Hike #3: Hoyt Arboretum Fir Trail

Trailhead: Hoyt Arboretum parking lot on SW Fairview Blvd

Arboretum Map

What I listened to in the car: Radiolab's Are You Sure. Stories of surety and lack there of. The last story is intense and unresolved. Radiolab at it's best.

Companions: Just Tumalo!


Trails hiked on: Hoyt Arboretum's Fir, Creek and Redwood trails plus a little bit of the Wildwood Trail

Miles hiked: 1 mile (calculated via this map, not the usual Forest Park Conservancy maps), 30 minutes.

Unique miles hiked: 1 mile

Total challenge miles:  6.13 miles

Weather: Might rain at any moment, but it didn't

Notes:

Larch, Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoias!

Hoyt Arboretum is 189 acres at the south end of Forest Park. It is managed as a living museum that includes over 2,000 species along twelve miles of trails. The trails are well maintained, well marked and well used. I generally only walk in the conifer collection on the back slope of the arboretum and even then only on wet days or week days because it just gets so crowded. If you don't have a dog or don't mind crowds, the arboretum is a lovely place to walk.

Today I walked along the Fir Trail and then down through the redwood collection and back along the Creek Trail. I've spent a lot of time in the woods of western Oregon and I generally am very familiar with the trees most common around here. One of the joys of the arboretum is that I get to see some of the less familiar trees. Today's trip took me through a forest of larch, coast redwoods, yellow cedars and white firs.

The deck and the redwoods. Ewoks!

The Redwood trail takes you down through a dark stand of coast and giant redwoods to a beautiful wooden viewing deck. I almost expected some Ewoks to come poking out from behind the big trees. From there I walked back towards the parking lot along the Creek Trail. There is a magic tree along that trail with it's roots exposed by the creek. No doubt gnomes live there  :)   Unlike the Newton Road hike the day before, this part of the park is so very touched by human hands. Less ravens, more gnomes.

There arboretum is a wonderful place to watch the seasons change. I'm excited to go back over the course of the year. You should check it out, too!