Escaping the heat along shady Fall Creek

Today was the final field trip for the second Spring session of my College of San Mateo class. It was a warm day and a perfect day for a 5.1-mile exploration of the shady second-growth redwood forest in the Fall Creek Unit of Henry Cowelll Redwoods State Park. The main unit of this park is south of Felton. The Fall Creek unit is west of town via Felton Empire Road.

Starting at the parking lot about half a mile west of  Highway 9, we headed downhill on the Bennett Creek Trail. We then sauntered north and along Fall Creek on the Fall Creek Trail. This creek is the main attraction of this park. Fed by hundreds of springs, it runs cold and pure all through the year as it bounces over granite rocks, resembling a creek that you might see in Yosemite. Along the way we paused to examine a banana slug.

We then turned left on the South Fork Trail, which follows the South Fork of Fall Creek to the lime kilns. Along the way we stopped to dip our cups into a pool of sparkling, pure, and cold limestone spring water. This water is as pure as it gets and loaded with healthy minerals, including calcium

We examined the lime kilns, which were built in 1872 by the IXL Lime Company. This area produced 50,000 barrels of lime per year during its heyday. That's nearly a third of all the lime produced in California at that time. Each barrel weighs 250 pounds. The limestone, which was quarried at nearby Blue Cliff, was heated in the kilns for three or four days to separate the carbon dioxide from the calcium carbonate in the rock. This made it turn into powder that could be loaded into barrels and then transported by wagon to Felton, and from there by railroad to awaiting ships in Santa Cruz. Lime is used to make cement.

Near the lime kilns we witnessed the mating of two banana slugs, walked a short distance off trail to see gold fish in  small cistern, and saw the underground chamber where gunpowder was stored. Along the Cape Horn  Trail we stopped to look at an inconspicuous spotted coral root orchid along the trail and a more flamboyant leafless wintergreen in full bloom. On the banks of Fall Creek we stopped for lunch and some of my baynut brownies before continuing upstream to the barrel mill, where a water-powered sawmill cut redwood lumber for the barrels used to transport the lime.

TO GET THERE... From Highway 9 in Felton, the main parking lot is about half a mile west on Felton Empire Road. Look for it on the right side of the road.