Hike at Headwaters Forest Reserve

Hi everyone! This is Sarah posting under Brian's name. :) I thought you all would enjoy some photos from our hike this past Monday through Headwaters Forest Reserve. I have never posted on a blog, so I hope this turns out alright.

The Headwaters Forest Reserve is southeast of Eureka and was a logging town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Our goal was to finish the 11-mile loop trail that goes through the old growth forest. We managed to do the whole loop trail in a little over 4 hours! Our friend Josh had to work at 5, so we rushed a bit. Our buddy Morgan is visiting us from San Diego and joined in on our adventure too.

The first 3 or 4 miles of the trail is along the Elk River.

Here's Brian posing for yet another one of my photos. He's on one of the bridges that crosses the Elk River.

5 1/2 miles later, we finally made it to the beautiful old growth forest!

Morgan is walking near the base of the trees. They were huge! It was too hard for the loggers to get to these trees. They are on top of a steep ravine.

The banana slug was showing us the way.

Group photo at the end of the trail in the old growth grove.

It was a very, very muddy trail for about a half mile.

Brian slipped into the river and got stuck in the mud on the bottom!

Josh right after his encounter with Stinging Nettle.

That's Morgan up on the bridge above the river.

Headwaters is now one of our favorite places to hike around here!