Cabins: Morrison, Jorstad, and Moliter Cabins along North Fork Trinity River and Grizzly Creek

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3

Blue line for day 2. Click for interactive map

My muscles felt abused from the day before, or perhaps from the insufficient activity over the week or two before that. Or maybe there's a little age creeping in. I've passed another 100th birthday! This one was base 7. Preemptive naproxin sodium seemed to have helped it not all be so bad and this day would be comparatively relaxing. Depending on trail state.

A little bit of sunrise on Cabin Peak.

New River (East Fork) over the local trash pile. We packed all of ours out because we know better.

We didn't see the closer connection to the Morrison Gulch Trail the day before and while looking closely, we only saw a candidate for where it used to be. We continued on to the obvious further junction instead. Unsigned but distinct quicky became difficult to find as it passes along the bowl of land between the two ridges. Following gently upward gets around the worst of the vegetation and arrived again at obvious trail.

Farewell to the New River side of things.

Farewell to Green Mountain Trail.

Morrison Gulch on its way to feeding the Trinity River (North Fork).

Northern ridges.

A last chance to admire the fin of white rock at the north end of Limestone Ridge, at the minor ridge just north of the one we were following.

Footprints we'd seen going north on the trail below Cabin Peak seemed to continue down Morrison Gulch. They weren't very old and seemed to bode well for our chances of crossing the river. They most likely came from someone doing the obvious loop up from Hobo Gulch via White Creek, which would require crossing the river even lower down before coming to the crossing up ahead. My app puts that loop at 21 miles. Of course, other, greater adventures are possible.

Cabin Peak across the long saddle from the junction and Rattlesnake Camp.

Going down.

Most of the little spot of white is cascade below, but there is a waterfall out there. Daniil says unvisited since there's no lake above.

Getting closer with some offerings of shade.

Narrowleaf blue-eyed Marys.

Halfway down, the trail started laying traps to shake us off. A switchback had a couple routes past. An extra trail dropped more steeply. I lead us off on a bear trail on the last switchback. I was so close to making it down perfectly.

One last chance to scope out tomorrow's trail up again.

Deerbrush Ceanothus bloomed in whites and blues and lavenders.

The stream in the bottom of Morrison Gulch now in view.

It's possible I was paying too much attention to the lovely water below. It was already feeling a bit hot when we spotted it. After some thoughts to follow the creek more closely, we turned back and followed another animal trail back up to the very obvious trail that looked very hard to miss. Somehow, we did find a bit of trail work in the form of a log with a section removed to the side.

At the crossing of Morrison Gulch.

The last flower on the fruiting gummy gooseberry.

We crossed the stream in Morrison Gulch getting our feet wet. They would be wet in the river soon enough. The trail followed on top of the water supply for Morrison Cabin. The pipes were redone in PVC at some point and it didn't survive the last fire.

Water supply (damaged) and trail, perhaps not its original alignment.

Then we came around to the old cabin. It still stands in good order as a private cabin that is part of a mining claim. Some exhibits of sorts are housed under the generous porch on the far side. The original cabin was built 1917 with additions about 50 years later. Although notes invited respectful use for shelter, it was locked. Maybe we didn't try hard enough to open what may be a stiff old door. We had miles to go still.

The generous porch of Morrison Cabin.

Morrison Cabin from the trail.

We continued down to the crossing where the junction with the low water bypass trail was signed for destinations of Hobo Gulch Campground, Grizzly Lake, or Rattlesnake Lake. A cable around a tree suggests there was once a way across even when the river is high. We looked at what should be a pretty easy ford and turned the other way for the other ford.

The signed junction beside the ford of North Fork Trinity River.

The cat's ears down here are already turning into seed pods.

The trail going upstream was much less used. We had to cross Morrison Gulch once more and it wasn't immediately clear where the trail did that. Once we got to the ford, it wasn't quite so even and shallow. The step up on the far side was large. The trail to join the North Fork Trail was rutted and muddy. Even with the heat wave, the water was barely over our knees.

Across the North Fork Trinity River at a ford going shallow to deep.

Umbrella plant was still in bloom with its leaves coming in.

Watching the water flow downriver from the other side.

Up at the top of the steep rut of a connector, we found a very clear trail. It is even pretty easy to see through the meadows. Few logs tried to block our way and it hasn't been too many years since a long saw was brought through to clear them. North Fork Trail was very unlikely to let us down.

North Fork Trail past a blaze and into a meadow.

Daniil asked what a distinctly marked leaf was, which alerted me to the wild ginger. The inland kind. Look for flowers!

One of the flowers hiding under the leaves of the Hartweg's wild ginger.

Following the North Fork up.

Leafy pea.

Tributaries were generally flowing. This one also with wild ginger.

The western wild ginger, the sort we get on the coast, was also hiding flowers.

The trail did break a little for Jorstad cabin, but a sign pointed the way. We paused to have a look before continuing on. It looks a little sagging in spots and has no historical notes on display. There is a camping area past it nearer the river and a water line from the far side. There looked to be a quite good swimming hole, too.

The Jorstad Cabin, which has a much bigger clearing nearby that used to host fencing for stock.

Western fence lizard at the outdoor kitchen.

Just a little of the flat land near Jorstad Cabin.

It's only a little further to the confluence of Grizzly Creek and North Fork Trinity River. The river is a bit hidden in the trees as one leaves it, but there's a small sign beside Pegleg Camp pointing the way to Grizzly Lake. Who would ever be here for something else?

Pegleg Camp is small and loud and too close to the water.

And so we started on along Grizzly Creek ready to get our feet wet once more at another crossing.

Three-toothed mitrewort.

A bright yellow North American racer hides behind the wild buckwheat.

The ford across Grizzly Creek could have been better, too. It had deep parts with plenty of current and shallower parts that were easy and lots of big rocks in the bottom to navigate with very little visual input. Again, the water is not too high to cross even with the difficulties.

The trail passes some Pacific bleeding hearts and dumps into Grizzly Creek.

The north side of the creek was a bit warmer than the south side. At first it seemed drier too, but then we had swampy sections to wander through. With already wet feet, they mostly got plowed through preferring the rockier surfaces over muddy places. Then the landscape changed to being full of collected rocks, cut by water to resemble walls, as we passed China Gardens Camp.

Something like rock walls where the creek has flowed.

On we went on trail that kept turning up gullies before continuing on. Sometimes we were on an old ditch, sometimes above it or below, sometimes it was completely removed by the passage of water and time.

Generally high above Grizzly Creek with only glimpses of the water.

More "walls".

Ditch walking is easy walking.

Now leaving the ditch below.

Grizzly Creek is still big.

We finally got to the spot where we were to head upward. It is signed, one loose and one still on a tree. As for trail, all we saw was another bit of ditch with a screen of small trees and later a large tree down across it. The animals liked this route, pounding in routes up and around or down to a tributary and past. On the one hand, the trail seemed utterly gone and unused. On the other, the animals certainly went this way and the very bottom of it was one of the "bad" spots I was expecting.

Not terribly helpful for a sign to be loose.

Daniil went investigating because it was making him uncomfortable. I liked the lay of the land and couldn't do anything about it. I headed off the last few feet of trail to the last cabin. It wasn't there, but that's not so surprising. USGS actually puts it right in the middle of the creek.

Moliter Cabin is long gone leaving an impacted camp site.

A bit of metal to help support the idea that there was a cabin here once.

The land here is very rumpled, so we took the site available. It is basically on top of Bobs Farm Trail. Admittedly, as I looked across the creek ford, there wasn't much to see of trail on the far side.

Continue on to the next day ⇒


*photo album*




©2026 Valerie Norton
Published 4 Jun 2026