Circle Creek Loop Hike

Overview

The North Coast Land Conservancy’s Circle Creek property, just south of Seaside, offers two loop trails: the 2 ½ mile Wetlands Walk and the ¾ mile Legacy Loop. The former trail takes you across former pastureland that gets flooded at times of high water. In 2013, the conservancy destroyed berms to complete a restoration plan that allows the Necanicum River to flood freely in this area, thus mitigating the perennial problem of flooding across a neighboring stretch of Highway 101. The second trail takes you into a boggy forest and up a Sitka spruce hillside. The location is great for birdwatching, and a herd of about 100 elk seems to stay in place for most of the year. The public is welcome to walk on the property, but note that no dogs are permitted, and you must sign a release form before setting out on a hike. Enter the large barn on the north side of the vehicle turnaround. There should be a table with a visitors’ book with a Trails Use and Release Form, which you need to sign. Walk through the barn, and turn right past a trail sign that points up a gravel tread. The route passes through plantings of Sitka spruce and takes a bridge over Circle Creek. Keep straight (don’t get distracted by elk trails) on a grassy track that winds through young spruce and cedar. Gnarly old alders overhang Circle Creek to your left. The route bends right and then left following trail posts. You’ll tunnel through more cedar and spruce before bearing right across the north end of an open field, with a thicket of alder to your left. Turn left onto a grassy track at a trail post. The track dips into a muddy avulsion channel – this is where the nearby Necanicum River spills into Circle Creek in times of high water. Come to a trail post near a powerline pole. Go left here to begin the Wetlands Walk Loop, but first scan the open expanse to the north for any sign of the resident elk herd. The trail uses a lengthy boardwalk, put where there was once a dike, in a dark and boggy spruce forest. Huge nurse stumps are remnants of the massi

Trail Stats

Photos

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300px-CircleCreekLoopMap

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TKO put tools to trail here.png

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