Since we both had President's Day off from work and sunshine was in the forecast, we decided to hike at a couple of places that until a few weeks ago, we didn't even know existed.
We drove to Grants Pass and then headed south on Highway 199. Just south of Cave Junction we turned onto Westside Road for a few miles till we arrived at the Illinois River Forks SP trailhead.
Illinois River Forks State Park is day use only and has an east side and a west side area - each separated by the east and west forks of the Illinois River. The hiking trails are only accessed from the west side unless you want to swim across the river from the east side. The trails are for hikers and horse riding, but we saw very little sign of recent use by horses.
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| Horse or Hiker? Today we were all hikers! |
We made our way across and down ravines on the Dogwood trail which took us to the confluence of the east and west forks. We lost the trail here and could not find the picnic area along the river due to the heavy rains and flooding from a few weeks ago. We did take a few minutes to enjoy the view of the rivers and Katie took a minute to enjoy the water!
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| Where East meets West - the confluence of the East Fork and West Fork of the Illinois River |
We then backtracked and hiked the River trail (a different trail along a small stream that was already dried up), Ridge trail and Power Line trail -- their names tell you everything. Many areas in the woods were covered with moss and ferns which provided green everywhere. The trails were easy to follow and we only encountered a few trees across our trail which also made our hiking easier.
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| The largest tree across our trail today - no sweat!! |
The link we included here for the
State Park has all of the trails outlined and we would recommend taking a copy of this with you if you hike here.
After arriving back at the parking area, we drove back to Highway 199 and headed south for about a mile or so to the
Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside. We have driven by this area many times on the way to the coast, but it always looked like a dried out desert area and the creek was usually dry too. Of course that was during the summer months.
The area has an incredible amount of plants and wildflowers, many of them rare. The best time for wildflower blooming is listed as early May through June, so we did not see many today. The short well marked trail takes you from the parking area to a picnic table/viewpoint. You can continue on along a less well marked trail past this area and eventually reach a dam. We only hiked part way to the dam, then turned back to enjoy more of the viewpoint.
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| The well marked short trail to the picnic table/viewpoint area. |
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| The not so well marked trail that continues to the dam. |
On this day the Rough and Ready Creek was actually three creeks, each separated by an island of river rock that we wanted to take home for our gardens. We didn't take any! We did enjoy the views and hiked down to the confluence of the three creeks. Katie enjoyed the water again!
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| Where the Rough and Ready creeks become one creek again. |
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| Looking upstream along one of the Rough and Ready creeks |
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| Is this a Pitcairn Cairn??? |
We enjoyed hiking today and want to say "thank you" to George, Abe and all the other presidents - you made our day!
Trekking Together
Glenn and Carol
Isn't it always fun and exciting to visit hiking trails you have never been on before? This place is especially beautiful, as this is the kind of forest I really love.
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