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Views from the Trail

About Fall Creek, Henry Cowell State Park: The forks of Fall Creek, a forest of second-generation redwoods and Douglas fir are some of the attractions of a walk through this isolated area of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Located on the slopes of Ben Lomond Mountain in a wild canyon northwest of Felton, this part of the park also boasts a lush creekside habitat of ferns, big-leaf maple and alder.

Hikers with a historical interest will enjoy traveling to old limekilns and a millsite. In the 1870s, IXL Company built three limekilns, producing nearly a third of the state’s lime supply. Park namesake Henry Cowell took over the business at the turn of the century and under his guidance much of the lime used in the cement necessary to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake was produced at the Fall Creek works. Fall Creek redwoods were logged in order to construct redwood barrels for storing lime and for logs to fire the limekilns.

Hike Description: We'll begin the hike along the shaded, bubbling Fall Creek Trail along the central canyon of the park. Well pass the Barrel Mill area along the way and take a short, easy loop past the lime kilns using the Cape Horn and South Fork Trails. We'll make the climb on the Big Ben Trail to the Big Bear Tree where we'll have our lunch. We'll then begin our descent back to the trailhead on the Lost Empire Trail. Hike is about 8.6 miles long and should take us about 4 to 4.5 hours including lunch.