Redwood National Park, 10-Jul
The day centered around a couple of hikes through groves connected with a long trail. For all the distance, we ended hiking at about the same time as the day before.
We were going to do one longer hike this day rather than piecing together smaller ones. Originally, there was going to be an out-and-back hike in the morning, then we would drive to do a short loop in a grove after lunch. However, our leader decided to offer the option of doing the out segment of the original plan then go a bit over a mile and a half connector to the loop we were going to do in the afternoon.
Right away when we were on the trail, we veered into the Stout Memorial Grove and took our time going along the loop. We then left the grove and went down where we crossed Mill Creek and spent some time looking at Smith River. There was a narrow pedestrian bridge that went across the river, and several people went part way across to take a look.
We then went up a bit and followed the Smith River for quite a while. As we started to leave the river, we came to what was going to be our original turnaround point. At that point, one car's worth of hikers decided to head back and stick to the original plan, driving to the Simpson-Reed Trail. The rest of us continued on, crossing and going a short ways along the highway to the Simpson-Reed parking lot (Melody and I quickly grasped at some thimbleberries that were right next to us).
We then went through the Simpson-Reed Trail, which consisted of a couple of loops. As well as many more redwoods, we saw several downed trees which exposed the roots. With all the redwoods we have been looking at for the past couple of days, everyone still stops and admires just how big some of the trees are.
After finishing the loop, we sat down to eat lunch near the parking lot. As we were finishing up, the carload of people who had turned back showed up, and they started doing the loops while we started heading back. Since we made many fewer photo stops, the trip back was quite quick. Several of us took a break when we got down to the Smith River, and while we saw nobody around the river in the morning, several people were hanging out along the river in the afternoon. Several people were on kayaks, and several of them paddled under the pedestrian bridge. We were very close to the trailhead, so we headed out and got back into the car.
On the way back, we stopped by the visitor center to look around a bit, then went back to the hotels. After cleaning up and relaxing a bit, we joined the group for dinner, after which we picked up a few more groceries and went back to our room for the night.
