Visitors take first steps back into Armstrong Woods after year of closure

As visitors gathered in awe around the 1,400-year-old tree known as Colonel Armstrong, Greg Corby sat on a park bench Friday morning, smiling at the sight of families enjoying the Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve park for the first time since the August 2020 Walbridge fire.

“I’m just so excited to see all the visitors here this morning,” Corby said.

Corby is a docent for the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, a nonprofit that works with the state parks system. Although he came to just enjoy the park as a visitor, he couldn’t help pointing out to others the contrast between the thinned, charred side of the trail, and the lush, unburned side, sharing bits of knowledge about the forest and the fire that almost doomed it.

“Fire is an important part of the forest’s ecosystem,” Corby said, but “hats off to the firefighters that recognized the importance of this historic tree and fought to save it.”

The park reopened its forest floor, including the Pioneer Nature Trail, the Armstrong Nature Trail and Discovery Trail. But the East Ridge and Pool Ridge trails are closed because of wildfire damage and hazardous tree conditions.

To make the day even more special, the creek was running and the trees, ferns and moss were lush and dewy from the weekend’s storms.

Santa Rosa residents Wolf and Diane Bley, who were hiking Friday morning and taking pictures of their daughter and grandson in front of a coast redwood, said they were thankful to be back and appreciative of all the hard work that the park service and stewards had done to reopen the park.

“There’s nothing else like this,” Wolf Bley said, gesturing toward the damp redwoods, some charred by the fire that swept through and burned more than 55,200 acres. “It’s so unique.”

“It’s much cleaner than I would have thought given all the rain, the weather and the fires,” he said, plus there’s new wooden fences and flowing water.

Visitors, docents and park workers acknowledged the importance of fire in a forest’s ecosystem, but were relieved that the park held up so well after the Walbridge fire burned 511 acres, about 60% of the park, mostly on hillsides and ridges.

“That one looks really cool! I’m glad they didn’t knock that one down!” said a boy pointing at a charred redwood tree to his mother. “Whooaah,” he said, upon arriving at the base of Colonel Armstrong, which is 14.6 feet in diameter and 308-feet tall.

“I haven’t been this excited about something in my entire adult life,” said his mother, Shannon Lucey, of Guerneville. She grew up visiting the park every week and has been counting the days until it reopened.

She’s been dreaming of the forest’s shady canopies, the cool dewy mornings before the crowds arrive, the water flowing in the creek and, of course, the ancient towering redwoods.

Having a place for her kids to get their energy out is also nice, she added.

“I’m happy to see all the plants and animals, and mushrooms, all the things you can’t see,” said Lucey’s best friend, Leah Brorstrom. “It’s a world of history.”

The two have been hiking through the forest since high school and are happy to be reunited under the glistening coniferous trees, fresh from rainfall.

Now that the park is open, they plan on going regularly. They even bought a state parks pass so they can bypass the newly enforced $10 per car fees at the public lots to make up for the costs of the damage and a year of lost revenue.

Carlos Amador, a state parks worker who was collecting fees at the gate, saw a small trickle of people entering the park Friday morning. Everyone was understanding about the new parking fees, he said.

“It feels good to be back, to see everyone smiling,” Amador said. He expects to see a long line on Saturday and Sunday as eager weekend visitors pile in.

Linda Burns, who lives nearby in Guerneville with her pet pig Mya, returned to the park early Friday morning, a leashed pig in one hand and a miniature wiener dog in the other.

“This rain before we got here this week made it even better,” Burns said.

“Mya likes to walk here. It was a little bit cold for her, but she had a great time,” she said as the pig turned and strutted to the car with her owner, ready to leave, despite the park’s long-awaited reopening.

You can reach Staff Writer Alana Minkler at 707-526-8511 or alana.minkler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @alana_minkler.