The Myrtle Tree Trail – Redwood Coast Trip

After a fun day exploring the coast we wanted to check out Oregon’s Largest Known Myrtle Tree. This vacation has been pretty old tree heavy, but this one sounded neat. The guide says it is a quarter mile.

To get here from Gold Beach: From HW 101 drive east on Jerry’s Flat Rd. (the road just before the bridge over the Rogue River) toward Agness. At approximately 9.5 miles turn left on FS road #3310. Cross the scary 1 lane bridge over the Rogue, then immediately turn right on Silver Creek Rd. (the sign is very small but it is the first rd after the bridge). Proceed about a quarter mile and park on the right side. The trail is on the left side.

Heading back into the hills. (DBP)

Said scary one lane bridge. (DBP)

The trail head.

It is a very nice forest trail.

Mossy trunk.

Like redwoods, myrtle has a very strong will to survive and can come back after falling, or even being burnt.

And also support family trees.

I just love all the ferns.

Oh, I think we have arrived.

Yup, that is definitely it. This tree is awesome!

88 feet tall, 42 feet in circumference. Certainly not the biggest tree we saw on the trip, but definitely the most interesting one. The upper 20 inch limbs are approximately 200 years old. The lower stems could be an additional 200 years old.

The base is completely hollowed out due to many fires over the years.

Here we are next to it.

Some new sprouts.

Mushrooms!

Another look inside.

 

Surrounding forest.

Landis next to the big tree.

Just a cool looking tree. It should be named, something ancient sounding, like Methuselah. I know that is already taken by an older tree, but something equally cool and ancient sounding.  It just has a lot of character. Ooh, how about Morgana?

 

You could have a picnic up here if you wanted. 

Fern filled gully.

Another large tree.

Some more large trees.

The trail passes by again on the way down. What an amazing tree.

More forest shots. It is kind of dark in this forest.

Trail through the ferns.

A fallen tree growing new trees.

So lush and beautiful.

Faint shafts of light.

Hallowed and mossy.

This spider web is almost a perfect dome.

With accompanying spider.

Moss and ferns.

Back to the dirt road. It wasn’t too bad to get up here.

There was a trail across the street so we decided to explore a little more.

Found another big tree. I thought these might be redwoods, but the guide suggests it is a douglas-fir.

More mushrooms.

Returning to the one lane bridge. We had to wait for a car to pass before we could cross. (DBP)

Pretty hills above. (DBP)

And not the greatest shot of the main bridge over the Rogue River.

Well, that was a fun adventure! Beautiful woods, nice short walk, and not another soul to be seen.  I guess not a lot of people go exploring the woods on a Thursday around here! With that in mind, plus the really neat old tree with a lot of character, I am giving this adventure a perfect 10.

As for difficulty, while it is short, it is somewhat steep switchbacks up the side of the hill. I would put it somewhere between easy and moderate. So falling on a DR 3.