It’s time for another throwback Thursday hike. This week we’re covering our 6/30/2012 visit to the Clackamas River Trail. This was a strange hike for us. For some reason we were really dragging on this hike. Of the hikes where we’ve had our GPS with us our average moving speed for this one was our 9th slowest. All eight of the slower hikes had extenuating circumstance such as snow or extended off-trail stretches which contributed to the slower pace but this hike had none of that.
We began our hike at the Fish Creek Trailhead. The steep hillsides in the Clackamas River Canyon are prone to slides and rockfall which close the trail from time to time so as always it pays to double check the trail status before heading out.
The trail contoured along the hillside above the Clackamas River often within sight of Highway 224 on the opposite side. A half mile from the trailhead the trail spent some time near the riverbank before climbing away through a 2003 fire zone.
June flowers bloomed along the way including orange tiger lilies, purple penstemon, and red columbine.
The trail left the 2003 fire zone after 2 miles and entered a lush green forest passing several small side streams.
Rhododendrons were blooming along this section.
There was also a unique feature on a tree trunk, what appeared to us to be a face coming out of the wood.
Just over 3.5 miles from the Fish Creek Trailhead we arrived at Pup Creek where a pointer to the right led us on side trail to 100′ Pup Creek Falls.
We had lunch by the falls before continuing. Our original plan had been to hike to Indian Henry Campground and back for a 15.6 mile round trip but the bridge at Pup Creek was out. We contemplated fording the creek but we had both felt pretty lethargic and knew we were dragging so we turned around and headed back leaving the other section for another time. Happy Trails!
Flickr: Clackamas River
wanderingyuncks 
One reply on “Throwback Thursday – Clackamas River Trail”
That was pretty everywhere, but the falls is just magnificent!