Olivia Knott with her mule, Nilla
Olivia Knott lives in the Bay Area of California with her husband, two dogs, two horses, and a mule. She blogs regularly about trail riding, horse camping, showing, DIY horse projects, and other equestrian topics at DIYHorseOwnership.com.
Eugene is Olivia's husband's Mustang.  Eugene was adopted in February 2016 from the Carson City prisoner training program. He's from Elko, NV.

Nilla is Olivia's beautiful mule

TRAIL RIDING AND CAMPING AT REDWOODS NATIONAL PARK
by Olivia Knott

​John Muir said "The mountains are calling and I must go." Well, it's the forests that call to me and I must ride to them. I am really obsessed with redwoods and love hiking and riding in redwood forests. My favorite part of Yosemite is the Redwoods grove. I also really enjoyed seeing the giant sequoias at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. I may hate living in California, but the state does have a lot of my favorite trees. Getting up to Redwoods National Park has been on my bucket list for quite a while. After finishing an endurance ride in Weaverville over the July 4th weekend, we were so close that we decided to go add a trip to the Redwoods, on afterwards.
​Orick, CA offers horse camping at their Rodeo Grounds which connect to trails in Redwoods National park. If you plan to go, be prepared; Orick is a really tiny town. It's so tiny they don’t have Diesel and only 1 functioning ATM (the other was broken). When I called to make reservations for the rodeo grounds campground, the woman who took my “reservation” just said to bring cash and to pay it to one of the girls leading the trail rides who we’d probably see. My type A personality was freaking out about this a lot little, because I like having confirmation numbers and clear instructions, but we ventured forth anyway. And I’m so glad we did. The campground is great. We were the only ones there, so our Mustang and mule got a huge corral to share.
When they weren’t in their corral, we let Nilla graze around the property with her hobbles on. Eugene got to graze with my husband holding his lead rope as we haven’t tried hobbles on him yet.
And the best part? The weather was amazing: highs of 65 and lows of 50. In July! Coming from the heat-stroke inducing oven that was Weaverville, we were so, so happy to be cool. It was glorious. I could have just stayed there and never come home.
On Monday, when we arrived, I wanted to take it really easy on the horses as they’d finished a 25 mile ride the day before and had a hard 3 hour drive through steep and winding mountain roads to get there. We decided to walk them down to the entrance just to stretch some muscles and check things out. I think we did about 3 miles round trip. The great thing is, you don’t even have to go far to see the big trees. As soon as you enter the park, you’re basically in a fairy forest. It’s Endor and Lord of the Rings and Fern Gully all rolled up in one. Whatever fantasy forest you’ve dreamed of... this is it:
I cannot over-emphasize how amazingly gorgeous this place is. You should go here. Everyone needs to go here. You can just hike or take a paid trail ride, you don’t need your own horses, but you should see this place.
​We only went a little ways in before turning around and coming back down. On the way back to the campground we took a side-path down to the river and let the horses walk in the water. Or rather, we let Eugene play in the water and I practically kicked and shoved Nilla in. Maybe it's because he's a Mustang, but Eugene loves water. He was having the time of his life splashing and playing.
Look who's having fun!
​Look who’s longing for the distant shore
That night we had dinner early and then climbed into the truck because it was cold. The horses even got blanketed. Cold in July! Oh man, I want to go back already. Anyway, we watched a movie on our iPad in between looking out the window at the fireworks we could sometimes see through the trees. When we were outside of the truck, we could gaze up at the stars and see the Milky Way. I saw this article that said 80% of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way because of light pollution. I know I can barely even see stars in the Bay Area where I live. If it hadn’t been so cold, I probably would have sat out in my chair and just gazed at the stars, it was so glorious.
The next morning we had chocolate chip pancakes before tacking up the horses and heading out on the trails. The trailhead has a cool sign telling you about the different trail options. The trails are called 3 hour loop, 6 hour loop, overnight loop, and 3-day loop. The longer loops go out to back-country campsites. We had a real map in addition and decided on the 6 hour loop knowing it would be a little over 15 miles.
Before we even got to the first junction, we found the hollow redwood that’s big enough for a horse and rider to fit into. The local trail string even has a hitching post here so they can take pictures of all the riders in the tree. It’s amazing to me that a tree can be so big and hollow and still be alive.
Part of what made this ride great was how the forest would change as we went along. Some parts were filled with huge trees spread with low bushes, other parts were like rain forests overflowing with lush ferns and moss. Still other parts were filled with thin birches with sunlight flowing through the trees.
Basically a real life Fern Gully



​The trail terrain was also pretty varied. At some points the trail was very narrow with branches closing in around us. At others it was wide and double track. Some parts were really muddy while others were nice, soft footing. At one point we were going down a very narrow switchback track going down that would zig zag back and forth every few feet. I ended up getting off and walking Nilla down the trail for that section. At the bottom of the trail, there was a bridge and water for the horses. As usual the mule didn’t want to drink anything, but she was happy to eat moss off a tree.
Since the horses had just done an endurance ride, I didn’t want to push them and we did almost the entire ride at the walk. We weren’t in a hurry. The ride ended up being a 17.7 miles with ~2400′ elevation gain and descent and we did it in a little under 4.5 hours. This was a long ride, but it was one of the best rides we’ve done. The redwood forests are just magical. I love the big trees and the cool, foggy weather. During parts of the ride I would put my reins down and my arms out to just soak in the air, to try to somehow absorb the forest and keep it with me.
I highly recommend horse camping at Orick and Redwoods National Park. And if you can’t go horse camping, just go visit the park. There’s nothing like it in the world.
 
Read more about Olivia Knott's awesome riding adventures, Nilla, and Eugune at www.DIYHorseOwnership.com
Wild Heart Mustangs™ is proud to be a media sponsor for Samantha Szesciorka's 2016 Nevada Discovery Ride!  A list of Samantha's past guest articles are below.  Samantha will continue to share her journey and stories from the trail with Wild Heart Mustangs™.

Other articles written by Samantha for Wild Heart Mustangs™:
March Issue - "On the Trail with the Nevada Discovery Ride"
April Issue -  "6 Tips for Long-Distance Riding"
June Issue - "Wild Horses Find New Lives Behind Bars"
July Issue - "6 Things That Happen on a Long Ride"
​Aug Issue - "Happy Trails to You, Until We Meet Again"

Looking for people who love to trail ride...

We love to ride and experience new places.  Sometimes close to home for a nice relaxing day...sometimes for vacation to explore some place new.  But where to go?  This is not always easy to answer.  Some people are fortunate to have a network of horse friends who can recommend a place;  other people may not have that fortune.  It is not always easy packing up your equine and heading for the hills, not knowing if there are facilities to accommodate you and your equine to your liking.  You do not always know the skill level of riding that is necessary when you get their either.  Throwing your bedroll on the back of your saddle and grabbing your saddle bags, should be fun and enjoyable!

Wild Heart Mustangs™ wants YOU, the reader, to write in with places you have been and can recommend to other people who love to trail ride!  CONTACT US and send photos of places you love to share with your horse, mule or donkey.