By Leela Hickman

During these trying times of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s important to find ways we can nurture our mental health. For me this has meant getting outside to move my body and interact with nature. The feeling of being enveloped in the green glow of leaves in the sunshine, softly fluttering in the wind, is extremely calming to me and helps my mind focus on the present rather than the uncertainty of these times.

Now is a great time to explore local areas you haven’t seen yet. I have lived in Southern Oregon for 4 years now, but there are still so many trails I have never stepped foot on despite always wanting to, for whatever reason. I try to keep these trips either within an hour drive, or limit them to once or twice a week if they’re longer than that, but I usually stick to spots within a 2 hour drive in general so I don’t have to get gas too often. I also make sure to maintain social distance anywhere I visit, and so far this hasn’t been difficult for me. Most of the paths I’ve walked recently haven’t been very busy, and I’ve easily been able to step off the trail far enough to let people by.

The Enchanted Forest Trail is only about a 50 min drive from my home in Talent. From Jacksonville, take Highway 238 for 15 miles, then turn right on North Applegate road and continue straight for 4.6 miles until it turns into Kubli Rd. Just a couple hundred yards after that, turn right on Slagle Creek Rd. Continue for 1.5 miles until you reach the end of the road, marked by a green gate and brown BLM sign for the trailhead. There is limited parking space, but you can park along the side of the road.

Being an aspiring botanist who does plant surveys in the spring/summer, I’m always on the lookout for what’s blooming, so when I heard that Warrior’s Plume, or Pedicularis densiflora was blooming along this trail, I had to go see it! Warrior’s plume is a beautifully strange plant that belongs to a wonderfully peculiar plant family, both in name and members- Orobanchaceae or the Broom-rape family. This is one of my favorite plant families; it includes plants with striking bright pink flowers shaped like elephant heads, and most of it’s 30 members are parasitic or semi-parasitic, meaning they steal nutrients and water from other plants by attaching to their roots. Warrior’s Plume is semi-parasitic, so it can survive without parasatizing other plants, but it often attaches to plants in the heath family, such as manzanita. It has beautiful fern-like leaves and large deep magenta colored flower heads with toothed petals.

Warrior’s Plume on the Enchanted Forest Trail, Applegate Oregon.

Sure enough, the forest floor was carpeted in these gorgeous blooms, starting right at the beginning of the trail, as well as numerous other lovely wildflowers including Henderson’s Fawn Lily (Erythronium hendersonii), Henderson’s Shooting Star (Primula hendersonii), Spring Gold (Lomatium utirculatum), Upland Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum), Shelton’s violet (Viola sheltonii), one sad torn-up Tolmie’s mariposa lily (Calochortus tolmiei), Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa) budding in the shade of the mixed conifer forest, and Giant White Wakerobin (Trillium albidum) in the moister areas near the small creek running along the upper part of the trail.

Henderson’s Fawn Lily (Erythronium hendersonii)

Henderson’s Shooting Star (Primula hendersonii)

Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum)

Upland Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum)

Shelton’s Violet (Viola sheltonii)

Tolmie’s Mariposa Lily (Calochortus tolmiei)

Pacific Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa)

Giant White Wakerobin (Trillium albidum)

The trail starts out in a small patch of younger mixed conifer forest, the ground blanketed in Warrior’s Plume, Henderson’s Fawn Lily, and Henderson’s Shooting Star. After a short while the forest opens up into a lovely meadow surrounded by white oak woodland. I stopped to sit in the meadow and enjoy my lunch.

The path becomes a fork in this meadow. It is a loop trail so you can go either way, but I stayed to the left and walked into the oaks. Eventually the trail transitions into a mixed conifer forest again and leads you to this sweet old bullet-hole covered car left over from the depression era (About 0.5 miles from the Trailhead).

Soon after, the trail begins to follow a seasonal stream and you start to feel like you are truly entering an enchanted forest as you encounter many towering mossy Bigleaf Maples with Trilliums growing at their feet, along with scattered hefty Ponderosa Pines mixed in with the many Douglas-firs.

Large Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)

At around 0.7 miles into the trail there is a sign for the 1.5 mile long Felton Memorial Trail shooting off to the right. I decided to explore this trail for a while and then head back because I got kind of a late start to the day and I had to head home fairly soon. The forest becomes younger along this trail, with more Ponderosas, Madrones, and Manzanitas, along with more beautiful wildflowers carpeting the ground and some really sweet views of the surrounding hills.

A short while along this trail, I found what I believe is the yellow flowered variety of Warrior’s Plume! I’m no expert, so it’s possible it’s just an immature flower, but I have heard that a yellow variety exists, so it’s possible that’s what this is.

Possible yellow variety of Warrior’s Plume

I didn’t quite make it to the end of the Felton Memorial Trail before I had to head back towards home, but I later learned that it ends at a marble and metal plaque commemorating three men- BLM employee Jeffrey Felton, pilot Dale Siegel and logger Karl Hansen, who were killed on March 16, 1993 in a helicopter crash during a timber operation.

I also learned that if you continue straight on the Enchanted Forest Trail instead of taking a right like I did, it continues on uphill until you reach a sign indicating the end of public land at about mile 2 from the trailhead.

This “Enchanted” trail is well worth the trip for it’s glorious wildflowers, rich white oak woodlands, and luscious old growth mixed-conifer forest! Let some of your stress and worry float away into the trees as you breath in the fresh air and soak up the bright springtime sunshine. Best wishes to all and happy hiking/ botanizing/ birding/ whatever your pleasure is!

P.S. A great resource for discovering more local trails is William Sullivan’s 100 Hikes in Southern Oregon book, which we carry at the Nature Shop.