Christmas Eve Hike at Glen Helen

 12/24/2023

10:04 AM to 12:48 PM

50 degrees, cloudy and wet

Miles: 4.3

Pace: 24:20

I began my hike as usual at the main stairs (location one). I noticed a broken light fixture hanging from the seventy-year-old Trailside Museum that closed in 2020. I thought I should take a picture of it and look for other broken things I encountered on the trail.

I continued east on the trail between points 1 & 14 when I came across my next broken thing: An uprooted tree with its heavily moss-covered root structure exposed in such a way as to make it look like the snakes on Medusa’s head.

Near location 14, I turned left (north) on the Inman Trail towards The Grotto on the boardwalk that takes you over the wetland that was created in 2021 when beavers did an impressive job of damning up Yellow Springs Creek. The water is rising as the beaver damn grows, and the water level is now close to submerging the boardwalk, as a result, the boards are slowly rotting away. This picture shows a chunk of the board missing near the nail that fastens it to the joist below. The trees are reflected in the backed-up wetland water. 

A little further down the boardwalk, I came across this decaying tree. I don’t know if being submerged in water caused the rot, but it's most likely not helping. This picture shows the backed-up Yellow Springs Creek submerging many other trees as it backs up and escapes its banks.

The next broken item I discovered was this tree that a beaver went to work on. A beaver can fall a medium-sized tree like this one overnight! Beavers build dams across streams to create a pond to make a "beaver lodge" to live in to protect them from predators.

I continued the Inman Trail to The Grotto (near location 15) and made the right turn to climb the hill to The Yellow Spring (location 7). I took the first trail to the right after the springs (location 11), went down the stone steps, and turned left on the trail that runs along Birch Creek between locations 12 and 16 towards The Cascades, where I came across my next broken thing: The trail along Birch Creek had washed out near the edge and yellow caution tape was installed.