Cummins Creek Wilderness, Nature reserve in Oregon Coast Range, United States.
Cummins Creek Wilderness is a 9,300-acre (3,800 ha) protected area in the Siuslaw National Forest on the Oregon Coast. Cummins Ridge, peaking at almost 2,000 feet, splits the rainforest in two, and Cummins and Bob Creeks drain west to the Pacific. Elevations range from 100 to 2,400 feet.
Congress designated this area in 1984 as one of three protected zones within Siuslaw National Forest. This decision marked official recognition of the ecological importance of this coastal forest region.
Cummins Creek and Cummins Ridge are both named for F.L. Cummins, an early homesteader in this part of the Oregon Coast. The wilderness was created in 1984 together with Drift Creek and Rock Creek, the three wilderness areas of Siuslaw National Forest. Visitors today follow the Cummins Creek Loop Trail, which uses an old logging road, and see the alder and bigleaf maple lining the creeks.
The only trail in the wilderness is the 6.5-mile (10.5 km) Cummins Creek Loop Trail, which follows an old logging road and meets the Cook's Ridge Trail. Horseback riding is not allowed because the soil is fragile, and the Forest Service reports that fishing in Cummins Creek is not very good.
Cummins Creek Wilderness holds the only old-growth Sitka spruce forest in the Oregon Wilderness system, with some trunks measuring up to nine feet in diameter. The 6.5-mile Cummins Creek Loop Trail, the sole path inside the area, follows an old logging road before joining the Cook's Ridge Trail.
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