Prairie Creek, Foothill, and West Ridge loop
Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
(Map link.)
After hiking Hope Creek, I still had a few hours before dark to wander trails. Where to find a gnome plant? Since my GPS is rather primitive, I had elected to name the points in it according to how accurate they were. Knowing the accuracy helps me not get wrapped up in looking around an area only defined to ±1km, but wasn't as helpful for finding a specific plant. There were quite a few points near the visitor center and a couple up on West Ridge, so I decided it was time to finish off walking West Ridge. (As I walked it, it's parts total: this south bit, the middle, and north.) Parking near the visitor center was a little crazy. People were waiting for the 15 minute spaces next to it. I found one space near the campground and there's approximately half a mile of parallel parking along the meadow, so they weren't actually about to run out of room. I wound my way likely the long way around to get to the visitor center and start along the Prairie Creek Trail.
At the suggestion that I could take Foothill Trail instead, I cut over to Tall Trees (crowded) and along it. It climbs just a little and loops through some small tributaries before finishing at Brown Creek.
Then I was back on Prairie Creek Trail. It's really only brushy for a little bit shortly before Zigzag #1, but that bit makes a lasting impression.
Zigzag #1 climbs solidly at the bottom, but smooths out toward the top. I thought I hadn't passed any more rhododendrons on the west ridge portion of my hike a few weeks back, but there is a small number right near the top of Zigzag #1 and they were in peak blooming form as I passed this time.
I got to West Ridge and took the right. I made a greater effort to find the odd flowers hidden in the duff. Actually, I'd been hurrying until then simply because there wasn't enough time to spend in examination on every mile of this loop. A lot of the flowers seemed to be a little bit behind the cycle of the flowers on the eastern ridge. There weren't quite so many leopard lilies and they were only in clumps of two or three, but there were still a few.
I got within 200 feet of a point marked "gnome" on my GPS because it hadn't had any accuracy information. Just what I wanted to find. I was another 300 feet on the other side of the marked location when I spotted the plant. My victory was complete! (There is actually one more monotrope that grows in park, but I found the specific ones I'd been looking for and one more besides.)
I kept on looking after finding them, but I found no more along the way. Just a whole lot of really good trees. There's some large flat areas on that ridge where they get particularly big. I still particularly like the ridge top trees.
The ridge drifts downward and as the hour was getting late, that was into darkness. It was still a while until sunset, but in shadow and under the big trees gets pretty dark on its own.
I got back down to the Nature Trail and took a right to follow the rest of it around back to the car. It surprised me by actually climbing a noticeable number of feet before dropping back down to the seasonal bridge.
So I finished the day mildly giddy with a goal completed, and then some, and headed back.
*photo album*
©2021 Valerie Norton
Written 22 Jul 2021
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