Astoria Demonstration Forest Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Astoria Demonstration Forest Trailhead
- End point: Wellness Trail-Demonstration Forest Access Road Junction
- Hike type: Lollipop loop
- Distance: 2.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 140 feet
- High point: 150 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
If you’re in the Astoria area, this short walk is a good introduction to forestry practices and the pros and cons of various management techniques. Large interpretive signs explain these at various stations along a path through plantations of Douglas-fir and western hemlock. In addition, you can extend the outing to walk up the Wellness Trail, which takes you through skunk-cabbage wetlands and up a hillside of more natural woodland.
From the information kiosk at the trailhead, walk up to your right in a mixed forest with Douglas-fir dominating. Note the interpretive sign for the Demonstration Forest. Reach a lawn and another sign at the Clatsop State Forest headquarters. To your right is the C.J. Reed Arboretum, a small collection of identified trees, both native and exotic. To continue on the Demonstration Forest Loop, keep left to skirt the edge of the woods and reach a cable gate. Past the gate, go right on a road and head into forest with examples of thinned and unthinned plantations. A couple of elk skulls ornament the bases of trees. Pass through Douglas-fir/western hemlock plantings with a pruned stand on the right and an unpruned stand on the left. At a junction, keep right and walk by an overgrown hemlock plantation on the left. The trail enters a small stand of older forest and reaches a gravel road.
Go left 20 yards on the road, and then go right at the junction with the graveled “Wellness” Trail. Walk by a picnic table, and then cross a skunk-cabbage gully. Drop a little, passing by a large hemlock. Cross a wetland on a footbridge, and hike gently upward with a powerline corridor to the right. At a junction with a rock-paved track, go right and hike up under the powerlines. Make a traverse in a natural woodland of Sitka spruce, western hemlock, and elderberry. Rise through a salmonberry thicket and reach a logging road.
You have two options here: you can go right around the logging road, which loops down to the Wellness Trailhead; or you can return the way you came, taking the rock-paved track down past a skunk-cabbage/bulrush swamp to reach the trailhead.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Green Trails Maps: Oregon Coast North #356SX
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Trail closed 10:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.
- Picnic tables and information kiosk
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Astoria Demonstration Forest Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Astoria Demonstration Forest Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)