, you'll know it before starting because the road travels along the bottom of the hill covered in bushes on the way to the parking and the start.

Parking and the start of the trail are under the Sitka spruce.

I started up under the Sitka spruce. Undergrowth bushes arched over my head. Bits of green the right height, but they were salmonberries. Not the ones. They have a scattering of purple flowers, but no fruit yet.

The salmonberry has showy leaves and a simple flower and the azaleas are the other way around.

The trail splits.

The sign at the start says a half mile loop, so no surprise when the trail suddenly split. I took the left side route and ended up staying under the canopy of spruce for longer.

The trilliums will be doing their thing for a while longer.

The redwood violet is not quite so picky about the conifers it lives under as the name implies.

In spite of the deep overcast and mist in the area, it's still bright out there compared to under the trees.

I found myself emerging into the bright among some round tangles of sticks a little taller than myself. They have leaf buds to suggest they'll get clothed soon, but not quite yet. There are a very few other bushes, some of which were putting on their spring show.

Buds everywhere in the tangles of sticks.

The salal is blooming, although it too will be better later.

Not just budding, but there's the start of leaves!

The trilliums are just as happy under the bushes as under the tall trees.

Buds! Just these few, but flower buds!

There's a few little views to be had with the open area.

A little bit of blooms on the current still.

More violets, this time in the traditional color.

There's a few blackberries, but not so many as some places.

But mostly loads and loads of tall rounded tufts of sticks budding.

The irises just have had a dozen buds showing just the tip of color along with this single bloom.

A bittercress of some sort.

Still mostly the bushes that could be taken as nude still from a distance.

Then I spotted on way up high on a bush. It was a flower, spread out fully in the (very cloud filtered) sunshine. There were a few more on nearby bushes, maybe a dozen all counted, but they were there. They're also on the small end for these, just a bit over an inch across. But they are there.

A few flowers deep inside on bush where they won't be seen once the leaves come in.

Another small cluster among the promise of more at the top of a bush.

A single western azalea flower close enough for a good picture, even if at full zoom.

It would have been easy to just bask in the victory of finding those few flowers, but then I would have missed a few. I probably did miss a few anyway.

Some kind of drama playing out between two spiders and a bee on a windflower.

Of course, I found myself back under the trees and returning to the start after a few more steps.

There's some impressive sword ferns under the Sitka spruce.

One of three or so tiny fairy-slippers that could be easily missed on the forest floor.

The return through the forest was much shorter and I quickly found myself back at the junction and then at the car. Very nice not to see even a single sprig of ivy along the way. It's still very early for the azaleas, but they'll be getting there soon enough. The park suggests this one for May and June, which is probably about right.




©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 25 Apr 2021