Ah-Pah Trail – Redwood Coast Trip

The second actual hike we did within the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park was the Ah-Pah Interpretive Trail. I’m not sure why we decided on this one, other than I really wanted to do more exploring in the redwoods, Landis was tired and it was starting to get late, and I knew it was one of the shorter trails at .4 miles. We definitely have time to do one more quick hike. Even though he was tired, he agreed to do it.

Apparently, it used to be an old logging road. If it weren’t for the interpretive signs, I would have had absolutely no idea. They did a really good job of restoring the area to it’s near natural state. This trail is at the north end of the park, I and believe is the last thing to see before exiting it.

The entrance sign. This is my little life hack to help distinguish sections of my long vacations. Take a picture of the trail or area signs when you get there, then you know the following pictures on your memory card are for that area.

The trail starts along a nice fern filled section.

First panoramic.

Ferns ferns, ferns!

No, I sure can’t. (the sign is referring to the old road that is no longer there.) But there has been a couple of years of growth to help cover it all up.

Cool looking stump.

New life on a dead log.

Split tree the trail goes through.

Pretty forest.

I love the trails through ferns.

Another big tree.

This one has been damaged by fire.

Another panoramic of some giants.

Another memorial grove.

Pretty forest.

People for scale. We only ran into 1 other couple on this trail. You know, I heard August was the redwoods busy season, so I thought it would be more crowded that it was. 

Another grove.

More trees.

And here is the view from the end of the trail. The little guide says you can hear the traffic from the 101 from here, but I didn’t. Nothing but tranquility.

 

With one last big tree.

Which I got a panoramic of.

And the view up. This one turned out interesting with the normal sized trees next to it.

Beautiful hillside below.

A panoramic of the tall trees.

Enjoying being in the deep woods.

I am currently reading a book for work and one of the chapters started with this excerpt from a poem that I think is fitting here.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost
”Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

I could spend the rest of the day wandering around these gorgeous woods, but we need to get back to the room, and have quite the drive ahead of us. So it is time to head back.

Lovely woods.

Back to the split tree.

Tall tree.

Uh, that is a strange looking burl.

Fern.

And back to the parking lot. My car next to a big tree.

Well, that was another lovely hike amongst giant trees. It is pretty amazing to see that, with a lot of work, we can restore some areas after they have been mangled by man.

It was super easy, like I said only one other couple, had a lot of great sights and was really serene.

10 out 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, this one was pretty flat and easy, plus short. There was some slight ups, so really I would probably put it at a 2.5. So, rounding up to a 3.

I wish we had more time to explore this wonderful area, but it was time to start heading towards the room. This was a great last adventure on during our time on the coast though. Just a little more to share with you, so stay tuned!