Prairie Creek State Park, Northern California

We went on a splendid hike, probably the best of the entire trip, at the Prairie Creek State Park, which is part of the Redwoods national/state system. I have decided that 11-12 miles is the perfect length of a day hike for my present physical condition, so I was relieved to see that the itinerary matched this for once. (M tends to like to walk a bit further and faster than me.)

The hike started off on the James Irvine Trail, which can be reached by taking the interpretive loop out of the visitor's center. By the way, if you make it to this visitor's center, you MUST go inside and see the elk skull lodged in the tree trunk. I guess they like to jam their antlers into other elk, but if not available, will do it to a tree and this one got stuck and died, leaving the tree to grow around its skull. As the exhibit label puts it, "A rare find indeed!"

The James Irvine Trail passes through grove after grove of old-growth Redwoods, and now we really believe the books that called these trees the tallest in the world. As we walked, we commented that it seemed the trees were getting larger as we went...possible, I thought, but in this place it seemed just as likely that we were getting smaller. The trail meanders up to the upper ridge along a canyon through which shallow, cold waterfalls and streams flowed, the sides of the canyon lined with ferns and moss. After about four miles, the trail intersects the Fern Canyon loop trail, which descends into the canyon, so you can get a look at the ferns lining the canyon walls from below. As we left the canyon, we were back on the sandy shores of the Pacific Ocean, and walked about a mile south along the beach to meet up with the Miner's Ridge Trail.

There were a ton of birds on the beach - many gulls, some kind of pelican-like bird that we haven't been able to identify, and little sandpipers. As the tide receded, pieces of crabs and shells and seaweed were revealed in the sand. It was surprisingly warm and sunny on the beach, so we stopped to eat some leftover Mish Mosh and delicious Washington apples from our Olympia relatives. As we were walking out on the beach we saw water spouting up into the air several hundred yards offshore, which we assume came from a whale of some type, as there are many known to inhabit and migrate through this area.

The Miner's Ridge Trail was much more overgrown at the beach end and we found some suspiciously bear-like scat as we started back into the woods, which of course, made me nervous. However, we ran into nothing more than a couple of banana slugs and some vibrantly blue berries which we did NOT taste. There was evidence of fire damage on this trail, although it may have occured long ago. The regenerative property of the Redwood is phenomenal, and we saw trees that had the entire inside burned out, but were still growing strong and tall. These burned out areas created dark and spooky 'caves' within the trunk of the tree and I only went in one, but the silence there was so complete that I nearly forgot that I was inside a thousand year old life.

Redwoods have tanine in their bark, and unlike many conifers do not have pitch, which makes them less susceptable to destruction by fire. Their bark can be up to a foot thick. There were once over 2 million acres of redwood forest in Northern California, but now less than 100,000 acres remains and only 40,000 of that is protected by state and national parks. As much as we have enjoyed the natural existence of these remarkable trees, we have noted that many must enjoy what can be made out of these trees...we passed endless truckloads of redwood logs and drove by countless sawmills and lumber yards.

If you hike this trail, be prepared for a variety of hiking surfaces, some elevation change, and to hear a lot of "that's a big tree" coming from your hiking companions along the way. Don't miss this state park if you are in the area.