Author: derwoodynck

Central Oregon Cascades

Several years ago we set a goal for ourselves to hike all 500 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes…” series of guidebooks (post). In 2020 we finished the first of his five guidebooks covering the Central Oregon Cascades. The achievement became bittersweet just 10 days after finishing the final featured hike at Erma Bell Lakes (post) when a freak windstorm caused the Lionshead and Beachie fires to explode burning a number of the trails that we had hiked on our journey to complete this goal. On the one hand we were fortunate enough to see these areas before they burned but it also means being more aware of what was lost, at least for the time being. The 2020 fires were not the first to burn trails that we’d hiked in the area, sometimes after and sometimes before. Fire is part of a forest’s cycle but their time frames take much longer than ours.

For this post we want to recap our journey to complete the 100 featured hikes while sharing a little of what the area looked like as we experienced it but first a little context. The area that Sullivan covers in the Central Cascades book, as well as his books for the other four areas, isn’t exactly easy to define. The vast majority of hikes could be fit into a rectangle starting with the upper left hand corner in Salem and extending east to Highway 97 then south to the junction of highways 97 & 58, then west until intersecting with a line due south from Salem. (The imaginary line follows I5 south until Cottage Grove where the freeway jogs SW.) That is over simplification though as that description overlaps at times with hikes described in the NW & Eastern books and excludes two featured hikes west of I5 and two east of Highway 97. The first snip below generally shows the described rectangle with the hiker symbols representing trailheads where we have started hikes (not limited to the featured hikes being discussed here). The second snip excludes any hikes that are included in one of the other areas that Sullivan covers.

The area is home to a variety of landscapes and ecosystems and contains at least parts of nine designated Wilderness Areas: Opal Creek, Bull of the Woods, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington, Three Sisters, Menagerie , Middle Santiam, Waldo Lake, and Diamond Peak.

The area has been hit by a number of large fires since 2000. The map below covers the same approximate area as the second map above. The colored areas represent fires with yellow being 2000-2005, light orange 2006-10, dark orange 2011-14, and red 15-19.

Not included in the map above are the Green Ridge, Beachie or Lionshead Fires from 2020. The Green Ridge fire did not burn over any of the featured hikes (it did burn part of the Green Ridge Trail) but the Beachie and Lionshead Fires impacted a number of hikes in the Mt. Jefferson, Bull of the Woods and Opal Creek Wilderness and surrounding areas.

The map below includes the Riverside Fire (large fire to the north), Beachie and Lionshead (center left and right which combined after Labor Day) and the Green Ridge Fire (SE).

We were lucky enough to complete many of the hikes prior to them being burned but we also hiked a number post fire and have seen the recovery in process. I’ve done my best to note below if a featured hike has experienced fire since 2000 with the year and name of the fire.

After all of that here are the 100 featured hikes from the 2012 4th edition of “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades”:

#1 – Ankeny Wildlife Refuge-Hiked 4/6/2014

#2 – Silver Fall-Hiked 2006, 7/30/2010 & 3/29/2018
Middle North Falls

#3 – Shellburg Falls-Hiked 5/23/2011
Burned-2020 Beachie Fire
Shellburg Falls

#4 – Little North Santiam-Hiked 4/5/2012
Burned-2020 Beachie Fire
Snow on the Little North Santaim River

#5 – Henline Falls & Henline Mountain 7/27/2009 & 6/14/2020
Burned-2020 Beachie Fire
Henline Falls

#6 – Opal Creek 7/4/2010, 7/4/2012, 6/21/2014 & 7/24/2019
Burned-2020 Beachie Fire
Jawbone Flats

#7 – Dome Rock and Tumble Lake 7/18/2010
Burned-2020 Beachie Fire
Tumble Lake from Dome Rock

#8 – Battle Ax and Twin Lakes 9/20/2014
Olallie Butte and Mt. Jefferson with Elk Lake below Mt. Jefferson from Battle Ax

#9 – Stahlman Point 5/6/2013
Burned 2020 Beachie Fire
View from Stahlman Point

#10 – Coffin Mountain Lookout 8/2/2013 & 7/4/2016
Coffin Mountain Lookout with the Three Sisters and The Husband beyond

#11 – Three Pyramids 7/18/2020
Meadow along the Pyramids Trail Meadow below the Three Pyramids

#12 – Crescent Mt. 7/6/2014
Beargrass meadow along the Crescent Mountain Trail Beargrass on Crescent Mountain

#13 – Browder Ridge 9/9/2012 & 7/4/2018
Mt. Jefferson from Browder Ridge

#14 – Echo Basin and Fish Lake 6/19/2020
Echo Basin Trail Boardwalk in Echo Basin

#15 – Iron Mt. 7/25/2010 & 7/4/2014
Iron Mountain from the Cone Peak Meadow Iron Mountain from the trail.

#16 – House Rock 11/8/2014

#17 – Rooster Rock 6/12/2016
Rooster Rock from a viewpoint in the Menagerie Wilderness

#18 – Cascadia State Park 6/12/2016
Soda Creek Falls

#19 – Crabtree Lake 9/7/2019

#20 – McDowell Creek Park 2/16/2014
Majestic Falls

#21 – South Breitenbush Gorge 5/11/2013
Burned 2020 Lionshead Fire
Roaring Creek

#22 – Jefferson Park 9/23/2011, 10/13/2014, & 8/8/2015
Burned partly in 2017 Whitewater and rest in 2020 Lionshead Fire
Mt. Jefferson from Jefferson Park Mt. Jefferson

#23 – Pamelia Lake 9/19/2013 & 9/8/2018

#24 – Marion Lake 10/3/2014 & 9/10/2016
Burned 2002 Mt. Marion, 2003 B&B Complex, 2006 Puzzle, 2015 208SRZ Marion
Three Fingered Jack from Marion Lake

#25 – Duffy Lake 7/28/2010
Burned 2002 Mt. Marion, 2003 B&B Complex
Mowich Lake and Duffy Butte from Red Butte

#26 – Three Fingered Jack 10/13/2012
Burned 2003 B&B Complex

#27 – Canyon Creek Meadows 7/28/2013
Burned 2003 B&B Complex
The trail ahead Three Fingered Jack

#28 – Carl Lake 9/1/2018
Burned 2003, B&B Complex, 2006 Puzzle

#29 – Metolius River 7/23/2012
Wizard Falls

#30 – Black Butte 10/13/2013 & 5/28/2018
Burned 2009 Black Butte II
Cupola style lookout on Black Butte

#31 – Alder Springs 8/3/2011
Deschutes River

#32 – Scout Camp Trail 5/1/2016
Balsamroot hillside

#33 – Steelhead Falls 5/1/2016

#34 – Smith Rock 7/14/2006, 7/13/2011 & 6/5/2015
Monkey Face

#35 – Shevlin Park 8/5/2011
Hixson Crossing Covered Bridge

#36 – Tumalo Falls 9/27/2014

#37 – Dillon & Benham Falls 8/1/2013
Benham Falls

#38 – Lava Cast Forest and Lava River Cave 5/28/2017
Newberry Crater from the Lava Cast Forest

#39 – Fall River 9/16/2015

#40 – LaPine State Park 9/16/2015
Deschutes River

#41 – Poxy Falls and Linton Lake 5/3/2014(Proxy Falls) & 7/01/2017(Linton Lake)
Burned (Linton Falls) 2017 Separation Fire
Proxy Falls

#42 – Obsidian Trail 10/14/2012
Burned (tiny portion of trail) 2017 Separation Fire
Obsidian Falls

#43 – Four-in-one-Cone 10/14/2012 & 8/14/2019
View from Four-in-one Cone View from Four-in-One-Cone

#44 – Benson Lake 10/14/2012 & 8/30/2014
Burned (small section of longer loop trail) 2010 Scott Mt. Fire

#45 – Hand Lake Shelter 8/30/2014

#46 – Little Belknap Crater 9/14/2015
Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, and Mt. Jefferson from Little Belknap Crater

#47 – Matthieu Lakes 7/29/2013
Burned 2017 Milli Fire
North Sister from South Matthieu Lake

#48 – Black Crater 10/1/2016
Burned 2017 Milli Fire
Remanants of the lookout tower on Black Crater Former lookout site on Black Crater.

#49 – Chambers Lakes 8/26/2014
Burned 2012 Pole Creek Fire
South Sister from Camp Lake

#50 – Park Meadow 8/27/2014
Burned 2012 Pole Creek Fire
Middle and North Sister beyond Golden Lake Middle and North Sister from Golden Lake

#51 – Tam McArthur Rim 8/31/2013
Broken Top and Broken Hand from Tam McArthur Ridge

#52 – Tumalo Mt. 9/27/2014
Trees near the summit of Tumalo Mountain.

#53 – Todd Lake and Broken Top 8/23/2014
Broken Top from No Name Lake

#54 – Sparks Lake 10/1/2014
South Sister from Sparks Lake

#55 – Green Lakes via Fall Creek 9/15/2015
The third Green Lake

#56 – Moraine Lake and South Sister 9/1/2013
View from the South Sister Looking north from the South Sister.

#57 – Sisters Mirror Lake 9/19/2015
South Sister from Sisters Mirror Lake

#58 – Horse Lake 8/4/2011
Horse Lake

#59 – Doris & Cliff Lakes 9/29/2014
Doris Lake

#60 – Clear Lake 6/15/2014

#61 – Sahalie & Koosah Falls 9/9/2012
Sahalie Falls

#62 – Tamolitch Pool 5/27/2013

#63 – Rainbow Falls and Separation Lake 5/3/2014
Separation Lake

#64 – Horsepasture Mt. 7/7/2018
South Sister and Mt. Bachelor form Horsepasture Mountain.

#65 – Olallie Mt. 9/1/2019
Burned 2017 Olallie Lookout Fire (Lookout burned down winter 2019/20).
Olallie Mountain lookout

#66 – Lowder Mt. 9/1/2019
View from Lowder Mountain.

#67 – Tidbits Mt. 6/29/2019
View from Tidbits Mountain.

#68 – Castle Rock 6/3/2017
Monkeyflower and pletritis Monkeyflower and plectritis on Castle Rock.

#69 – French Pete Creek 5/16/2015
Burned 2017 Rebel and 2018 Terwilliger Fires

#70 – Erma Bell Lakes 8/29/2020
Middle Erma Bell Lake

#71 – Spencer Butte 2/9/2020
View from Spencer Butte Fog over Eugene.

#72 – Mt. Pisgah 10/5/2019
Summit of Mt. Pisgah Summit marker on Mt. Pisgah.

#73 – Shotgun Creek 2/9/2020

#74 – Fall Creek 3/31/2013
Burned 2003 Clark and 2017 Jones Fires

#75 – Mt. June 6/2/2013
Sawtooth Trail

#76 – Goodman Creek 11/10/2013
Small Falls on a branch of Goodman Creek

#77 – Patterson Mt. 5/5/2018
Lone Wolf Meadow

#78 – Tire Mt. 6/8/2014
Wildflowers along the Tire Mountain Trail Wildflowers along the Tire Mt. Trail.

#79 – North Fork and Buffalo Rock 5/10/2020
Buaffalo Rock from the North Fork Willamette River Buffalo Rock from the North Fork Willamette River

#80 – Grasshopper Meadow 7/15/2017

#81 – Blair Lake and Wall Creek 6/11/2015
Beargrass meadow along the Blair Lake Trail.

#82 – Chuckle Springs 5/24/2020
Burned 2009 Tumblebug Complex
Indigo Springs (These springs have not burned.)

#83 – Spirt, Moon, and Pinard Falls 6/17/2020
Moon Falls

#84 – Brice Creek 5/5/2014
Upper Trestle Creek Falls

#85 – Bohemia Mt. 8/15/2020
Bohemia Mountain

#86 – Eddeeleo Lakes 8/25/2018
Lower Eddeeleo Lake

#87 – Waldo Mt. 9/7/2013
Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington, The Three Sisters and Broken Top from Waldo Mountain View from the Waldo Mountain Lookout.

#88 – Lillian Falls 8/30/2019

#89 – Fuji Mt. 10/6/2013
View from Fuji Mountain

#90 – South Waldo Lake 8/22/2015

#91 – The Twins 9/14/2019
View north from the south summit of The Twins

#92 – Rosary Lakes and Maiden Peak 9/3/2016
Pulpit Rock from Middle Rosary Lake

#93 – Salt Creek Falls 7/4/2013

#94 – Midnight & Yoran Lakes 10/18/2014
Yoran Lake

#95 – Diamond View Lake 8/22/2020
Diamond Peak from Diamond View Lake

#96 – Fawn Lake 9/22/2018
Huckleberry Bushes along Saddle Lake.

#97 – Divide Lake 8/24/2020
Notch Lake

#98 – Blue and Corrigan Lakes 8/23/2020
Diamond Peak from Corrigan Lake

#99 – Marie Lake and Diamond Peak 8/23/2020
Climbers trail to Diamond Peak Diamond Peak

#100 – Timpanogas Lake 9/17/2016
Sawtooth Mountain from Timpanogas Lake

In addition to the 100 featured hikes we’ve manged to add other hikes from Sullivan’s additional hikes located in the back of his book. In doing so we have also completed all 100 featured hikes in the 3rd edition and are just 2 hikes short of completing the 5th edition as well. There were 14 hikes from the 3rd edition that were not featured hikes in the 4th edition while the 5th edition contains 12 new featured hikes from the 4th edition (Three of these had been featured hikes in the 3rd edition.) Even with all of the hikes we’ve done, and the areas lost to fire in 2020 there are a number of trails in the Central Cascades we have yet to explore. We will continue to work those into our plans as we strive to explore as many different places as possible while we can.

Happy Trails!

Scout Lake and Mt. Jefferson

Tags Bull of the Woods Wilderness, Central Cascades, Diamond Peak Wilderness, hiking, Menagerie Wilderness, Middle Santiam Wilderness, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Mt. Washington Wilderness, opal creek wilderness, Oregon, Three Sisters Wilderness, waldo lake wilderness, William L Sullivan

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon

Banks-Vernonia State Trail – Buxton Trestle to Tophill Trailhead – 01/16/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 18, 2021
2 Comments on Banks-Vernonia State Trail – Buxton Trestle to Tophill Trailhead – 01/16/2021

We kicked off our 2021 hiking year by revisiting the Banks-Vernonia State Trail. We had run the entire trail in April 2014 as part of an ill fated marathon and I had hiked a short section between the Buxton Trestle and Manning Trailhead in April 2016 while Heather ran a half-marathon (post). We had used the marathon as our “hike” to check off hike #23 in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range”4th edition, but the Banks-Vernonia Trail was only part of a longer lollipop loop through L.L. Stub Stewart State Park that he describes. With this visit we planned on doing the rest of his described hike as well as continuing on to the Tophill Trailhead where we plan to someday start another section hike of the trail.

We began our hike at the Buxton Trailhead where I had started my 2016 hike as well.

From the far end of the parking lot we took a path down to Mendenhall Creek below the Buxton Trestle.

The path then took us up to the Banks-Vernonia State Trail where we turned right and crossed the trestle.

We followed the paved former railroad north approximately 3/4 of a mile into L.L. Stub Stewart State Park.
Leaving the Buxton Trailhead area.

Entering Stub Stewart State Park.

We continued through the park for another mile and a half passing two marked trails to the right before arriving at a third just north of Williams Creek

This trail was just north of Logging Creek and appeared to just loop back to the Banks-Vernonia Trail a bit further north.

The Caddywhomper Way(s) Trail was signed better. We skipped the viewpoint given the amount of fog/clouds and not wanting to add another 2 miles to the days total. The Oregonhikers field guide also mentions that there isn’t much of a view left due to the presence of trees.

Trail junction just north of Williams Creek

This was our first wrong turn of 2021 although it may have been correct back in 2016 when our guidebook was released. The map in the book showed a single trail splitting off to the right just beyond the creek so we turned down what turned out to be the Shoofly Trail.

After .2 miles we arrived at a signboard with a map (it would have been more helpful up at the junction).

It was here that we realized that it was the wrong trail and that the Hares Canyon Trail was just a tenth of a mile further north.

Since we were already down there we checked out Williams Creek stopping before the bridge which was clearly marked “no hikers”.

I say that it may have been the correct trail at one point because Sullivan’s description says that “after 100 feet a spur down to the right dead ends at the creek bank” and there was a closed fork up to the left that may have at one time been part of the Hares Canyon Trail. It wasn’t now though so back up we went to the Banks-Vernonia Trail where we continued north the the signed Hares Canyon Trail.

A barricade next to the trail had signs for active logging that was occurring Monday – Friday closing the trail on those days.

We headed up this trail through the forest where we ran into a pair of rough skinned newts.

We passed a signed junction with the Brookecreek Trail and then arrived at a new logging road three quarters of a mile from the Banks-Vernonia Trail.

There were no indications of where the Hares Canyon Trail went so we used the map to decide that it must be somewhere to our right and we followed the logging road a short distance before spotting an obvious trail splitting off of it.

The trail passed through a thinned forest before popping out on another logging road.

We stayed right on the road at junctions and dropped to another barricade at the Widowmaker Way Trail.

Sign for the Widowmaker Way and Harse Canyon Trails.

Passing through the logging operation was a bit depressing to be honest. We’ve been on several trails in the last year that have passed through active or recently logged areas and combined with the trails that we’ve lost to wildfires in the last few years and other trails that are being lost to lack of funding for maintenance it’s a bit of a bummer. Ironically this is all at a time when more people then ever are heading out to the trails overloading the most popular and causing issues with litter and human waste. Enough of the doom and gloom though and back to the hike.

The Hares Canyon Trail followed a roadbed of indeterminate age through a disc golf course arriving at a signboard in a mile marking the northern end of the Mountain Bike Area at North Caddywhomper Way.

No flowers yet but plenty of mushrooms and fungi.

The trails were well signed so it was easy to stay on the Hares Canyon Trail.

Comming up on North Caddywhomper Way

We turned left here following pointers for the Hares Canyon Trail until it crossed a service road (3/4 of a mile from the signboard).

At a junction on the far side of the service road we veered left following the Unfit Settlement View Trail and pointers for the Skycar View and Boomscooter Trail.

Wet webs in the trees.

We took a detour to the Skycar View despite the fog since it was only 150 yards away.

We returned to the Unfit Settlement View Trail and followed it downhill to a junction with the Boomscooter Trail where we turned right.

The Boomscooter Trail descended past Boomscooter Pond and ended in three quarters of a mile at the Banks-Vernonia State Trail.

Chatty squirrel

Sullivan’s description would have had us turn left here and return to the Buxton Trailhead but we turned right instead in order to visit the Tophill Trailhead. There were two reasons for this, one was that if we did do more sections of the trail in the future we didn’t want to have a non-hiked gap in between our section hikes, don’t know why but we prefer them to connect. The second reason was that the Tophill Trailhead had been the halfway point of the 2014 marathon which was also the point at which the train went off the tracks. The section of trail just beyond that trailhead was the only significant uphill of the whole route and we had thought walking it would keep it from doing too much damage, but we hadn’t planned on it being 20 plus degrees warmer that day than it had been during any of our training runs. None of us recovered after the hill and the remainder of the race included a lot of walking and cramping. We were both interested in revisiting that hill and seeing if it really was a bad as it had seemed that day.

It was about 2 miles to the Tophill Trailhead where we walked to Highway 26 then turned around and headed up the hill.
Passing over Highway 47 on the way to the Tophill Trailhead.

Orange jelly fungus on a tree.

Heading up from the hill from the less steep south side.

Highway 47 at the Tophill Trailhead.

The climb back up the couple of switchbacks was underwhelming. It made us work but it also reinforced that it wasn’t the hill that had done us in that day, it had been the heat. We followed the Banks-Vernonia Trail back to the Buxton Trailhead passing back through L.L. Stub Stewart State Park along the way. The trail was fairly busy by the afternoon with joggers, hikers, bikers, and a couple of equestrians enjoying the dry day (with a bonus sighting of blue skies).
Chestnut-backed chickadee

Pond along the trail.

Entrance road to Stub Stewart.

Back at the Buxton Trailhead

Bench at the Buxton Trailhead

We had expected the hike to be around 13 miles but our GPS (and time) put it at 15.5 miles. Although not the most exciting or dramatic hike there was a nice variety of sights and the trails (except for the area being logged) were in great to good shape. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Banks-Vernonia State Trail – Buxton to Tophill TH

Tags banks-vernonia state trail, Boomscooter Ponds, Boomscooter Trail, buxton trailhead, buxton trestle, Chestnut-backed chickadee, Harse Canyon Trail, hiking, Hilltop Trailhead, L.L. Stub Stewart State Park, Oregon, Shoofly Trail, Skycar View, Unfit Settlement Trail

Uncategorized

Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 12, 2021
9 Comments on Progress Report – Oregon Wilderness Areas – January, 2021 Update

Heading into 2020 we had plans to visit 5 of the 6 remaining wilderness areas in which he haven’t hiked (post), but 2020 had other plans. Plans to visit three of the areas were moved to another year and a fourth was pushed back from May to September. Flooding in February wiped out our plans to visit the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness which was the same trip that we had planned on visiting the Black Canyon Wilderness. Rearranging hikes due to COVID-19 pushed a visit to the Devils Staircase Wilderness back a year.

Plans for a Memorial Day weekend trip to Roseburg involving a hike in the Boulder Creek Wilderness were a COVID cancellation but we managed to fit the Boulder Creek hike into our Labor Day weekend plans (post).
Boulder Creek Wilderness sign

Boulder Creek Trail Ponderosa Pines in the Boulder Creek Wilderness

Looking up the Boulder Creek Valley Boulder Creek Wilderness

Boulder Creek

A July vacation to Lakeview and a visit to the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness (post) was the only visit that happened as planned.
Gearhart Mountain Wilderness sign

The Palisades in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness The Palisades

Gearhart Mountain

View from Gearhart Mountain Looking down from Gearhart Mountain

Meadow below Gearhart Mountain

Gearhat Mountain Looking up at Gearhart Mountain

Visiting these two wildernesses puts us at 42 out of the 46 accessible wilderness. The three areas mentioned above are again in our plans for this year as well as the Monument Rock Wilderness in eastern Oregon. With any luck 2021 will be a better year and we will be able to reach our goal, but if not there’s always next year. Happy Trails!

Tags Boulder Creek, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, Gearhart Mountian, hiking, Oregon, Wilderness

Hiking Uncategorized

Progress Report – 500 “Featured Hikes” – January, 2021 Update

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 10, 2021
9 Comments on Progress Report – 500 “Featured Hikes” – January, 2021 Update

In 2019 we posted about our goal to complete 500 “featured” hikes from William L. Sullivan’s “100 hikes” guidebook series. In 2020 we managed to complete the first of the books when we visited the Erma Bells Lakes (post) at the end of August. Ironically COVID-19, which caused so many issues for everyone this past year, was a big reason we were able to complete the Central Oregon Cascades book. Our original June vacation had already needed to be changed due to February flooding in the Blue Mountains but COVID kept us from taking a trip somewhere further away so we stayed home to do hikes closer by. In the end we wound up completing the 13 featured hikes that we had left from that book.

In all we were able to check off 37 featured hikes which included the 13 from the Central Cascades, 8 from NW Oregon, 7 from Eastern Oregon, and 9 from Southern Oregon. The one book that we didn’t make any headway with was the Oregon Coast. We did however visit Spruce Run and Lost Lake (post) which were two of the three hike options for the Lakes of the Coast Range (hike #12 4th edition).

Here is where we now stand at the end of 2020, having been on 401 of the 500 featured hikes:

100/100 – “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades” 4th Edition 2012

95/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range” 4th Edition 2016

94/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” 4th Edition 2018

60/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” 3rd Edition 2015

52/100 – “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Southern Oregon & Northern California” 4th Edition 2017

The Salmonberry Railroad Trail in the Coast Range continues to be closed which has caused us to rethink using Sullivan’s 4th edition of the coastal book and reverting to the 3rd edition. In that case we would only have completed 91 of the featured hikes but at least all 9 of those hikes are open and we actually have them all scheduled for the upcoming year.

In addition to possibly finishing one of the Oregon Coast books in 2021 the remaining hikes in the NW book are on the schedule for 2021 as well. We did push completion of the Southern book back a year to 2024 due to cancelling a September backpacking trip in the Sky Lakes Wilderness due to the massive wildfires in Oregon and California that month. The Eastern Oregon book is still on track to be completed by the end of 2025.

When I wrote in last year’s post “I’m sure there will be some twists and turns along the way, but eventually we hope to reach our goal.” I had no idea what 2020 had in store. We will continue to be flexible with our plans and make the most of the opportunities as they present themselves. Happy Trails!

Tags hiking, Oregon, William L Sullivan

Year-end wrap up

2020 Wildflower Gallery

While 2020 was a pretty good year for wildflowers we stuck relatively close to home save for a July trip to Lakeview and a couple of visits to the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness. That meant we didn’t get to many areas where the wildflowers are much different from what we see most years so we didn’t see many new types. Nevertheless we saw a wide variety of flowers throughout the year and some very colorful displays. We also took more urban hikes so some of the flowers weren’t native wildflowers.

Once again the first flowers we encountered were on our February hike.

Wood violet Violet

Manzanita

Skunk cabbage

Some type of violet at Trappist Abbey Violet

Purple deadnettle

Tree blossoms Blossoms on a tree

Red flowering currant

Western service berry

California poppy

A checkermallow

Perriwinkle

Cultivated radish

Vetch Vetch

Annual honesty Annual honest

Giant white wakerobbin

Camas Camas

Cow parsnip

Flowering bush near Morgan Lake Flowering bush as Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge

Red clover

Tough leaved iris Iris

Columbine

Indian plum

Tolmie's mariposa lily Tolmie’s mariposa lily

Thin-leaf pea

Giant blue-eyed Mary

Golden paintbrush

Plectritis

Meadow death camas

Purple sanicle

A mustard

Star flowered solmonseal Star flowered solomseal

Starflower

Yellowleaf iris

Valerian

Spotted coralroot

Timbleberry Thimbleberry

Hookedspur violet

Fairy slipper

Dogwood blossom Dogwood

Buck Brush - redstem ceanothus Buck Brush

Fairybells

Showy phlox

Honeysuckle

A pea and poison oak

Youth-on-age Yout-on-age

Monkey flower

Snow queen

Pale flax Pale falx

Wild ginger

Oregon grape

Candy flower

Striped coralroot

Bleeding heart along the North Fork Trail Bleeding heart

Strawberry

Maple blossoms Maple

Coastal manroot

Popcorn flower?

Collomia heterophylla - Variable Collomia Variable collomia

Western yellow oxalis

Salmonberry

Pacific waterleaf

Queen's cup Queen’s cup

Western buttercups

Foam flower

Chocolate lilies Chocolate lillies

Vanilla leaf

Arnica Arnica

Stonecrop

Tall bluebells

Anemones Anemone

Oregon geranium

Vetch and daisies

Common St. John's wort Common St. John’s wort

Douglas spirea

Lupine Lupine

Flower at McFadden's Marsh

Ookow Ookow

Yellow glandweed

Fringecup

Wild roses Wild rose

Inside out flower

Largeleaf sandwort

False solomonseal

Baneberry

<Sourgrass

Beargrass

Rhododendron

Subalpine mariposa lily

Trillium

Larkspur

Woodland stars

Royal Jacob's ladder Royal Jacob’s ladder

Nightblooming false bindweed

Alpine pennycress

Twinflower

Oregon sunshine

Bunchberry

Mountain ash

Raceme pussytoes

Phlox Phlox

Henline Mountain Trail Paintbrush

Rusty saxifrage

A penstemon

Salal Salal

Pyrola A pyrola

Tiger lilies along the Swordfern Trail Tiger lily

Gold threads

Self heal

Bachelor button

Possibly a willowherb A willowherb?

Pea A pea

Pink honeysuckle

Flower along the Row River Trail

Brodeia A brodeia

Scarlet pimpernel

Poppy A poppy

Foxglove

Hedgenettle

A phacelia

Swallowtail coming in for a landing Blackberry

Lupine Lupine

Flowers along the Estacada Lake Trail

Petunia Petunia

Western meadow-rue

Shooting stars and western buttercups

Elephants head

Pacific coralroot

Musk monkeyflower

Bastard toadflax

Yarrow Yarrow

A penstemon

Silverleaf phacelia

Washington lily

A buckwheat

Pinedrops

Balsamroot

Western hound's tongue Western hound’s tongue

Diamond Clarkia next to a big seedhead Diamond clarkia

California stickseed

Tiny flowers along the Green Ridge Trail

Scarlet gilia

Salsify Salsify

Sticky cinquefoil

Gooseberry

Thistle A thistle

A buckwheat

Blue-eyed Mary

Fawn lily

Sandwort

Olympic onion

Phlox A phlox

False sunflower

Bistort and paintbrush

Wallflower

A penstemon

Phantom orchid

A penstemon

A buckwheat

Tall buckwheat

Daisies Daisies

Streambank globe mallow

Wildflowers along the road to the Monte Cristo Trail

Pussytoes

Tapertip onion

White stemmed frasera

Wildflower on Monte Cristo

Prince's pine Prince’s pine

Goats beard

Sugarstick

A saxifrage

A lousewort

Pinesap Pinesap

A stonecrop

Clarkia Clarkia

Blue-head gilia

Wildflowers along the Pyramids Trail

Cone flower

Currant A currant

Wildflower along the road to the Riggs Lake Trailhead

Large boykinia

Bog orchid

Old man's whiskers Old man’s whiskers aka prairie smoke

A paintbrush

Sticky chickweed

Nettle-leaf giant hyssop

California corn lily

Musk thistle

Checker-mallow A checkermallow

Grand collomia

Rosy pussytoes

Scouler's woollyweed Scouler’s woollyweed?

An orobanche

Slender cinquefoil

Nuttall's linanthus Nuttal’s linanthus

Orange agoseris

Smooth stem blazing star

Rougheyelashweed Rough eyelashweed

A weed A weed

White water buttercups

Sagebrush mariposa lily

Tansyleaf evening primrose

Bees on dustymaidens Dustymaidens

A horkelia

Aster An aster?

Broomrape An orobanche

A paintbrush

Mountain coyote mint

Butterflies on rabbitbrush Rabbitbrush

Wildflowers at Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Wildflowers along the Warner Valley Overlook Loop

Butterflies on wildflowers in DeGarmo Creek

Spreading dogbane

Monkshood

Catchfly

Pussypaws

Swamp onion

A penstemon

Wildflower at Lake Abert Watchable Wildlife Area

Thistle A thistle

Common mullen

Beardtongue

Wintergreen

Monkeyflower

A lousewort

Wildflowers along the Killen Creek Trail

Lousewort and lupine

Mountain heather

White mountain heather White mountain heahter

False hellebore

Violets Violets

Wildflowers along the Pacific Crest Trail

Groundsel

A fleabane

Spirea A spirea

Gentian Gentian

A willowherb

Cutleaf daisy

Dwarf alpinegold

Jacob's ladder Jacob’s ladder

Fireweed

Monkeyflower

Butterfly on pearly everlasting Pearly everlasting

Drummond's anemone Drummond’s anemone

Wildflowers along the Blue Lake Trail

Ghost pipe

Madia Common madia

Goldenrod and other wildflowers along the Whitehorse Meadows Trail Goldenrod

Owls clover Owl’s clover

Wildflower along the Rattlesnake Mountain Trail

Flower along the 804 Trail

I’ve made my best effort to roughly identify the flowers that I could. Any help or corrections are more than welcome. Happy Trails!

Tags hiking, Oregon, wildflowers

Year-end wrap up

2020 Wildlife Gallery

Continuing a tradition that started a couple of years ago here are some photos of the wildlife that we spotted on our hikes in 2020. As always we kept our distance (thank goodness for the 30x zoom) and did our best not to disturb any of the critters. That being said there were several instances where they (mostly insects) chose not maintain social distancing.

As with 2019 (post) we’ll start out small and work our way up.

Ladybug

Ants on white tritelia

Beetles

Red beetle

Bug on a flower

California poppies

Bee on wallflower

Bee on a coneflower

Big fly

Millipede

Tent catapillers

Caterpillar

Woolley bear caterpillar

Pandora moth catapiller

Crab spider on a prince's pine

Wolf spider and babies

Bug on the bridge over Rat Creek

Grasshopper at Marie Lake

Cricket

Dragon fly

Snail

Snail on the North Fork Trail

Slug

Moth

Skipper

Butterfly on yarrow

Butterfly along the Green Ridge Trail

Butterfleis along DeGarmo Creek

Butterfly at Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Policecar moth and butterfly

Orange tip butterfly

Common wood nymph

Butterfly

Friendly butterfly

Butterfly

Butterfly on dustymaiden

Butterfly on Oregon sunshine

Tortoiseshell butterfly

Butterfly on self-heal

Mountain parnassian

Sheep moth

California Sister Butterfly at Natural Bridge

Lorquins admiral

Mourning cloak on clover

Butterflies and bees on wildflowers

Butterfly on the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Trail

Swallowtail

Swallowtail on a salmonberry blossom

Tadpoles

Frog in Blue Lake

Frog under Heather's daypack

Frog along the Highline Trail

Bull frog in The Mirror Pond

Rough skinned newt

Sagebrush lizard

Western fence lizard

Alligator lizard

Garter snake

Gopher snake

Hummingbrid

Wren

Small bird along Morgan Lake

Small bird at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Bird at Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Common Yellowthroat

Chickadee

Junco

House finch

American goldfinch

Sparrow

Rabbit and an golden-crowned sparrow This one is here for the golden-crowned sparrow.

Swallow

Cedar waxwings

Spotted towhee

Western tanager

Western bluebird

Western meadowlark

Horned lark

Blackbird

Red-winged blackbird

Yellow headed blackbird

Ouzel

Robin at Miller Woods

Varied thrush

Scrub jay

Gray jay

Stellar's jay

Clark's nutcracker

Woodpecker

Northern flicker

Killdeer at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Birds along the 804 Trail

Kingfisher

California quail

Rock dove

Band-tailed pigeons

Grouse

Bird at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Black necked stilt and a white faced ibis

Birds at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Surf scooters

Goldeneyes

Cinnamon teal pair

Pied-billed grebe family

American scooter

Harlequin ducks

Mallards at the pond in front of the SAIF building

Common merganser

Duck at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Duck at Milo McIver State Park

Family of Canada geese

Gulls and American avocets at Lake Abert Watchable Wildlife Area

American kestrel

Owl hiding in mostly plain sight There is an owl in this photo.

Osprey landing at the Salem Audubon Nature Reserve

Hawk

Hawk along the Whitehorse Meadows Trail

Bald eagle

White faced ibis

White pelicans

Cormorant

Egret

Great blue heron at McFadden's Marsh

Sandhill crane at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Chipmunk drying out on the rocks

Golden mantled ground squirrel

Ground squirrels

Squirrel with a cone

Squirrel at Riverfront Park

Marmot

Pika at Lower Erma Bell Lake

Rabbit

Rabbit at William L. Finely Wildlife Refuge

Jack rabbit

Bat at Wiley Camp

Cows near Government Harvey Pass

Coyote at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Deer at Miller Woods

Elk

Pronghorn

Happy Trails!

Tags hiking, Oregon, wildlfie

Hiking Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2020 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 2, 2021
3 Comments on The Hikes of 2020 – A Look Back

Well 2020 is officially over and I think nearly everyone is glad to see it go. It was a rough year for so many between COVID-19 costing lives and jobs and wildfires claiming homes and businesses. We were fortunate in that we were able to keep working throughout the year, stayed healthy, and were just slightly inconvenienced by the fires that impacted so many after Labor Day. The most traumatic event that we personally experienced was the loss of our eldest cat, Buddy (post) in January.

With all that going on during the year, hiking became a way to try and escape and yet it seemed nearly impossible not to feel the cloud that was 2020 hanging over everything. It certainly made for a “different” year of hiking. I made more changes to our planned hikes in 2020 than in any previous year. It wasn’t just COVID and fires that triggered changes either, flooding in the Blue Mountains east of Pendleton in February damaged Forest Service Roads and trails forcing us to cancel a planned June trip. We originally had 58 days of hiking planned (as of January 1, 2020) but we cancelled a September backpacking trip in the Sky Lakes Wilderness due to heavy wildfire smoke which left us ending the year with 52 days of hiking. Of those only 19 days consisted of hikes that were on the list on January 1, and just 9 wound up happening on the day originally scheduled (an additional two happened within a day of the original plan).

During those 52 days we spent 10 nights backpacking, stopped at 70 trails/trailheads, and 3 roadside waterfalls.
2020 hikes Hiker symbol = Trails/trailheads, yellow houses = campsites, purple binoculars = roadside waterfalls

This year saw no repeated hikes and just 18 days where we were on the same part of a trail that we had hiked in a previous year, roughly 34.5 out of the 586.7 miles that hiked. That meant a lot of new trails and sights for us. Two of the hikes, Gearhart Mountain (post), and Boulder Creek (post) were in wilderness areas that we had yet to make it to.
Gearhart Mountain Wilderness Gearhart Mountain

Boulder Creek

Here are just a few highlights from the places we visited over the year. (* denotes at least some of the area burned in a 2020 fire.)

January
Cobblestones along the beach at Cape Lookout State Park Netarts Spit

February
View from Spencer Butte Spencer Butte

Shotgun Creek

Horse Rock Ridge Trail Horse Rock Ridge

March
Morning at Miller Woods Miller Woods

Trappist Abbey

April
Camas Bush Pasture Park

May
Baskett Butte Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge

North Fork Willamette River

Little Luckiamute River

Old growth at Valley of the Giants Valley of the Giants

Indigo Springs

Rigdon Meadows

Pigeon Butte Trailhead Pigeon Butte

June
East Fork South Fork McKenzie River

Sullivan Creek Falls*

Henline Falls*

Bull-of-the Woods and Whetstone Mountain from the lookout site Henline Mountain*

Spirit Falls

Pinard Falls

Moon Falls

Memaloose Lake*

Echo Basin Trail Echo Basin

Hall House Fish Lake

View from the Green Ridge Trail Green Ridge*

High Ridge Trail Table Rock Wilderness* (The Riverside fire burned at least the access road and may have encroached into the SW portion of the wilderness.)

Mt. Adams from the Monte Carlo Trail Monte Carlo Trail

July
Hunchback Trail Hunchback Mountain

Meadow along the Pyramids Trail Meadow below the Three Pyramids

North Pyramid from Daly Lake Daly Lake

View from Winter Ridge Winter Ridge

Light Peak from Fence Pass Fence Pass

Beatys Butte from Flook Lake Flook Lake

Barnhardy Road Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge

Petroglyphs around Petroglyph Lake Petroglyphs along Petroglyph Lake

Waterfall on DeGarmo Creek DeGarmo Canyon

The Palisades in the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness (This was probably our favorite area of the year amid these rock formations.)

August
View from Sleeping Beauty Sleeping Beauty

Red Butte and Mt. Adams from the Highline Trail Highline Trail

Cottonwood Creek Falls (This was probably the sketchiest hike we’ve done.)

Mt. Thielsen* (The Thielsen Creek fire burned a small part of the trails in the area.)

The old Bohemia Post Office Bohemia Post Office

Diamond Peak from Diamond View Lake Diamond View Lake

Climbers trail to Diamond Peak Diamond Peak (The sketchiest hike we didn’t do.)

Diamond Peak from Karen Lake at sunset Karen Lake

Middle Erma Bell Lake

September
Mt. Bailey from the Dellenback Trail Diamond Lake

Rattlesnake Mountain from the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Trail Rattlesnake Mountain

View from the Spruce Run Creek Trail Spruce Run Creek Trail

October
Deep Lake Trail Indian Heaven Wilderness

Deschutes River with Grizzly Mountain in the distance Wildcat Canyon

National Creek Falls

Takelma Gorge

Hershberger Mountian Lookout Hershberger Mountain

Rabbit Ears

Rogue River at Natural Bridge Natural Bridge

Old lookout tower on Abbott Butte Abbott Butte Lookout

Wild Cherry Trail Forest Park

Upper Latourell Falls

Larch Mountain from Multnomah Basin Larch Mountain

November
McKenzie River

December
Sun rays through the trees Yachats

Not all of the trails were in the greatest of shape, an issue that is unfortunately becoming more common as the agencies that manage them often lack the funding to maintain them.
Blowdown over the Swordfern Trail Swordfern Trail

East Fork Trail under blowdown East Fork Trail

Blowdown over the Riggs Lake Trail Riggs Lake Trail

Hackleman Old Growth Trail Hackleman Old Growth Loop

Howlock Mountain Trail

Shale Ridge Trail continuing on the far side of the North Fork Middle Fork Willamette River Shale Ridge Trail

Acker Divide Trail covered by blowdown Acker Divide Trail

Union Creek Trail (it is straight ahead, really) Union Creek Trail

While we haven’t run out of new trails and areas to explore we are finding it harder to see wildflowers and wildlife that we haven’t already seen at some point but there always seems to be some. We spotted a bobcat for the first time (from the car) on our way to Winter Ridge (post). Lake Abert and Summer Lake hosted a few species of birds that we hadn’t run across before. (post) We plan on posting wildflower and wildlife galleries soon but for now here are those that were new to us this year.
Castilleja levisecta - Golden Paintbrush Castilleja levisecta – Golden Paintbrush at Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge (post)

Musk Thistle at Winter Ridge (Unfortunately it’s an invasive but they were impressive.)

Pandora moth catapiller Pandora moth caterpillar at Green Ridge (post)

Horned Lark at Flook Lake (post)

Gulls and American avocets at Lake Abert

Various birds including a white faced ibis and a black necked stilt Black necked stilt at Summer Lake

Frog under Heather's daypack Possibly a coastal tailed frog at Wiley Camp in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness (post)

The most interesting thing that happened this year though was stumbling on a human mandible. It was a little unsettling but it was clearly fairly old. We left it alone and marked the coordinates the GPS and reported it to the agency in charge of the land. The agency was nice enough to keep us in the loop when archeologists were called in to confirm that it was Native American at which point they contacted the appropriate Tribe(s) so that they could decide what to do with it. We were asked no to share the location for obvious reasons. It was very interesting getting to see how that process worked.

We also hit a couple of milestones this year, our last hike at Yachats (post) was our 500th day of hiking and we reached our long term goal of hiking all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Oregon Cascades” (4th edition). We will talk a little more about that in a progress report on our goal to finish the 100 featured hikes in all five of his guide books covered areas.

Despite all its troubles 2020 will at least be memorable. Here is to a better 2021 with more new trail, new discoveries, and hopefully some happier stories. Happy Trails!

Tags backpacking, Boulder Creek Wilderness, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, hiking, indian heaven wilderness, Mt. Adams, mt. thielsen, Oregon, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness

Central Coast Hiking Oregon Oregon Coast Trip report

Yachats – 12/05/2020

We ended our 2020 hiking year by hiking a section of the Oregon Coast Trail from Yachats to Waldport (and back). Our final outing of the year also marked the 500th day with a hike since an ill prepared jaunt at Silver Falls State Park in 2006 gave us the hiking bug (post). I was extra excited for this outing having just received a replacement for our camera and looking forward to trying it out.

We started our hike at Smelt Sands State Recreation Site where the 804 Trail doubles as the Oregon Coast Trail route.

We headed north on the trail which passed between the rocky shore of the Pacific Ocean and several hotels.

Looking back south as the sunrise paints the clouds.

A house on the cliffs.

After three quarters of a mile, and crossing the private driveway of the house pictured above, the trail descends to a 6.3 mile stretch of beach between Yachats and the mouth of the Alsea River at Waldport.

It was a beautiful morning, chilly but not too cold. A slight chance of rain was in the forecast after 10am but that bank of clouds looked far off on the horizon as we struck off on the sand.

Seagulls outnumbered people in the early part of the day.

We arrived at Starr Creek shortly after descending to the beach.

One of the trickiest parts of beach hiking can be trying to judge the depth of the various creek crossings using satellite maps. This section of beach contained several named creeks so we had come prepared for barefoot fording if necessary. Starr Creek was narrow enough though that we were able to hop across with the assistance of our hiking poles.

Continuing north we passed some banded cliffs where the ocean had created a small arch.

Beyond these cliffs the beach widened and we strolled along the hard packed sand looking for wildlife (both alive and not so much).

Vinge Creek, about a mile down the beach, was crossable on small rocks.

Geese flying overhead, we couldn’t make out what kind.

At first we thought there were two weather vanes on the houses, a whale on the right and a heron on the left.

It turned out to be a real great blue heron (but the whale was a vane).

Looking south toward Cape Perpetua (post)

View north.

Sunlight on the wave tops.

Sunlight bursting through the trees.

At Reynolds Creek (approximately 3 miles down the beach) we finally had to remove our shoes and socks for an ankle deep ford.

Wavy sand.

One of the most interesting sights came about 4.75 miles up the beach when we passed the “Big Stump“. The remains of an ancient redwood. The origins of the tree are unknown, it may have been part of an ancient redwood forest that was once present here or a transplant brought by the Pacific.

A mile beyond Big Stump brought us to a short section of grassy dunes at Governor Patterson Memorial State Recreation Site.

Cape Perpetua from the dunes.

Not far beyond Governor Patterson we spotted the Alsea Bay Bridge spanning the Alsea River.

Testing the 40 zoom feature on the Canon SX740HS.

We made our way to a driftwood log near the mouth of the Alsea and took a seat.
Heading for the log.

View from the log.

More testing of the zoom function. Seagulls on the near sandbar and seals on the one on the other side of the bridge.

It was a little after 10:15am when we started back. The bank of clouds offshore came creeping in as we made our way back to Yachats but rain never materialized. We spent much of our return trip watching seals and a few birds bob along in the surf. We also decided not to worry about letting our shoes get wet so we just went straight through the creeks on the way back and may have let the ocean get us once or twice too for good measure.
Looking at the dark cloud bank over the Pacific.

Seal

A little more cloud cover to the south over Cape Perpetua.

Seagull shaking it off.

More cloud action.

Cormorant

Reynolds Creek after fording.

Finally starting to feel like it could start raining soon.

The advancing line of clouds.

Another look at the arch.

A kingfisher near the stairs up from the beach.

December blossoms on salal along the 804 Trail.

The tide was further in as we passed the rocky shoreline on the 804 Trail creating some dramatic wave crashes.

If not for our bladders we could have sat on one of the many benches along the 804 and watched the waves crashing into the rocks for hours but the restrooms at Smelt Sands beckoned. The weather had held up nicely and the hike was an entertaining one with just enough wildlife and sights not to be a tedious beach walk. It also helped that the sand was packed well and we never felt like we were having to work hard walking over it. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Yachats

Tags 804 Trail, Alsea Bay, Big Stump. Smelt Sands, Governor Patterson Memorial, Heron, hiking, Kinfisher, Oregon, oregon coast trail, pacific ocean, Reynolds Creek, Vinge Creek, Waldport, Waves, Yachats

Hiking McKenzie River Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

McKenzie River Trail (Blue Pool TH south to NF-610) – 11/21/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date November 22, 2020
4 Comments on McKenzie River Trail (Blue Pool TH south to NF-610) – 11/21/2020

**Note a portion of the trail north of Deer Creek burned in the 2021 Knoll Fire.**

A combination of a day off, a favorable forecast and a need to drive to Bend to pick up some Christmas items provided the perfect excuse to check out a section of the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail. This would be our third hike on this 26.4 mile long trail, all on different sections (Tamolitch Pool and Clear Lake).

We started our hike at the popular Tamolitch Blue Pool Trailhead where we had also started our hike to the Blue Pool.

This time though we headed south (left) on the McKenzie River Trail away from the Blue Pool and the crowds that would surely be arriving later in the day (we were the 2nd car at the TH on this morning).

The Sun wasn’t quite up yet, and it was still under 30 degrees, as we set off on the trail.

The trail climbed a forested hillside and crossed a forest road above Trail Bridge Reservoir (2 miles from the TH).

Forest road crossing.

The trail then descended to Forest Road 730 and a crossing of Smith River which feeds into the reservoir.

Another brief climb followed before dropping down to the Trail Bridge Dam.

The top of Three Fingered Jack is visible in the distance.

We continued on the trail which now began to follow the McKenzie River more closely.

Fall means mushrooms.

There were a couple of opportunities to get down to the river bank which we took advantage of and just over a mile and a half from the dam we stopped to admire Olallie Creek joining the river.

Anderson Creek joining the McKenzie.

Olallie Creek across from the trail.

A half mile beyond Olallie Creek the river split leaving a large forested island briefly in its center.

Beyond the island the trail passed some rocky cliffs where icicles dripped before dropping to a crossing of Deer Creek at the 5.5 mile mark of our hike.

Turning up Deer Creek to reach the footbridge.

Shortly after crossing the creek the trail arrived at Deer Creek Road (NF 782) where there is parking for the trail and Deer Creek (aka Bigelow) Hot Springs. We knew the hot springs were somewhere along our route but we didn’t know for sure where until we got home after the hike. There was no sign for the small hot spring that sits along the river bank but we did see an obvious trail heading south down to the river here. Not knowing that the hot springs were down there we visited the bridge over the McKenzie and then continued on the McKenzie River Trail.
Up river from Deer Creek Road.

Deer Creek Hot Springs would be somewhere along the right hand side of the river.

The trail briefly climbed above the river before switchbacking down and arriving at Frissel Creek just over a mile from Deer Creek Road.

We had to go around this bridge due to frost and it being at an angle.

Footbridge over Frissel Creek.

We had planned to turn around between 10 and 10:30 at either the hot springs or Forest Road 610 which the trail briefly follows. Since we didn’t realize we’d passed the hot springs we wound up making FR 610 the turnaround which was approximately three quarters of a mile beyond Frissel Creek. We arrived at the road just after 10:30.
Sun over the McKenzie River

FR 610

We turned around at the road and headed back keeping our eyes open for any sign of the hot springs and any other things we missed on the first pass. We still didn’t realize that the hot springs were where they were but we did spot a lot more mushrooms and the tops of the Middle and North Sister on the way back.

We missed this sign for slough creek the first time by.

Missed this survey marker too.

We also completely missed this sign at Deer Creek.

Still cold

Without the use of the zoom on the camera they are hard to make out but the tops of the North and Middle Sister are visible over the hills.

The Garmin showed 14.6 miles for this out and back (Google maps had indicated it would be 13.4 miles) and there was between 800 and 1000′ of cumulative elevation gain. What climbs there were weren’t ever steep and didn’t last long. We encountered a half dozen other trail users but when we arrived back at the trailhead it was full and cars were stretched all they way down the road with people heading for the Blue Pool. It has become one of “those” hikes and is getting loved to death. After changing we drove to Bend for a quick visit with Heather’s parents and then headed back over the pass to Salem. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McKenzie River Trail

Tags Bigelow Hot Springs, Blue Pool, Deer Creek, Deer Creek Hot Springs, Frissel Creek, hiking, McKenzie River, McKenzie River National Recreation Trail, McKenzie River Trail, mushroom, Olallie Creek, Oregon, Smith River, Tamolitch Pool, Trail Bridge Reservior

Columbia River Gorge South Hiking Oregon Trip report

Latourell Falls and Larch Mountain – 10/31/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date November 1, 2020
4 Comments on Latourell Falls and Larch Mountain – 10/31/2020

We wrapped up our “official” 2020 hiking season on Halloween with a pair of hikes in the Columbia River Gorge. Latourell Falls and Larch Mountain were two of the remaining eight featured hikes we had yet to do from Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington”. We started our morning at Guy Talbot State Park for the short loop hike to Lower and Upper Latourell Falls. We arrived before 7:30am in an attempt to avoid the crowds that would likely be arriving later in the day which worked out as the only other car that was there when we arrived soon left. The downside was that the Sun was still working it’s way up leaving the conditions less than perfect for photos.

The loop starts at the trailhead with a paved path to the right leading down to the splash pool below Lower Latourell Falls and the left hand fork leading uphill .8 miles to Upper Latourell Falls. With the lack of light we chose to head for the upper falls first to let the Sun get a little higher before visiting the lower falls. Just over a quarter mile up the trail we arrived at a viewpoint overlooking Lower Latourell Falls.

There were a few more views of the falls as the trail continued to climb beyond the viewpoint.
20201031_073247_HDR

There was also a view across the Columbia River of Silver Star Mountain (post).

Above the lower falls the trail followed Henderson Creek up a narrow canyon to the upper falls.

This 120′ waterfall consists of an upper slide before the water turns sharply right through a chute before a final plunge into the splash pool.
20201031_075834_HDR

We crossed the creek on a footbridge below the splash pool then explored behind the falls under the basalt.

Beyond the falls the trail headed downhill on the opposite side of the creek.

After a half mile a short spur trail led downhill to a viewpoint above Lower Latourell Falls (the falls were not visible from here).

Silver Star Mountain in the background with the cliffs of Cape Horn (post) along the Columbia River.

After checking out the viewpoint we continued on the loop passing another viewpoint across the Columbia a short distance later.
Looking east down the Columbia River.

Looking NW across the Columbia.

Silver Star Mountain again.

The trail crossed Historic Highway 30 before dropping into the picnic area of the park then led under a bridge to the base of Lower Latourell Falls.

At 249′ Lower Latourell Falls is the 3rd tallest fall in the Columbia River Gorge. It was at the base of the falls that we finally crossed paths with other people. There was a pair of hikers and then a wedding party arrived for pictures.

We left the falls to the photographers and climbed back up to the trailhead. This loop is approximately 2.5 miles (a little more if you do any exploring) with 600′ of elevation gain.

We then drove west on Highway 30 toward Corbett, OR turning onto Larch Mountain Road which we followed for 11.6 miles to a sharp right hand corner. At the corner is a small pullout at a gated road which is where we were planning on starting our hike. There were already a couple of cars parked here so we continued 100 yards up the road to a small pullout on the right.
Looking down toward the corner from the small pullout on the right.

The official trailhead is located at the end of Larch Mountain Road and requires a NW Forest Pass. The upper trailhead also provides for a much shorter hike to the viewpoint atop Sherrard Point.

We walked along the shoulder of Larch Mountain road to the gate, checking the posted Forest Service notice regarding closures to make sure our planned route was indeed open.

All the trails along our route were indeed open so we started up the old roadbed following it for a little over a quarter mile to the Larch Mountain Trail.

The 6.8 mile Larch Mountain Trail runs between Multnomah Falls (post) and Larch Mountain. The trails around Multnomah Falls are currently closed or limited by reservation only due to COVID-19. A right turn uphill on the Larch Mountain Trail would have brought us to the upper trailhead in 1.5 miles while turning downhill to the left would also get us to Larch Mountain in approximately 5 miles. We turned left for two reasons, first Sullivan’s description has you go that way and second we wanted to give the Sun more time to get overhead in hopes of having a better view of Mt. Hood.

The Larch Mountain Trail dropped over 300′ in the next .4 miles before arriving at a junction with the Multnomah Creek Way Trail.

Multnomah Creek Way Trail.

We followed this trail downhill for .2 miles to a footbridge over Multnomah Creek.

After crossing the creek the trail turned uphill following the creek up into the Multnomah Basin.

Larch Mountain from Multnomah Basin

The trail climbed out of the basin and eventually joined an old roadbed as it wrapped around a ridge end.

Mt. St. Helens (behind some tress) and Mt. Rainier.

A little over 2.75 miles from the footbridge we arrived at a junction with the Oneonta Trail where we turned uphill to the right.

The Oneonta Trail followed the ridge uphill to Larch Mountain Road in .9 miles. Aside from a couple and their dog at the footbridge we hadn’t seen any other hikers until this stretch when we started to occasionally pass other hikers.

Signboard near Larch Mountain Road.

Larch Mountain Road from the end of the Oneonta Trail

We turned right and followed the road uphill a half mile to the upper trailhead.

From the parking lot we followed a paved path .2 miles to Sherrard Point.

Just a few of the steps up to Sherrard Point.

It had turned out to be a beautiful day and we had clear views of 5 Cascade volcanoes; Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson.
20201031_114918 Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams.

Mt. Hood

The Sun was just a bit of an issue when looking at Mt. Jefferson.
Mt. Hood with Mt. Jefferson to the right.

20201031_115249 Mt. Jefferson

One neat feature at Sherrard Point are the plaques identifying the mountains, their elevations, and their distance from the viewpoint.

View east from Sherrard Point.

After enjoying the view we headed down and took an unsigned right hand fork uphill to the picnic area.

From there we stayed right at forks heading downhill until we reached the Larch Mountain Trail at another unsigned junction near some old picnic tables.

We followed the Larch Mountain Trail downhill back to the junction with road bed where we had started our loop then followed the road bed back to Larch Mountain Road and our car.

We were expecting this hike to be about 6.5 miles with 1300′ of elevation gain but both of our GPS units had us a little over 7.5 miles. Regardless it was an excellent hike with a nice variety of scenery and some great views. We were pleasantly surprised that it hadn’t been too crowded at Sherrard Point allowing for plenty of space between people. It was a great way to end what has been the strangest hiking season that we’ve had yet. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Latourell Falls and Larch Mountain

Tags Guy Talbot State Park, hiking, Larch Mountain, Larch Mountain Trail, Latourell Falls, Lower Latourell Falls, Multnomah Basin, Multnomah Creek Trail, Oneonta Trail, Oregon, Sherrard Point, Upper Latourell Falls