Kent-Mather Grove to Childrens Grove

Humboldt Redwoods State Park

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There's still plenty of trails I haven't tried out in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I wanted to finally get to the Childrens Grove way at the south end of the River Trail. This time the Eel River is low enough to cross and the summer bridges should be in, so a shorter trip is possible to access the grove. The weather folks over on Wooley Island were expecting 75°F in nearby Weott. Perhaps a bit warm now that all my Pasadena derived heat immunities have worn off, but tomorrow may rain so I'll go with the sun. The closest access point is Williams Grove (fee area), but I wanted to look around the Kent-Mather Grove (the only area close to road that I couldn't improve as I aligned most the trails and added the few missing ones in April) and walk all of the River Trail that I have missed so far. Besides, both the Kent-Mather Grove and Childrens Grove are rumored to be particularly nice ones and would therefore make nice bookends for a day's tour.

A small, paved parking area along Avenue of the Giants, about two miles south of the Visitor Center.

I started at a paved parking area and found the typical "no camping" sign of these parking areas, the typical "no dogs" sign of a trail, but no actual trail sign to reassure me I'd got to the right place. Since explore the Kent-Mather Grove was the first order of business for the day and the live waypoint on my map said I was there, I wasn't worried. I launched myself onto the well established trail next to the sign and headed outward. It was mostly as rumored. It didn't seem overgrown, but the undergrowth is a bit trampled looking.

Threeleaf foamflower lines the trails of the area.

An open forest with big trees.

The trail I was following ended in a dirt cliff over the Eel River. So that's not the loop. I headed back and over to the Garden Club of America Grove parking. Shortly before getting there, there were some very large stumps. Most the grove was untouched, but some particularly prized specimens went missing.

Lots of big trees.

The picnic area and Garden Club of America trailhead.

This parking has signs to reassure you you are where you think you are, picnic tables, and even a toilet. I passed a sign explaining that the grove across the river was the first conservation effort by the Garden Club of America, then wandered over to the rest of the trail which crosses over the river to see that grove.

The trail to the Garden Club of America Grove.

It's only a few steps out to the gravel bar, but the bridge crossing the river isn't visible. The churned gravel goes off to the left (upstream) and that's the way to go to find it.

The seasonal bridge stretches over low water while tufts of debris caught in the plants around it at head height show higher water.

The upstream view of the Eel River from the bridge.

The Eel River curves away downstream.

It's another puzzle to find the trail on the far side to get up into the trees. Churned gravel hints go in many directions. Eventually I found the way marked in ribbons. This year is yellow although usually they are pink.

The yellow ribbons could stand out better, but they are in yellow-green willows.

It's another few steps to the River Trail. The sign indicates it is 8 miles from Rockefeller Grove, where it is often (but not always) safe to access the trail even in the winter, to the Childrens Grove. Sixteen miles of fairly flat terrain is a quite obtainable goal. This 3.5 mile route is easier. I turned the wrong way to tag Canoe Creek, the furthest south I've been along the River Trail. Adding 2 miles to my route was looking easy enough.

Into the forest once more, this one along the connector trail.

I may have been going downstream, but the trail seemed to do more climbing than dropping. Eventually I heard a happy sound of water. The flat ribbon of Eel River hadn't made any such sounds. It was Canoe Creek coming down the meet the river.

Trail level is much higher than the water, hiding there behind those few trees, at first.

Flowers fatten into berries as the season grows late for the California spikenard.

While I didn't expect much challenge for crossing Canoe Creek, I was looking forward to having a bridge for it. I just happen to like bridges. The seasonal bridge still lay stacked to the side. Forgotten, I suppose.

Canoe Creek at the trail crossing. There should be a seasonal bridge here.

Standing where I've stood before; taking a picture I'm certain I've taken before.

So I turned back. The section of forest walked for completeness sake was quite a nice one.

Large stones set at the crossing allow a dry footed rock hop across Canoe Creek in this season.

Back to the signed junction. They do fail to mention which access one is coming upon when on the River Trail.

There were a couple downed trees on the next section, in the early part. The only difficult one was due to medium branches not getting cleared off the trail. People were starting to beat in a trail around it, but I went through. I didn't really want to contribute to that trail while the official one was usable.

A bridge over a narrow, deep crevasse of a seasonal creek.

River view past the splintered break of a big tree.

Another narrow, deep crevasse but of a running creek.

I found more river views along this portion of trail than I have found along the northern portion.

Another peek at the Eel River.

There once was a woodpecker.

A little water flows deep below.

Stumps pop up again. So it goes. Another dishonored stand of majestic redwoods.

Old stump beautified by fire.

It looks like Coon Creek had a bit of a blowout at one point. There's no bridge there, not even a forgotten seasonal one, but it is a rather easy rock hop in this season.

The crossing of Coon Creek, including a cairn to help with navigation.

There's a few scarlet monkeyflowers remaining by the water.

Another river view.

The trail access to Williams Grove has moved, but had a makeshift sign to designate where it leaves the River Trail now. The old junction still has the sign with mileages. Shortly past that, this round of stumps passed leaving a pristine grove instead.

Yey! Big trees and future big trees (potentially)!

The loop has a sign leaning against a tree showing a map of the area. There's a commemorative plaque and bench and trail out to another plaque on the far side, according to it.

The Childrens Forest dedication plaque.

This grove has a bit of a trampled look too, to me. Perhaps it is just the season.

Crossing over the dry seasonal creek.

The trail to the plaque is marked with a small post sign and was flagged in the usual pink making the plaque easy to find. The plaque was placed in a logged forest.

The logged forest stands like a curtain of thin, dense trees behind the last few big trees in the unlogged stand.

I visited the plaque and quickly returned to the nicer forest, passing a massive berry filled pile of bear scat.

This forest is so open, it even invites a panorama of the trees.

I think I found the tree! The Canoe Fire information signs show a picture of a firefighter standing next to a tree with the interior aflame, seen through a hole at least 3x as tall as the person.

After the loop, I headed back to the last junction and over to Williams Grove. I was determined to take the long way home, along the Williams Grove Trail and Williford Multi-Use Trail. This would get me back to Avenue of the Giants about a quarter mile north of my parking spot.

It's a steep, sandy trail past a hanging vine of poison oak to get to the new location of the bridge across the Eel River.

The upstream view while crossing back over the Eel River.

There's a few spots where one may drive down onto the gravel bar (but not in the water!) when the gate is open. Williams Grove is one of these. I followed the pressed gravel "road" up to the picnic area. It's also one of the few fee areas with a kiosk on the way in to pay the $8 a day per car fee. (Included with the site fee if camping in the park.) I found signs warning of a toxic algal bloom. Surely the people at the Garden Club of America Grove parking also need to know about this? There's algal mats visible in my downstream picture from there! Of course it means cyanobacteria.

A little of the Williams Grove Day Use Area picnicking. There's also parking and a grassy area in the other direction.

I missed the bypass trail that passes north of the roads. The continuation of the trail on the far side of Avenue of the Giants was easy to spot. It is directly across from the entry road to the day use area. The sign by the start said it was 3.2 miles to Hidden Springs Campground. That far? I wasn't going all the way there, though. What I was doing was longer than I expected, all the same. I probably should have downloaded a fresh California map from OpenAndroMaps. Then I would have been able to take advantage of having added these trails to the map a few months ago. I had an old utility road line and blank area to judge from instead.

The Williams Grove Trail starts again on the far side of Avenue of the Giants. Take care crossing this road!

I also wasn't paying attention to the contours. There's a solid bit of climbing to start this part of the trail! It winds through the trees toward the roar of the freeway, then ducks under through a tunnel.

Take all the time you like crossing US-101 as it is in a tunnel.

It climbs a little more and levels off to rolling along. It's a very well used trail. I guess everyone at the campground who wants a bit of a hike, but has come with someone who wants to go nowhere and won't relinquish the vehicle ends up coming along this. (Other scenarios are available.) There's a few spots with surprisingly nice trees, but that freeway noise never lets up for very long.

A bit of the trail as it passes through a logged redwood grove.

It meets a long abandoned temporary road and then pops out of the trees to the single viewpoint along this route. It's high up a steep hill and quite expansive.

Overlooking the Eel River and its surrounding trees.

Then through shrubs and thin trees.

Past a bigger tree with a bit of a lean.

The trail crosses a road with signs to point out where the Williams Grove Trail continues for either direction. There's no sign for Williford Multi-Use Trail, AKA Williford Road, which supposedly starts there. Downhill should arrive at private property in less than a quarter of a mile, so I didn't investigate it. I did go up the trail to the next corner to be sure it was a corner and not the actual intersection. It's a corner. I came back and started up the weathered, steep road.

The partly signed junction of Williford Road and Williams Grove Trail.

Climbing more along Williford Road.

The road has choices. It seems to be the slightly rerouted utility road where the old one still exists following a telephone line exactly. There's well established trail along the excursions so one could go either way. However, there are some hints that the new road is the official route of the trail.

Choices. The old road takes steeper hills and is generally a little more overgrown than this bit on the left.

Madrones join the mix near the top.

Say what you will about the clearly logged forest this road passes through, once it gets to the top, it's quiet. There's no noise from US-101 or from Avenue of the Giants reaching these trees. There is on all the other trails I hiked this day.

Starting downhill through a somewhat prettier, but logged, forest.

As usual, poison oak can't wait to get on its fall colors.

There's mystery trails along the way and the old utility road makes a major excursion at the north end of the route that only joins again when almost back to the freeway. Another mystery trail joins the freeway just before the underpass.

The old utility road is its own experience.

There's a lot more room to pass under the freeway here.

Noisy again, the road winds into the space under bigger trees. There's a gate on the road, but no signs. It runs into a second road and again there are no signs except on the gate on that road. Authorized vehicles only go that way. There's room to park a few cars at the junction.

Williford Road curves to meet with Avenue of the Giants.

Plenty of space to park a few cars at the trailhead for Williford, but no reassuring signs.

I doubled back to take a shortcut trail that connected with the paved road and then followed a small trail expecting it to connect in with the wandering trails in the Kent-Mather Grove. It didn't, so I had to walk a little along the road.

A giant came down along the Avenue of same.

The gravel turnout before the paved parking I used is for the Mather plaque and the trails past it sort of connect in with the main trails. I wonder if this plaque seems familiar because I've actually stopped here before, or because they sort of all blend together, or perhaps it's just that I've potentially walked past a dozen of the things before. This is one of an original run of 28 and set here in August 1932.

The Mather plaque in the grove he helped purchase. Read more about these plaques here, and happy birthday to his Park Service, formed 25 August 1916.

I explored the loop of the Kent-Mather Loop Trail a little further and found more trail that just sort of got to the edge. This does have a trail that struggles its way down the dirt cliff to the water below. I don't think it's up to the usual California State Parks standards and decided against following it. It looks like part of the loop has been removed by nature. Or maybe it really is supposed to do that.

Trail under the big trees, wandering the Kent-Mather Grove. I think this is official?

One last look over the Eel River's south fork.

Apparently Mr. Mather did not wish to have his National Parks littered with memorial signs.

And so I arrived back at the car, completing my much larger loop. The second set of batteries for the GPS failed instantly, so I'm not sure how long. It said 4.5 miles when I turned on tracking on the handheld, which ultimately claimed over 14 miles. The total 18.5 miles seems a high estimate. The map lines above estimate 13 miles total. The truth lies somewhere in between.

*photo album with 105 photos*




©2024 Valerie Norton
Written 28 Aug 2024