![]() The first three miles follow the riverbed. Everything about the trail is in great condition. ![]() The trail is nicely graded, well-maintained, and well-signed, making navigation a breeze. At our hiking speed, each landmark was roughly 30 minutes apart. The mile-apart spacing of the landmarks made it easy to track our progress. * Mile 5: the beginning of the old-growth loop. We think the mile 4 bridge is more like 4.25 miles from the start. * Mile 4 bridge (actually a small boarded crossing over a creek, and the map doesn’t depict a second boarded crossing soon after). The trail’s steepest and most overgrown parts start here. A short bypass is marked on the map the longer bypass isn’t. The first mile had educational signage and two bypass trails on the southside. There are some picnic tables around here if you want to lunch with the mosquitos. * Mile 1: the paved trail ends at the site of Falk, an abandoned company town. Along the way, check out the covered bridges at Zane’s Ranch and Bertas Ranch. The reserve’s heart, about 2,500 acres of unbroken old-growth redwoods, has no public access.Īccess to the Elk River Trailhead is via the paved Elk River Road, about 15 minutes from Eureka. On the south side is the Salmon Pass Trail, which can be accessed only via a ranger-led tour. On the north side is the Elk River Trail, which the public can access without restriction. This spurred Congress and California to purchase 7,472 acres of the Headwaters Forest for $380M. Activists pushed back and turned Headwaters Forest into a cause celebre. Charles Hurwitz of Maxxam did a hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber and initiated more old-growth clear-cutting. That made them a juicy target for a corporate raider. Although all logging of old-growth redwoods hurts the ecosystem, Pacific Lumber was regarded as a relatively gentle land steward. Headwaters Forest was the largest remaining old-growth redwood forest in private hands. The logging leads to second-growth groves, which are degraded both biologically and scenery-wise.īy the 1980s, few large areas of old-growth redwood groves hadn’t been logged and remained unprotected by the government. Loggers have logged old-growth redwood trees for 150+ years. Redwood forests thrive in central and northern California’s coastal area. If you agree, then the Headwaters Forest Reserve probably isn’t for you. A common sentiment: if you’ve seen one redwood grove, you’ve seen them all. Note: Not everyone shares my passion for redwood forests.
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