Trillium Falls to Lady Bird Johnson Grove via Berry Glen

Redwood National Park

(map link)

I got to Lost Man Creek only to find a "trail closed" sign which possibly shouldn't have been there. (I asked after since the online status indicates it is open and my informant in the visitor center was certain of many things including that that sign or the web site needed clarification.) I glared at the sign containing no statement as to why it exists, then remembered I wanted to hike Berry Glen again. (The previous hike is here.) Lost Man Creek would have been a new trail, but Barry Glen has more old growth. It's a sweet trail with sweet extras at the end points. Maybe a little bit of highway noise, but have you seen the trees? Let me show you the trees!

00: trailhead sign — Picnic area and trailhead where once redwood logs were stacked. Berry Glen goes up the hill directly ahead where the trees are large and not off to the left where they decidedly aren't.

As is typical in National Parks, dogs are not allowed on these trails. There are bike trails here, but most of this route is hiker only. (No horses either.) It was so bright out as I started at 9AM that I decided to pass by the waterfall on the way out. The trail branches to the right off the paved bike trail beside a sign describing the hike. (There is a Redwood EdVenture for the Trillium Falls Trail if you'd like to try an interesting sort of interpretive trail. Humboldt Department of Education have put the program on hold, so you can't get a patch for finishing the exercise right now, but it is still a fun way to learn a few things about the redwoods. *Click here to download the brochure*.)

01: big trees beside a well used trail — Well used trail past old growth trees.

02: tall trees in a clump — Big trees above and big trees below.

The trail does a little bit of extra up and down on the way to the falls, but gets there pretty quickly.

03: a little above the waterfall — Dropping down on the approach to the waterfall.

05: a little cascade after a little drop — Trillium Falls.

06: very big trees — The trees, the trees! Some getting bigger, some huge already!

07: big white flowers among big roots — The falls' namesake trillium is in bloom, too.

After the waterfall, the trail takes off in a large loop trying to take as much advantage of the little bit of remaining old growth as possible. It actually gets close enough to an old cut to notice if alert to the change in the trees. There's so little old growth left and although this hike generally stays within it, it gets near cuts three times. This time, the trees change to alders behind a few big redwoods.

09: really big tree beside the trail, with a bench — Benches are scattered throughout the named groves to allow big tree contemplation.

11: broken and repaired bridge — There are bridges for even quite small crossings, some of which have had great catastrophes befall them.

Back on the paved bike path, I could have made a quick way back to the parking lot. I turned the other direction to cross Prairie Creek then US-101. Unfortunately, there is a highway crossing required for this hike. The only way to avoid that would be to park near the start of Lost Man Creek Road and hike Davison Trail about 2 miles or hike it from the top.

12: creek full of water — Prairie Creek is looking full, but easy to cross on a long bridge.

13: little leaves and flowers — Bigleaf maple was flowering while it leafs out.

14: breeding pair of mergansers — A pair of common mergansers paddled upstream.

Across the highway, the trail breaks off to the right beside a sign detailing that you are about to CLIMB! It's 2.5 miles gaining 1200 feet, so not that grand a climb to me. It's a little climb. With big tree distractions. One mustn't forget all the grand trees to stare at in open-mouthed wonder. How does a tree get that big?

15: trail sign beside a wide, old road — The bottom of Berry Glen Trail. It leaves this old roadway quickly.

I encountered mild obstacles very quickly. There wasn't much of this sort of thing, just a couple trees to step over, some scattered debris, and one spot where thick debris required careful stepping.

16: trees at head height — Multi-level obstacles right at the start make one of the two most difficult of the few challenges to travel on this trail at the moment.

17: white mushrooms like spreading wings — Luxurious oyster mushrooms on a log beside the trail.

18: three bright pink flowers — Salmonberries are flowering and starting on developing fruit.

The trail does take an initially steep approach, leaving the alders found by the creek it starts near to replace them with more big redwoods.

19: light colored trunk — One huge tree at the first turn after leaving beside the creek.

21: leaves with red undersides — The red undersides of some redwood sorrel.

There's the second flirtation with not-so-old 1960s clear cut as the trail reaches a ridge. It actually passes by about four stumps, some quite large around, but not anything so tall as the 1880s and 1920s stumps. They hide a bit better in huckleberry bushes. Again, tall alders become abundant with some Douglas firs mixed in. Then they are gone again as the trail leaves the ridge for a gentle center section among more huge redwoods.

23: dangling white flowers — Looking up through some large flower fairy bells.

24: tree from top to bottom — Once in a while, everything conspires to allow a photograph of a whole impressive tree.

25: roots supporting a bush — Roots from a fallen tree support a tall bush of the understory.

27: spots of yellow with faces — Redwood violets to reward looking down.

Trail joins up with the old route of Bald Hills Road for one last little bit of climbing. It was left to regrow for some time before the trail was built and it's had another 10 years now, so it requires some observation to notice. There is generally a short edge on the uphill side where the road cut into the hill.

28: bifricating tree — More grand trees above the bush shrouded road cut.

29: lots of green — Pacific waterleaf with a perfect drop of water on each tip. The violets actually had perfectly spaced drops around the edge of their leaves too.

The last flirtation with the edge of the clear cut is at the top of the road just before arriving at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. It's less easy to see, but it is where the interpretive trail asks followers to step out and notice how close this grove came to being logged. The brochure for the trail is available to download via the National Park digital app (or so it claims here) and seems to be online in a piecemeal fashion starting with the beginning here and with no links to the next stop unless it happens to come up in the "you might also like" section. (There is likely to be no signal there so download before going if you want to read along with this more traditional interpretive trail.)

Since I came up along the old road, I arrived quickly at the dedication monument. How many wonder why this isn't at the entrance to the grove? It is, but the road moved!

30: plaque and trees — Here the Lady Bird Johnson Grove was dedicated in 1969.

I continued around the little loop. The old road part is not quite so nice as the north side. You'd think road has a negative effect on trees.

31: trees and trail — A little bit of the grove from the always trail side of the loop.

32: scales — The scale of things can be difficult. Look at how small a full grown tanoak is compared to these and check the other smaller trees.

As I finished, there was nothing more but to wander back down the hill. There had been a few people on the Trillium Falls Trail in the morning, but it was still slightly early for them. There were lots on the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail, but it was lunch and I took it the "wrong" way. There was only one person on the Berry Glen Trail in between.