Iron Creek Campground - August 5th to 9th

In previous posts, I've mentioned how nice Iron Creek Campground was but never said why. It's been more than a month now since I left and I still miss the place. What made it so special wasn't the big sites or the privacy within the sites or the fact that the sites were not close together or the very nice camp hosts. Sure, all of that was nice! But what really made it special was its location. It was situated in an old growth forest, alongside a river, and had a 2 1/2 mile loop trail that went around the campground. It was, quite simply, beautiful. It is one of the best campgrounds in which I have ever stayed. Ever. And one of my all-time favorite places.

My campsite at Iron Creek Campground.

There is nothing in the picture to provide scale as to the size of the tree and its stump but take my word for it, it was huge!

The only thing available to provide scale was myself. I am 5' 6" tall and I tried to hold the camera straight out so there wouldn't be any distortion. I'd say the tree was at least 5 feet in diameter.

Take another look at that second photo. Lying on the ground behind the stump is another fallen tree, shown above.  You can't see the end of it... I paced it off as best I could and counted 80 paces. At 2 1/2 feet per pace it would be about 200 feet long/tall. And it was just as wide as the other tree.

Moss hung off of the tree limbs and a small fern-like plant grew on the downed trees. It was as soft as down feathers.

On the southern side, along the river (which also ran on the eastern side), there was a wide variety of vegetation.

The golden rays of the setting sun drastically altered the appearance of the forest.

On portions of the trail it was like walking on soft sponges.

Dead and decaying tree stumps become home for new shrubs.

The five nights and four days I was there were, in some respects, magical. The atmosphere of the forest varied with the changing light and weather and depended upon whether you were on the river side or not.  Every morning and every evening I would walk along a portion of the trail, several times doing the entire loop. It was wonderful.

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Becky Wiseman, "Iron Creek Campground - August 5th to 9th," Kinexxions, posted September 28, 2015 (http://kinexxions.blogspot.com/2015/09/iron-creek-campground-august-5th-to-9th.html : accessed [access date])