BLM offers guided hikes to Headwaters Forest Reserve near Fortuna

A reservation-only trail south of Fortuna passes through young to mid-aged forest and restored watershed areas before climbing into old-growth redwoods in Headwaters Forest Reserve. The Bureau of Land Management has opened Salmon Pass Trail hikes for weekends from mid-May through mid-November, weather permitting, and every outing must be booked on Recreation.gov.

The route is 3 miles round-trip, takes about 3 to 4 hours, and is moderately strenuous with a 360-foot elevation change. Hikers face a sustained 240-foot climb up switchbacks to the Salmon Pass ridgeline, then move through a landscape that blends second-growth forest recovery with older redwood stands in the reserve.

Salmon Pass Trail is open only through BLM-led guided hikes. Registration closes three days before each hike, and tours can also be arranged through the Headwaters Forest Preserve website or by calling the BLM Arcata Field Office at 707-825-2300.

Headwaters Forest Reserve itself covers 7,472 acres of coastal redwood forest and was established in 1999 after a decade-long grassroots campaign to protect one of the world’s last unprotected, intact old-growth redwood ecosystems. The reserve sits within the ancestral homeland of the Wiyot people and protects habitat for marbled murrelet, northern spotted owl, coho salmon, Chinook salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout.

The land’s modern history is tied to the Headwaters Deal in March 1999, when the U.S. federal government and the State of California bought about 4,545 hectares of redwood forest from Pacific Lumber Company for $480 million.