Best Canine Hike Under Big Trees
Hikes under giant sequoias and coastal redwoods - the largest trees on earth - are truly mystical. For dog owners these opportunities are extremely limited as the arboreal giants are clustered in our national and state parks. Nonetheless, some canine hikers will not be denied the majesty of these hikes and there are places where your dog can get closer to these magnificent trees than a car window. The nominees for Best Canine Hike Under Big Trees are…
Arcata Community Forest (California)
Arcata Ridge Trail
This second growth redwood forest in the City of Arcata is California’s first municipally owned forest. Second growth means making do with “only” 250-foot high trees instead of 350 feet. Numerous short spurs off the Arcata Ridge Trail spine offer countless loop opportunities on a combination of wide, roomy roads and pick-your-way footpaths. The elevation in the well-lubricated redwood forest ranges from 250 feet to over 1,000 feet and will definitely get your dog’s tongue to panting in stretches.
Olympic National Forest (Washington)
Quinault Rain Forest Trail
Two loops penetrate deep into an old-growth forest where firs and spruce can tickle 300 feet in height. Clubmoss draping branches and thick canopies suffocate the light on the forest floor of this four-mile canine hike. At one magical turn in the Quinault Rain Forest Trail you stand with your dog beneath all four titans of the Pacific rain forest - Western red cedar, Sitka spruce, Douglas fir and Western hemlock - growing in a row. Giant trees can often be seen growing in orderly rows. This is the result of their propagating on the mossy safety of large ancestors fallen on the forest floor. When the nurse logs decay completely their thriving wards are left with a distinctive hollow root pattern. The loop serves up a rushing waterfall and spends time at Quinault Lake as well.
Sequoia National Forest (California)
Boole Tree Trail
Converse Basin Grove is a giant sequoia graveyard. This area was once quite possibly the finest sequoia grove that ever was. Massive trees over 300 feet high were enthusiastically felled by loggers - often for little more than shingles. So many trees were taken that the area is known today as Stump Meadow. The 2.5-mile loop leads to a depression containing a rare survivor, the Boole Tree. Once thought to be the largest giant sequoia in the world more exacting measurements have since placed it eighth. But the 113-foot girth of this leviathan is the greatest of all giant sequoias. Unlike its cousins in the more manicured national parks the Boole Tree lives in such unruly surroundings you may not immediately identify it until your dog is dwarfed by its presence.
Sierra National Forest (California)
Shadow of the Giants Trail
Naturalist John Muir discovered this redwood grove in 1875 and as he investigated he happened upon a retired miner named John Nelder who was homesteading there. The area was heavily logged thereafter, mostly sugar pines, firs and cedar but the largest sequoias still stand. The self-guiding Shadow of the Giants Trail meanders for about a mile through the Nelder Grove. Unlike sequoias in national parks, the 100 giants here remain in dense forest and you can walk right up to the largest trees. Those would be Old Granddad and the Kids, a grouping of giant sequoias on a ridgeline and Bull Buck, one of the world’s five largest arboreal monarchs at nearly 250 feet tall, 99 feet around at the base and probably 2700 years old.
Siskiyou National Forest (Oregon)
Oregon Redwoods Trail
The California-Oregon border wasn’t drawn to give the Golden State all the redwood groves - it only seems that way. A sometimes harrowing four-mile dirt road leads to a considerably better maintained walking trail along and down Peavine Ridge on the Oregon Redwoods Trail. The grove of old-growth redwoods is interspersed with other upland forest species that permit enough light for huckleberry and rhododendron to flourish in patches. The largest redwoods are found after the 1.6-mile forest path switchbacks to the bottom of the ridge.
And the Waggie Award for Best Canine Hike Under Big Trees goes to...Arcata Community Forest!
The combination of easy access and spirited hiking AND dog-friendly is tough to beat. Don’t let the active management of this redwood forest put you off, you won’t even notice that it qualifies as one of only 20 in America to be designated a “Model Forest” for excellent forestry practices. Though you are not far from downtown Arcata or U.S. Highway 101 nearly 150 bird species have been found in these trees. A number of rare plants can be identified as well. As for hiking, your dogs can spread out on the road-like main trail that sweeps under the towering redwoods and be challenged by the 800-foot elevation gains depending on the side trails you choose. Although your eyes will be tilted upwards most of the hike don’t neglect to soak in the verdant fern-encrusted understory, especially in springtime when the California lady slippers are in bloom.