North Umpqua Trail, Swiftwater

The North Umpqua Trail is a 79 mile long trail that runs along the North Umpqua River from Swiftwater Park just east of Idylwyld all the way to Maidu Lake. It's open to hikers, bicyclists, and horseback riders. There are several segments ranging from 3.5 miles to 13 miles, with the going being easy to difficult, depending on what trail section you are on. 

The first section has been divided into two new sections not long ago. What used to be the longer Swiftwater segment is now the Swiftwater and the Tioga segments. A bridge was added just west of Susan Creek and that is now the Tioga trailhead.

This is part of the Swiftwater segment, 7.8 miles. We didn't go the entire length, but walked what we guessed to be about 1 1/2 miles before we headed back.

Not far from the trailhead is a split in the trail. Go right to continue on. Going left will take you to the "wildlife viewing area". More on that later.

The trail is beautifully maintained and this section has wide pathways. It looks like before the bridge was in the trail went across the fallen tree. I don't think I would try it.

I couldn't help thinking this was looking like Jurassic Park, thankfully without the Jurassic animals!

Though the trail along this section is nice and wide it is listed as one of the more difficult stretches. That is because there is a lot of elevation changes (that means a lot of up and down). That means a lot of huffing and puffing on my part....

Now to the wildlife viewing area. Not far from the trailhead is a spot along the river called Deadline Falls. 

It's a great spot to sit and watch while the fish jump to go upstream.

If you're lucky you can catch a picture of a fish jumping up.

 Here are a couple of wild iris plants. They are so pretty.

I believe these are wild sweet peas. There are no peas and they don't have the fragrance of the sweet peas you would buy at the store. But they are everywhere, even on the sides of the roads.

I snapped this photo of these strange looking things. I thought they were some sort of fungi at first until we got home and did a little research. They are "Indian Pipe" plants. You can read more about them by clicking on this link.

I think this is a grove snail.

Same snail, different view.

 The disgusting Pacific banana slug.

One of my favorite creatures, Clyde.  Looking pretty on the stump!

I'll post about each section as we go back to hike them.