Trillium Falls Trail

After finishing our hike at Lady Bird Johnson Grove, we drove to the south entrance of Redwoods National Park to visit the Thomas H Kuchel Visitor Center. We verified some trail information and enjoyed watching all of the swifts nesting in the eaves of the visitor center, then ventured north on Highway 101 to Davison Road and the Trillium Falls trailhead.

We started by hiking along the paved Davison trail till the Trillium Falls Trail branched off to the right. We quickly noticed how this trail differed from the Lady Bird Johnson Grove since we immediately started climbing along switchbacks into the Redwood forest.

Up and into the Redwoods we go.....

We encountered the lush green of ferns and enjoyed some large Redwood trees before reaching the metal footbridge which crosses a stream while providing us with great views of Trillium Falls just above the crossing.

Maggie and Carol lift a redwood tree up off  the trail 

Although the falls are not large and water levels are low this year, it was still a pretty sight that we took time to enjoy.  Unfortunately, due to the shade and darkness of the area, we only got one picture of Trillium Falls that was ok to keep.

Trillium Falls from footbridge

Footbridge crossing just below Trillium Falls

After hiking along through areas with smaller trees and lots of blackberry brambles and huckleberry shrubs, we crossed an old dirt logging road and once again entered an area dominated by large, impressive redwood trees.  It is just amazing to see these huge trees.

One of many HUGE redwood trees on this hike....

It's a long ways to the top!

We then starting descending and heading back north towards the trailhead when we came to a large footbridge that crosses Elk Meadow to another trailhead.  As the name implies, Elk Meadow is where a herd of elk likes to hang out and sure enough, we got to see a herd of about a dozen elk including a baby elk.  We tried to get some pictures but our camera can only zoom so much, so our best shots are shown below.  This is the time of year for elk calving, so there are signs all around and we were warned at the visitor center to be very cautious around the females, since you can't always see where the young ones are at.

The Elk herd at Elk Meadows

Mother Elk with young at Elk Meadows

The last mile was an easy walk along a dirt road completely surrounded by alder trees till we reached the Davison access trail and completed this nice 2.8 mile loop.

The last mile without redwood trees...

Now that we had 4.2 miles of hiking done, it was time to head to the Prairie Creek Visitor center and get one more hike in for the day, a hike that featured the largest trees in the park and would include walking through redwood trees.....

Trekking Together
Glenn & Carol (and Maggie)