By Betty Langdon

The Giant Spruce Trail is the easiest of the forested hiking trails that lead from the Visitors' Center. Still, some of the "walkers" in our group did not agree that the two mile plus round trip hike was all that easy. The trail to the Giant Spruce heads mostly uphill. On the particular day in mid-August 2003 that our party made the trek, there was a detour through the Cape Perpetua Campground, which lengthens the distance somewhat. Yet it is a beautiful trail.

A big difference between this trail and most of the other forest trails in Perpetua is that it skirts the campground with visible tents and vehicles and hikers are therefore more aware of civilization. On some of the trails, except for an occasional fellow hiker, one is pleasantly insulated from civilization.

This time of the year there are few wildflowers. A few Red Sorrels and two lonely Bleeding Hearts werein bloom, but the forest is lush with ferns, several species of berry plants and many different types of bushes and trees, both evergreen and deciduous.

Red Sorrel

Oxalis Oregana

Bleeding Heart

Dicentra formosa

Cape Creek flows on the left between the campground and the trail toward the Big Spruce. The sound of the creek as well as an occasional peek adds to the pleasure of the hike. Wooden bridges lead into the campground in several places and there is an occasional path off the side that allows a closer look at the creek.

A couple of mushrooms from the Polyporaceae family were growing on fallen trees on the sides of the trail.

The giant spruce is reportedly over 500 years old. Part of its tip was lost in a storm some years ago, but still its height is impressive. There is a hole large enough for children or small people to crawl into in its bole, proof that it grew on a nurse log. A sign warned of swarming bees inside, so there was no one climbing inside the tree trunk on this day.

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