Thursday, April 9 2016
Today, I am back out on another BAS meet up group hike. We will be on Stevens Trail. I’ve done this one a few times before. It is an out and back about 4 miles each direction. We will turn around where we have lunch alongside the north Fork of the American river. The first half is all downhill, which means the second half, is all uphill. It is about a 1600 foot elevation climb over 4 miles. We have 13 people today .
Right off the bat we start off with a beautiful green trail on both sides.
Very quickly, we come to our first stream crossing it is small, but tranquil
This aspect of the hillside holds a lot of moisture. There’s some cool fungi on some of the trees. Flowers are abundant and beautiful.
After crossing a few more streams and looking at a few more flowers, we reached the first of our wow shots. A rock over cropping that overlooks the valley on one side and has a view of the waterfall to the other.
After admiring the view from the outcropping, we headed to the base of the waterfall which required a bit of a rock scramble.
Stephen’s Trail, originally was designed for bringing supplies to gold mining sites down at the river. It was wide enough for mule trains, and people. Along the way there is a cave where some hard rock mining was also done. It goes back about 25 feet
A little past the cave there are a couple of outcroppings that have phenomenal views of the river down below us, with more beautiful flowers around it
Today is one of the days where nature is really standing out to me. I’m drawn to many of the flowers and plants I’m walking by. I have many pictures of them from previous hikes, but just feel moved to admire them more today.
We crawl under another downed tree and then the trail moves into a shaded section following a very exposed portion. Both have beautiful foliage and many more pretty flowers. Again we come to a small stream. This one has a beautiful ferns surrounding the flow of water.
There are specific places along the trail where the river really pops in into view. From the section I’m standing at now I can get a good picture of both upstream and downstream as it curves through the canyon.
This plant with the long dark green, leaves is the California Yorba Santa. There are many different varieties. While I was on the PCT I saw them all the way from the Mexican border throughout California into Oregon and Washington. There were many different species, but they all were very similar. This one has a purple flower on it that I rarely see in bloom.
More beautiful river, pictures present themselves off to my side
This little stream inspired me to do a panoramic shot tilting up. It makes it look like a large waterfall however, in the selfie, you can see that it really is not.
I am inspired by this plant growing out of the side of a Rock. It shows determination and resilience. Growing nearby in the soil are some other pink and purple colored flowers.
We are treated to more pretty river views And beautiful flower. Looking down at the river below, the water is a beautiful crystal clear. You can see straight through it to the cobble below.
We crossed the last stream before the river. This is the biggest one, and it’s got these beautiful flowers growing in it that I have not seen before.
As promised, we are at the rivers edge, a wonderful place for a lunch and a refill of ice cold river water
Heading back up the trail Christi stumbled on a rock and fell right in front of this log covered with turkey tail fungi. It was a sign to get a picture. 😂
We’ve had a few places with some downed trees on or over the trail. This one we had to duck and climb.
As we approach the bottom side of the waterfall I snapped a couple of pictures of the creek on the downhill side of the trail.
We’ve made it back to the parking lot; a fantastic day today. Beautiful weather, great people, and an absolutely outstanding example of creation. The trail is my happy place.
