Category: Oregon

Buckhorn Lookout – 06/15/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 23, 2023
3 Comments on Buckhorn Lookout – 06/15/2023

We had spent Wednesday wading through poison ivy along the Imnaha River on our way to Eureka Bar (post). Thursday’s hike promised to involve a lot less poison ivy even though the trailhead was less than four miles as the crow flies from the Cow Creek Trailhead where we’d parked the day before. This was because we would be starting over 4000′ higher in elevation at Buckhorn Lookout.

Before we made it to the lookout we stopped to watch a small herd of elk cross the road and run up a hillside.

At least one bull in the herd.

We parked at the lookout and checked out the view there first then walked back along the road 0.2-miles and turned right on Forest Road 780 for another 1.2-miles to a gate.
Buckhorn Lookout

Hells Canyon

Tolmie’s onion

Pale paintbrush

Larkspur, lupine, and northern mules ears.

Prairie smoke a.k.a. old man’s whiskers

Purple sticky geranium

Paintbrush

Parsley, larkspur, large flower triteleia, and Tolmie’s onion

Phlox

We could have driven the 1.2-miles on FR 780 to the gate but the road was not in good shape and after driving to Eureka Bar the day before we weren’t interested in another rough road.

Mallow ninebark

Arnica

Large flower triteleia

Gate at the end of the road.

Marker for the Nez Perce – Nee-Mee-Poo National Historic Trail.

The trail followed an old roadbed downhill 7.6-miles to Eureka Bar, but our plan was to go just 3.6-miles to what Sullivan refers to as the “Eureka Viewpoint”. The entire route was lined with wildflowers. The mixture and types changed as we lost elevation, over 1780′ in all, to the viewpoint.

Columbian lewisia

Seven Devils in Idaho

Lupine, yarrow, buckwheat, and scarlet gilia

Scarlet gilia

Elkhorn clarkia a.k.a. ragged robin

Another impressive scarlet gilia.

Paintbrush, lupine, phacelia, thistle, and scarlet gilia

Penstemon

A phlox

Scabland penstemon

Threadleaf phacelia

Penstemon

Paintbrush

Lark sparrow

Cedar waxwing

Elkhorn clarkia

Wallflower

Skullcap

Nettle-leaf giant hyssop

Monkeyflower and some tiny white flowers near a seep.

Buckwheat

Mylitta crescent

Rough eyelashweed

Looking back up the trail.

At Spain Saddle the road switched to the opposite side of the ridge.

Bush penstemon

Another type of penstemon

White spiraea

Manyflower tonella

Owl’s clover

Six tenths of a mile from Spain Saddle we detoured left along a fence to a viewpoint.
The viewpoint on the far side of the fence.

Boat on the Snake River.

Salsify

We continued on from the first viewpoint and wound up having to yield the trail to a few cows that were being herded up the trail. After the cowgirl convinced them it was safe to pass by us we resumed our downhill hike.

Bindweed

Thistle with bugs.

Clouds moving in behind us.

Prickly pear cactus

The only poison ivy we saw all hike.

Eureka Viewpoint ahead to the left.

Hairy goldenaster

Fleabane

Eureka Viewpoint

Looking back

Looking down

Clustered broomrape

The most exciting part of Eureka Viewpoint wasn’t the view. It was finding some prickly pear cactus in bloom.

As for the view the three small portions of the Snake River was visible below.

A very small part of the river is visible to the left and more to right.

As we rested at the viewpoint we got to looking around and realized that there was a common nighthawk sleeping on a nearby fence post.

After a good break we began the long climb back to the lookout. The forecast had been for mostly sunny skies but it had grown increasingly hazy all day and there were now even more clouds converging overhead. It didn’t rain so the cloud cover was welcome as it kept the temperature from getting too high. The haze, which was smoke from wildfires was more problematic as it really hindered the views and by the time we’d reached the lookout we couldn’t see nearly as much as we had that morning.
Here come the clouds.

We spotted a rock arch on the way up that we’d missed earlier.

A closer look at the arch.

Common wood nymph

Spotted towhee

Northern flicker

The only time we noticed the Imnaha River from the trail.

Butterfly near the seep.

Mountain parnassian on yarrow.

A painted lady butterfly.

Chipping sparrow

We could actually smell a little smoke at times on the way back.

Tiny trumpet

Hound’s tongue and roses

Cassin’s finch

Western bluebird

Western tanager

Western wood peewee

Hairy Indian paintbrush

Hoary balsamroot

Mountain bluebird

The view in the afternoon from the lookout.

This wound up being our favorite hike of the trip despite the views not being as clear as we would have liked, and is one we would certainly revisit given the chance. We’re pretty sure we saw at least 50 different species of wildflowers and the views were good even with the smoke and clouds. Round trip was 10.8 miles with almost 1800′ of elevation gain, almost entirely on the way back.

After driving back to Enterprise we cleaned up and headed to Terminal Gravity Brewing for a nice dinner with a view of the Wallowa Mountains. The next morning we would be leaving Enterprise and heading for Pendleton via the long way around the Wallowas so we could make three stops along the Snake River. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Buckhorn Lookout

Tags Buckhorn Lookout, enterprise, Hells Canyon, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, hiking, Nee-Mee-Poo National Historic Trail. Eureka Viewpoint, Nez Perce National Historic Trail, Oregon, Prickly Pear Cactus, Terminal Gravity Brewing, wildflowers

Hells Canyon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Eureka Bar – 06/14/2023

When I first planned out our trip to Enterprise it included five featured hikes that we’d yet to do: Buckhorn Lookout, Eureka Bar, Dug Bar, Hat Point, and Imnaha Falls. During the weeks leading up to this trip we removed Hat Point due to conflicting information on the status of Hat Point Road. Sullivan’s trail updates listed the road as closed until Summer 2023 and the Forest Service pages listed the Day Use Area as closed but the trailhead as open. I tried reaching out to the USFS for clarification, but they never responded so we swapped that hike with a planned 2024 visit to Hells Creek Reservoir and Dam (two featured hikes).

The next change came when we decided to try and combine Eureka Bar and Dug Bar into a single day versus an overnight stay at Dug Bar. The original plan was to do a 10-mile hike at Eureka Bar then drive to Dug Bar where we could tent camp and do an 8.6-mile hike to Deep Creek the next day before driving back to Enterprise. This was due to the reportedly poor road conditions between Imnaha and the Cow Creek Trailhead (Eureka Bar hike) and even worse road between the Cow Creek Trailhead to Dug Bar. These 15-mile and 11.4-mile stretches of road were said to take a full hour each to drive so why drive the first stretch twice if we didn’t have to. Re-reading the description of the Dug Bar hike in preperation for the trip caused me to rethink this plan since Sullivan’s description of the Dug Bar hike included a one-mile stretch of trail wading through patches of poison ivy. He listed a shorter 1.2-mile option stopping at a viewpoint after only 0.6 miles which sounded much more appealing. This would also be short enough to add to the 10ish miles at Eureka Bar and still be a manageable distance for a single day.

With the new plan in place we left Enterprise and headed for the Cow Creek Trailhead. The road was pretty much as advertised taking an hour to get between Imnaha and the trailhead. The first mile was by far the worst section, but the entire 15-miles were tedious.
Cow Creek Bridge at the Cow Creek Trailhead.

Garbage can at the trailhead.

Before we even set out we were having doubts about Dug Bar. When we arrived there was a herd of cows being driven down Dug Bar Road and a van with bicycles on the far side of the Imnaha River. Driving that road already wasn’t appealing and the idea of encountering cattle or cyclists didn’t make it any better. That was a problem for later though and we set off on a faint trail heading for a trail sign in the distance.

At the sign we turned right on the Imnaha Trail.

We followed this trail 4.2 miles to the Snake River at Eureka Bar. Sullivan mentioned stepping around poison ivy that, along with blackberry bushes, often crowded the trail. As it turned out the brush didn’t just crowd the trail, it had taken over the trail in places. We hacked our way through the non-poison ivy vegetation and relied on our long pants to keep the sea of poison ivy at bay.
Penstemon along the trail.

Geese on the river.

Cliff swallows

Moth mullein

Hawk

Showy milkweed

Prickly pear cactus

Heading into a brushy area.

Rose

Lorquin’s admiral

We were on the lookout for rattlesnakes but didn’t see any (until one crossed the road on the drive back to Enterprise), but I did see three of what I believe were rubber boas.
Can you spot the snake?

The snake heading off the rocks into the brush.

While we fortunately didn’t encounter too many snakes there were hundreds of large crickets.

I cleared this section of trail.

Sumac along the trail.

The only marker that Sullivan mentioned along the trail was this pillar on the right at the 2.8-mile mark.

Painted lady

St. John’s wort and poison ivy.

Skullcap

Becker’s white

Our first view of the Snake River.

One of several reminders of the mining town at Eureka Bar in the early 1900’s.

The Mountain Chief Mine across the Imnaha River.

The Snake River

Chuckar in the brush across the Imnaha River.

Eureka Bar

We followed the trail along the Snake River to a trail post near Eureka Creek. At one time 2000 people lived in this area but after a sternwheeler carrying machinery for a gold processing mill crashed and sank, investors pulled out and the town disappeared.
Skipper on common bugloss.

Imnaha River emptying into the Snake.

Blanketflower

Bindweed

Sagebrush mariposa lily

Another sagebrush mariposa lily

Fleabane

Stones where the gold processing mill was going to be.

Long-leaved ground-cherry (Physalis longifolia)

Orange globe-mallow

Our turnaround point.

Another mariposa lily

Ruins at Eureka Bar.

Common merganser

We returned the way we’d come. It felt like there was somehow more poison ivy on the way back.
A prickly pear cactus near Eureka Bar.

Green cricket on poison ivy.

Lazuli bunting

Mourning cloak

We missed all of these prickly pear cacti on the first pass.

Arriving back at Dug Bar Road.

This hike ended up being 10.8 miles with 350′ of elevation gain.

On the way back to the trailhead we decided that we would not be doing Dug Bar on this day. It was already hot and we’d had enough of the poison ivy. It was also later than we’d expected due to slower hiking caused by the brushy trail. Sullivan had also removed Dug Bar from the featured hikes in his most recent “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” guidebook so we could switch editions and not have to make it back in order to complete our 100 hike goal. Making that switch did mean that there were several other hikes that we’d done that were now no longer featured hikes and we’d have to add some new ones to our plans over the next year and a half to still be on track to finish by the end of 2024.

We wiped off our poles and clothes as best as we could and hoped that we had managed to avoid any exposure to the poison ivy. As of Monday the 19th we both seem to be in the clear. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Eureka Bar

Tags Cow Creek Trailhead, Eureka Bar, Hells Canyon, hiking, Imnaha River, Imnaha River Trail, Mountain Chief Mind, Oregon, Prickly Pear Cactus, Snake River

Hiking Oregon Trip report Wallowas

Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Site – 06/13/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 21, 2023
No Comments on Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Site – 06/13/2023

After Monday’s round of afternoon/evening thunderstorms we wanted to make sure we weren’t out hiking during Tuesday’s forecasted storms. We had decided to play it safe and make Tuesday a light hiking day mixed with some sightseeing in Joseph, OR. We had hoped to start with breakfast from Sugar Time Bakery but it wound up being closed all week so we ate in the room and then drove to Joseph and parked at the Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Site.

A short series of trails here offer views of the Wallowa Mountains and sits adjacent to the National Park Service’s Old Chief Joseph Gravesite.

The trail set off uphill gaining views of the mountains.
Lupine along the trail.

Interpretive sign along the trail.

Second from the left is Dug Peak, the pointy peak is Sawtooth Peak, and the round peak to the right is Hurricane Point.

The trail descended from the hill and leveled out along some trees.

Yellow warbler

Brown-headed cowbirds

The trail split near Knight’s Pond where we turned left and crossed Silver Lake Ditch.

On the far side of the ditch we spotted a couple of bucks on the hillside.

The trail climbed again past a bench then descended to another parking area along Highway 351.

Hounds tongue

Death camas

Oregon sunshine

Bench with a view of Point Joseph behind.

Sunflowers yet to bloom.

Fiddleneck

Descending to the highway.

We followed a bike/pedestrian path along the highway for a tenth of a mile to the entrance to the Nez Perce National Historic Park Cemetery.

Old Chief Joseph’s gravesite. His original grave near Wallowa, OR had been looted twice before he was moved here in 1926.

Wallowa Lake beyond the gravesite of Martha and Frank David McCully.

After paying our respects we returned to the Iwetemlaykin Heritage Area and returned to the junction near Knight’s Pond where we turned left past a beautiful reflection.

A sightseeing robin.

Butterfly on the trail.

Western stoneseed

Before looping around the pond and returning to our car we detoured on a spur trail to Farmer’s Ditch at the South Main Street Entrance.

Farmer’s Ditch

View from the South Main Street Entrance.

Passing back by Knight’s Pond.

Some uplift action on the clouds from the trailhead.

This was a 2.5-mile hike with maybe 200′ of elevation gain. We saw lots of birds and three deer during our outing and had some wonderful mountain views.

It was just a little after 9am when we finished so we drove back into downtown Joseph and parked at a public lot. We figured most places wouldn’t be open until 10am but we thought we could walk around and see what was there and enjoy the numerous art pieces around town in the meantime. Little did we realize that many (most) stores and restaurants were closed on Tuesday’s including the Wallowa County Museum. The lack of open storefronts combined with a bunch of sidewalk construction taking place cut our sightseeing short. Instead we drove back to our room in Enterprise and relaxed for a few hours before heading back to Joseph in the afternoon for an early dinner at Embers Brew House which was open on Tuesdays. Not quite the way we’d imagined the day going but we made it work and felt refreshed ahead of what promised to be the most stressful drive/hike(s) of our trip on Wednesday. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Area

Tags Embers Brew House, enterprise, Farmer's Ditch, hiking, Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Area, Jospeh, Knight's Pond, Nez Perce National Historic Park, Old Chief Joseph's Gravesite, Oregon, Silver Lake Ditch, Wallowa Mountains, yellow warbler

Hiking Oregon Trip report Wallowas

Imnaha Falls – 06/12/2023

Our arrival in Enterprise coincided with the arrival of a couple of days with forecasted afternoon thunder storms. We did some rearraigning of the order of our hikes to avoid the storms and decided on Imnaha Falls as our Monday hike. We began at the Indian Crossing Trailhead located in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.
Indian Crossing Trailhead

Imnaha River at the trailhead.

There were quite a few wildflowers blooming at the trailhead.
Jessica’s stickseed

Hooked spur violet

Woodland star

Valerian

Arnica

We took the South Fork Imnaha Trail #1816 following pointers for Blue Hole and Twin Lakes.

Violets

We passed a pack station in the forest on our right.

Ballhead waterleaf

Lupine along the trail

Anemone

Western meadowrue

We passed a trail sign at junction with a spur trail joining from the pack station and soon after we entered the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

Paintbrush along the trail.

Larkspur, lupine, and Jessica’s stickseed

After three quarters of a mile we entered a previously burned forest where the views opened up some.

Chipmunk

A nice patch of lupine.

Snow patches high up on the ridge.

The Imnaha River below the trail.

One of many small unnamed stream crossings.

Large-flower triteleia

A ponderosa pine that survived the fire.

Robin

One of several types of penstemon along the trail.

We were just sure that there should be elk, deer, or a bear down along the river here.

There were quite a few of these millipedes in the trail.

In some cases the creeks had taken over the trail.

Cinquefoil

A brushy section of the trail.

Tall bluebells

Two-tailed tiger swallowtail

At the two-mile mark we came to a signed junction for Twin Lakes Trail and Blue Hole where we detoured left.

We followed this trail downhill for a tenth of a mile to an impassable ford of the Imnaha River just below the Blue Hole.

The river was running high still so we couldn’t get a view of Blue Hole from the ford. Instead we climbed the rocks which squeeze the river through a narrow gorge before it empties into Blue Hole.

Blue Hole, not exactly blue this time of year due to the amount of silty snowmelt water swelling the river.

Wildflowers above the gorge.

The Imnaha emerging from the gorge into Blue Hole.

After a nice break at Blue Hole we returned to the South Fork Imnaha Trail and continued further into the wilderness.
Arnica along the trail.

Coming up on a small stand of aspen.

A rockcress

Juba skipper

Roundleaf alumroot

Painted lady on Oregon sunshine.

Glacier carved rock outcrops provided some excellent views and good habitat for wildflowers.

Scabland penstemon

Paintbrush

Not a flower but very colorful.

Bush penstemon

Western tanager

Western blue clematis

Brown creeper on a tree trunk.

Left is Marble Mountain and to the right further back is Honeymoon Summit.

Larkspur along the trail.

Heartleaf springbeauty

Another flooded section of a the trail.

Western tiger swallowtails on chokecherry.

Dreamy duskywing

Threeleaf lewisia

We were too late for the Brown’s peony blooms.

Balsamroot and paintbrush

Three and a third miles beyond the Twin Lakes Trail junction we left the trail to see another gorge.

On the opposite side, with a series of drops, is Rock Creek flowing into the Imnaha.

The Imnaha River leaving the gorge.

Rock Creek cascading down through the forest.

After another short break we returned to the trail and continued another third of a mile where we left the trail again to find Imnaha Falls.

Another creek cascading down.

Marble Mountain

Twinberry honeysuckle

Marsh violet

Rock outcrop above Imnaha Falls

The 8′ Imnaha Falls was difficult to get a good view of. There was a large gap in the rocks that I eventually had to climb down into and out of to get to the edge of the rock outcrop above the river.
I tried going down river first to see if I could get a view back up to the falls, but the water level was into the brush along the riverbank.

The falls were just upriver from this bench with a couple of campsites.

The gap in the outcrop.

Imnaha Falls.

The falls were more of a rapids which might have been caused by the volume of water this time of year.

We took a final break on the rocks here and then headed back toward the trailhead. We kept a lookout for any flowers we’d missed on the first pass.
Utah honeysuckle

Bee on a dandelion

Nettle-leaf giant hyssop

Slender phlox

Silverleaf phacelia

Vetch

Diffuse-flower evening-primrose surrounded by blue-eyed Mary.

Osprey, the fishing here must have been good because we’d seen a bald eagle in this area in the morning.

Fairy slipper

Arriving back at the trailhead.

We saw three other people on the return to the trailhead. The first gentleman we encountered asked us how far it was to the lakes. He’d already passed the Twin Lakes Trail, not that he could have forded the river there, and the next closest lake was probably Fish Lake which was a good 7-8 miles away. We let him know that there weren’t any lakes nearby but that Imnaha Falls was a couple of miles further along the trail. He didn’t have much with him but he continued on after looking at the gathering clouds and saying he thought he had time to make it there. The next couple we passed after Blue Hole and they didn’t appear to be carrying any type of food, water, or gear. The number of unprepared and uninformed people we pass on trails really makes us wonder how there aren’t more rescues/deaths every year.

Our hike came in at 12.2 miles due to some extra exploring along the river with approximately 800′ of elevation gain.

We drove back to Enterprise, got cleaned up, and headed out for an early dinner. When we opened the motel room door we were greeted by a heavy rain shower. We had planned on eating at Terminal Gravity Brewing but when we got out of the car a lightning bolt immediately followed by thunder convinced us that outdoor dining was not a good idea at the moment. We decided to save Terminal Gravity for later in the week and instead got some tasty Pad Thai to go from Thai Enterprise and took it back to our room where we listened to the evening thunderstorms roll past.

Tuesday’s forecast was for more of the same with a slightly higher chance for showers so we’d planned to do a short hike in the morning followed by some time sightseeing in Joseph. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Imnaha Falls

Tags Blue Hole, eagle cap wilderness, enterprise, Gorge, Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, hiking, Imnaha Falls, Indian Crossing Trailhead, Oregon, Rock Creek, South Fork Imnaha River Trail, Twin Lakes Trail, wildflowers

Blue Mountains - North Hiking Oregon Trip report

Hat Rock State Park to McNary Beach – 06/11/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 19, 2023
No Comments on Hat Rock State Park to McNary Beach – 06/11/2023

We used our second extended vacation of the year to continue our quest to complete 100 featured hikes from William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” edition 3rd edtion (post). Heading into 2023 we had done 79 out of the 100 featured hikes and had planned to check off five more on this trip to Enterprise, OR. On the way to Enterprise, a 7 1/2-hour drive from Salem, we stopped at Hat Rock State Park. We had originally planned for this stop to be a quick leg stretcher and just hike the mile loop passing Hat Rock, but a couple of late changes to our planned hikes for the remainder of the week reduced our milage so we extended our visit by hiking the Lewis and Clark Commemorative Trail to McNary Beach. This was not one of Sullivan’s featured hikes but the Lewis and Clark Trail is covered in his additional hikes under the Columbia River Railroad.

There are several large parking areas in the park and we wound up parking near the picnic area.

We took a paved trail on the opposite side of the parking lot from the picnic area which climbed up to another parking lot and trailhead.

The parking area at the trailhead.

Signboards at the trailhead.

Trail map.

We headed counterclockwise on the loop which quickly brought us to Hat Rock.

The basalt feature is part of the Columbia Basalt eruptions, a series of lava flows that left basalt a mile thick in some places.

We continued on the loop detouring to a bench overlooking a pond.

Beyond the viewpoint the trail descended to a junction along the pond. Here we turned right which took us across a footbridge to a boat ramp.

Lake Wallula from the footbridge.

We crossed the parking lot at the boat ramp to a continuation of the trail which led uphill to the Lewis and Clark Commemorative Trail.

Eastern kingbird near the boat ramp.

Post ahead marking the junction with the Lewis and Clark Trail. There is also a deer below the cliffs ahead.

Zooming in on the doe.

We turned right on the Lewis and Clark Trail. The former railroad grade follows the shore of Lake Wallula on the Columbia River. The lake is created by the McNary Dam which was visible near the western end of the trail near McNary Beach.

Lake Wallula

We followed the trail a total of 4.8 miles to McNary Beach where we took a short break at a shaded picnic table. While the scenery didn’t change much the views were good and there were lots of birds along the way filling the air with their songs.
Raven with an egg it had snatched from some other bird.

Broad-leaved pepperweed (invasive)

Initially there were some houses on the left, but they gave way to the Wanaket Wildlife Area.

Most of the balsamroot was long past done but a few late blooms remained.

Dove

A fleabane

Swallow

Patterns on Lake Wallula

Western meadowlark signing from atop the cliffs.

Sign for the Wanaket Wildlife Area

Lark sparrow

Box Canyon

There were a couple of small hills but over all very little elevation gain.

Another western meadowlark.

Cormorant

Mallard

Showy milkweed and a bunch of bees.

Trail sign near McNary Beach

Our rest stop.

We returned to Hat Rock State Park the way we’d come.
Caspian tern

Hawk

Gray hairstreak on tall tumblemustard

Becker’s white also on tall tumblemustard.

Boat Rock to the left and behind Hat Rock from the Lewis and Clark Trail.

We recrossed the footbridge and followed the path along the pond to complete the loop back to the picnic area.

One of these is not like the others.

We ate lunch at a table in the picnic area before getting back in the car and driving to Enterprise. Our hike here came in at 10.9 miles with approximately 200′ of elevation gain.

The trail is mostly exposed to the Sun so it got a little warm but overall it was a pleasant hike. We only saw a hand full of others on the trails but there were plenty of people at Hat Rock Park itself and a fair number at McNary Beach. This was a good kick-off hike for our trip and we looked forward to more eastern Oregon scenery to come.

Two days after our visit (Tuesday 6/13) the Hat Rock Fire started near the SE corner of the park at the Highway 730/Highway 37 junction. Fortunately the fire spread away from the park. The fire is now 100% contained but it grew to over 16,800 acres before containment occurred. Happy (fire free) Trails!

Flickr: Hat Rock State Park

Tags Boat Rock, Columbia River, Hat Rock, Hat Rock Fire, Hat Rock State Park, hiking, Lake Wallula, Lewis and Clark Commemorative Trail, McNary Beach, Oregon, Wanaket Wildlife Area, Western Meadowlark

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Riley Ranch Nature Preserve to Tumalo State Park – 05/29/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 2, 2023
1 Comment on Riley Ranch Nature Preserve to Tumalo State Park – 05/29/2023

On our way home from Bend we wanted to get one more hike in and had decided on exploring the Riley Ranch Nature Reserve. There are a little under 3 miles of trail at the Reserve, but a trail along the Deschutes River connects the Reserve with Tumalo State Park making a longer hike possible.

We chose to start at the Reserve trailhead primarily due to Tumalo State Park being a fee park. The Reserve is open sunrise to sunset so we arrived early (5:20am) to try and get a jump on the crowds and our drive home.

Mt. Bachelor (post) in the morning.

We stopped at the trailhead signboard to finalize our route for the day.

We planned to stay right on Juniper and Sage Flat Loops and take the Robin’s Run down to the Canyon Loop. For the Canyon Loop we decided to go left first to hike along the Deschutes River to the Tumalo State Park Day Use Area. On our way back we would complete the Canyon Loop and stay right on the Sage Flat and Juniper Loops.
The start of the Juniper Loop.

Similar to the Metro Parks we’ve recently visited there were small maps on the trail pointers here.

Middle and North Sister

We spotted our first deer of the day amid the sagebrush in the distance.

Blurry shot of the deer.

We detoured 40 yards to the Ben Newkirk Mountain Overlook where we saw a rabbit and some mountains.

Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters.

Rabbit

Mt. Bachelor and Tumalo Mountain (post)

Ball Butte

Broken Top (post)

South Sister (post)

Middle and North Sister

After checking out the overlook we continued on the Juniper Loop and spotted a second rabbit

We passed by the shared Juniper/Sage Flat Trail and continued on the Sage Flat Loop.

Sageflat Loop

We turned right on the dirt Robin’s Run Trail which led fairly steeply downhill to the Canyon Loop.

Threadleaf phacelia

Turning left on the Canyon Loop quickly brought us to the Deschutes River.
Balsamroot along the Deschutes.

The trail follows the river with occasional “official” river access points marked by posts.

After 0.4 miles on the Canyon Loop we came to an unmarked spur trail that led to the top of a rock outcrop with a bench.

Robin

Longhorn plectritis

Blackheaded grosbeak

Heather waited below while I climbed the outcrop.

The bench on top.

The top of the outcrop.

As I headed back down to Heather I encountered a deer about 30 yards from her that she hadn’t seen.

We continued along the river looking for wildlife and wildflowers.

Western stoneseed

Larkspur

I spotted something head into the river from the grass on the near bank here.

I spotted the grass moving before the animal below which turned out to be a beaver.

Beaver in the Deschutes River.

We stayed straight when the Canyon Loop turned inland. There are two cabin ruins in this area, one just a bit further along the loop and the other was just ahead on the trail along the river.
We followed the pointer for Tumalo State Park.

Cabin ruins

It was nearly 2 miles from the cabin ruins to the day use area at Tumalo State Park.

Western wallflower

Lupine

Another river access point.

Rockcress, possibly sicklepod.

The northern boundary of the Riley Ranch Nature Reserve.

Threadleaf phacelia

Tumalo Creek (post) flowing into the Deschutes River.

While we were admiring Tumalo Creek we spotted a bird high up in a snag on the far side of the river.

It turned out to be a Lewis’s woodpecker, one of the prettiest woodpeckers in Oregon.

Crossing into Tumalo State Park.

One of the neatest features along the trail was a long footbridge crossing over some boulders along the river.

Magpie

Paintbrush

Mallards

Penstemon

A quarter of a mile from the day use area we crossed a road leading to a private bridge crossing the river.

Remains of another bridge in the river.

Tumalo State Park Day Use Area

It was fun to see the day use area. In my school days some friends and I occasionally camped in the park and spent time fishing and swimming in the river.

Deschutes River at the day use area.

After reminiscing at the day use area we headed back. We kept our eyes out for more wildlife and were rewarded with a few more species of birds.
Kingfisher on the bridge remains. (A bit blurry due to being a long way off.)

A swallow and a pygmy nuthatch.

Pygmy nuthatch

We turned left onto the Canyon Loop and immediately arrived at the other cabin ruins.

Bench along the Canyon Loop.

Northern flicker

As we neared the junction with Robin’s Run we could hear a large group of trail runners making their way down.
We were distracted enough by the runners that we failed to notice the deer bedded down to the right of the trail. You can see its ears sticking up here.

We waited at the junction for the group to descend and while we were standing there we finally noticed the deer.
There were at least four deer hanging out here.

After the trail runners passed by we climbed back up to the Sage Flat Trail and turned right. After just under 500′ we came to a spur trail to the Canyon Overlook where we made a quick detour.
The Sage Flat Loop Trail.

Spur to the Canyon Overlook.

Death camas

Mt. Bachelor and Tumalo Mountain

Mt. Jefferson

We returned to the Sage Flat Loop and continued passing a few Lewis flax blossoms before arriving at another spur trail to the Sage Flat Overlook.

Lewis flax

Marker for the Sage Flat Overlook.

We skipped this overlook, primarily because I went right when the overlook was to the left but given the time of day we would have been looking directly toward the Sun.
Looking back at where the Sage Flat Overlook was.

Next up was the River Viewpoint which was just off the Sage Flat Loop to the right.

Lizard near the River Viewpoint.

After looking at the river one last time we continued on the Sage Flat Loop which then became the Juniper Loop bringing us back to the trailhead.
The Cascade Mountains

Black Crater (post) and Mt. Washington

Finishing up the Juniper Loop.

Our hike came to 7.3 miles with 350′ of elevation gain.

This was a nice, convenient hike to finish off the weekend. The early start allowed us to be finished before 9:30am which put us ahead of the bulk of holiday traffic. We made it home nice and early giving us plenty of time to catch up with the cats. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Riley Ranch Nature Reserve

Tags Bend, Broken Top, Canyon Loop Trail, Canyon Overlook, deer, Deschutes River, hiking, Juniper Loop Trail, Lewis Woodpecker, Mt. Bachelor, Oregon, Riley Ranch Nature Reserve, River Viewpiont, Robbin's Run Trail, Sage Flat Loop Trail, The Three Sisters, Tumalo Creek, Tumalo State Park

Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Criterion Tract – 05/28/2023

Post author By yunckrunner
Post date June 1, 2023
2 Comments on Criterion Tract – 05/28/2023

Knowing that trails would be busy over the holiday weekend we looked for an option that might provide some solitude and turned to another Matt Reeder hike at BLM managed Criterion Tract (BLM map). Reeder features this hike in his “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook and lists April as the best time to visit. His reasoning is that April to early May is the usually the peak wildflower blooms. With this years blooms running a couple of weeks late we hoped that Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t be too late. I couldn’t find any information other than the map linked above on the BLM website but in addition to Reeder’s entry there is a route featured in the Oregonhikers.org field guide and Sullivan features a route starting along the Deschutes River in his 2022 “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” guidebook (not the edition we are using for our quest of his featured hikes).

While there are several possible access points we started at the Criterion North Trailhead.

Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from the trailhead which is the high point of the hike.

Mt. Hood

The “trails” here consist of old jeep tracks that are closed to motorized use (other than BLM administrators) and not maintained so some have become faint. We passed through a green gate and onto what the Oregonhikers.org map shows as Criterion Crest Road.
Cattle sometimes graze in the area and the combination of their hooves with the unmaintained roads makes for some pretty rough surfaces.

Reeder has you follow this road for nearly four miles before turning downhill through a gate at a faint 4-way junction. He doesn’t mention any other markers along the way but the road passes under a set of power lines, followed by another gate, then the power lines again, a third gate, and passes an abandoned trailer before reaching the 4-way junction. Mountain views stretched from Mt. Bachelor to the South to Mt. Adams in Washington to the North. We saw plenty of wildflowers and a lot of birds as well as deer and elk sign, but we didn’t see any hooved mammals (including cows thankfully).

Rough-eyelashweed. There was a lot of this blooming along the road.

A couple of lomatiums.

Howell’s milkvetch

Idaho milkvetch

Western meadowlark

A buckwheat

Carey’s balsamroot

Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top and the Three Sisters

Lupine

Bumble bee on Howell’s milkvetch

Lark sparrow

We spent a lot of time heading toward Mt. Hood.

Sparrow?

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood

We were a little too late for the large-head clover.

Western meadowlark giving a performance.

The third gate with Mt. Hood in the distance.

Yarrow

Phlox

The Deschutes River winding through the valley below.

Rough eyelashweed and lupine with Mt. Hood behind.

Caterpillar

Lupine with Mt. Jefferson in the background.

Horned lark

Mt. Jefferson behind the abandoned trailer.

Mt. Jefferson was hidden at times but this gap in the hills provided a nice view.

Oregon sunshine

Skipper

Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte (post) behind the lupine.

A small watering hole.

Leaning toward an Acmon blue but not sure.

Another in the Lycaenidae family.

Large marble on a fiddleneck.

The fourth gate at the 4-way junction.

Mourning dove

We took a short break by the gate before passing through. As we descended on the jeep track we came to a split where the clearer track curved to the left while a faint track headed straight downhill through a field of balsamroot. Reeder’s map showed his route was along the fainter track so we stayed straight.
The more “obvious” jeep track curving left.

The fainter track angling slightly right.

We were a couple of weeks late for the peak balsamroot bloom, but there were enough remaining blooms/petals to color the hillside yellow.

Ochre ringlet on rougheyelashweed.

We soon rejoined the other jeep track where we turned right.

The terrain had leveled out and we continued on the track watching for Stag Point, a knoll with a post on top, which was Reeder’s turn around point.
Zerene fritillary

Zerene fritillary on salsify

We thought we spied the post and used the camera to zoom in and confirm.

This was the only knoll with a juniper as well as the post.

Largeflower hawksbeard

Paintbrush

To reach Stag Point we had to go cross country, so we looked for the most gradual looking climb.

Mt. Hood from Stag Point.

The Deschutes River from Stag Point.

The view was good from Stag Point, but we were hoping to see more of the river and decided to do a little more cross country exploring by heading SE along the rim from Stag Point to a promising looking rock outcrop.
Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from Stag Point.

Looking back over the route we’d come down.

Ladybug and an Oregon swallowtail.

Desert yellow fleabane

Heading out to the rock outcrop.

Mt. Hood and Stag Point from the outcrop.

A better view of the Deschutes.

Mt. Hood beyond the cliffs.

A buckwheat

Satisfied now with the view we took a short break on the outcrop before heading back. We made our way back to the jeep track by angling back toward the rim where we’d descended. Once we’d reached the track we simply followed it back uphill to the gate at the 4-way junction.
Stink bug

Silverleaf phacelia

Back on the jeep track.

Lupine and balsamroot

The cows had really chewed this section of the jeep track up.

The gate ahead.

Horned lark guarding the gate.

After passing through the gate we retraced our route back to the trailhead. Butterflies were now out in force and we spotted a couple of lizards.
Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte

Grand collomia

Time for some sun.

A butterfly and fly.

Three butterflies and a fly.

Busy bee

This swallowtail was a little rough around the edges.

Another horned lark on lookout.

Nothing brings fritillary butterflies together like a good pile of scat.

We had been trying to figure out where the Oregonhikers loop had veered off Criterion Road and as we were discussing it on the way back it donned on us that it must follow the powerlines for a short distance. Neither of us had noticed another jeep track leading off around the powerlines but it made sense because there is almost always an access road below lines. Sure enough when we arrived at the power lines there was a jeep track clear as day.
Another option for another time. We were just happy to have solved that mystery.

The Radio Towers on the hill were right next to the trailhead.

The Three Sisters (from this angle it looks like two)

Three butterflies and a beetle on buckwheat.

Another mystery was where did the trail from the South Trailhead (just on the other side of the radio towers) connect. We’d missed the track on the right on our first pass, another question answered.

Lizard with half a tail at the trailhead.

This mountain bluebird was acting odd when we arrived at the gate. It was flying back and forth with something in its mouth. (Mt. Adams is in the background.)

It turned out to be a grasshopper that it was waiting to feed its young who were apparently in a nest in some nearby rocks.

After we passed by we heard the chicks calling and watched it fly into the rocks with their meal.

This turned out to be an excellent choice for the holiday weekend. We only encountered one other person, a trail runner we passed on our way back to the 4-way junction from Stag Point. The late wildflower season played to our advantage and the weather was good. It can get really hot and/or really windy there but on this day a reasonable breeze kept the temperature down without blowing us around. The rough tread was really the only downside to the hike, but that wasn’t too bad overall.

Our hike came in at 10.6 miles with roughly 700′ of elevation gain.

We definitely plan on returning to try Sullivan’s route from below someday and possibly trying to follow the Oregonhikers loop sometime as well. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Criterion Tract

Tags balsamroot, blm, Criterion North Trailhead, Criterion Ranch, Criterion Tract, Deschutes River, hiking, horned lark, lark sparrow, lupine, mountain view, Mt. Hood, Oregon, Stag Point, Western Meadowlark

Hiking Oregon Portland Trip report Willamette Valley

Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge, Cooper Mountain, and Graham Oaks – 05/13/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 15, 2023
2 Comments on Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge, Cooper Mountain, and Graham Oaks – 05/13/2023

While Spring has largely been a no-show so far this year, Summer decided to make an early appearance with a weekend forecast for temperatures topping 90 degrees. We’ve been lucky to hit 60 so we’ve had no time to adjust to that kind of heat. In the past when temperatures have soared, we’ve opted to adjust our planned hike to minimize the impact. That wasn’t necessary this time though as our planned outing was to take three short hikes, each less than an hour North of Salem.

We started our morning by re-visiting the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge. We’d stopped here in March of 2019 (post) but could only hike the River Trail at that time of the year. The longer Wetland Trail loop is closed from October 1st through April 30th so we’d scheduled this May visit to check out the loop. We started from the Roy Rogers Trailhead where we found a nice patch of wildflowers to greet us.
The refuge is open from dawn to dusk. We arrived at a quarter to six to get an early start and avoid being out during the hottest parts of the day.

The patch of wildflowers.

A checker-mallow surrounded by golden paintbrush.

Plectritis amid the golden paintbrush.

We decided to go counterclockwise and forked right across Chicken Creek on a bridge.
We had a pretty good view of Mt. Hood.

The Wetland Trail follows a service road around the refuge. We began seeing wildlife almost immediately with a family of geese and a pair of deer hanging out on some private property adjacent to the refuge.

It was approximately 1.5-miles from the Roy Rogers Trailhead to the Refuge Headquarters and Wildlife Center. It was slow going as we kept stopping to watch the wildlife.

Mallards

Greater yellowlegs

Mourning dove

Great blue heron

An egret and some ducks

More families of geese

Swallows flying above the Wetland Trail.

Northern shoveler, scaups (leaning toward greater), and a bufflehead.

Mallards

Northern shoveler

Ruddy duck

Gadwalls

Spotted sandpiper

Purple martins

Killerdeer

Cinnamon teals

Nutria, one of several of these non-native rodents that we saw.

Nap time (or just a late sleeper).

Ducklings

Song sparrow

Common yellowthroat

Wildlife Center

We took in the view from the overlook next to the Wildlife Center before continuing on with the loop.

Great blue heron watching from a little island.

We followed the Wetland Trail until we came to the River Overlook where we cut over to the River Trail (the trails are less than a yard apart in this area) to check in on the Tualatin River.

Anna’s hummingbird

The same Anna’s hummingbird. When catching light their head/throat is bright pink but appear black when not.

River Overlook

Tualatin River

Robin

From the overlook we stuck to the River Trail following it through a short section of forest before rejoining the Wetland Trail.
The Wetland and River Trails running parallel.

Spotted towhee

Rabbit

Pacific waterleaf

Violets and fringecup along the River Trail.

Bleeding heart

We skipped the spur trail to the Ridgetop Overlook since we’d done that on our previous visit.

Chicken Creek

The River Trail meets the Wetland Trail across from the Weland Observation Platform.

We didn’t observe much from the platform on this visit. We continued on with our loop back on the Wetland Trail.

Great white egrets

There were some impressively tall trees along this portion of the loop.

The trail made a 90-degree turn just before another branch of Chicken Creek and headed in a near straight line back toward the Roy Rogers Trailhead.

Another egret

More egrets across Chicken Creek.

Red-winged blackbird

Savannah sparrow

Checker-mallow

A parsley

While our loop was only 3.6-miles it was packed full of sights, a great start to our morning. From the refuge we made the roughly 10-minute drive to our next stop at the Cooper Mountain Nature Park, yet another park managed by Oregon Metro. The park hosts a little over three miles of trails which start at a nice little playground.

Our planned route was to go right on the Little Prairie Loop to the Cooper Mountain Loop and then stay right on that loop (with a detour to hike the Larkspur Loop) to Blacktail Way. We’d then take Blacktail Way back to the Little Prairie Loop and turn right again to finish that loop and return to the trailhead.

The view from Cooper Mountain Nature Park.

The trail system heads downhill from the trailhead so keep in mind that all hikes here end with on an uphill.

Metro is currently running an odd little trial with very short “photo loops”. Mowed paths just off the main trails for photography. We took the first loop just to check it out and they were not kidding when they said the surface may be uneven.

One of two trial photo loops.

The idea is to limit the negative effects of off trail hiking. It’s an interesting idea but it would be easier if people could follow simple rules. We quickly found ourselves back on the Little Prairie Loop and forking right.

The second trial loop. You can see how short this one is by the signboard just downhill marking its other end.

There were several interpretive signs and benches along the trails.

White-crowned sparrow

Anna’s hummingbird

Star flower

As usual Metro had the trail junctions well marked with little maps on top of the posts. This is the Cooper Mountain Loop junction with the lower end of the Outback Trail.

Camas

Tough-leaved iris

Serviceberry

Honeysuckle

Looking back uphill to some wildflowers.

Monkeyflower

Tomcat clover

Spotted towhee

Bench along a pond filling an old quarry.

The pond. Red-legged frogs apparently breed here. We didn’t see any frogs but there was a mallard hanging out in the brush.

Iris on the hillside above the quarry.

The Larkspur Loop continuing straight from the Cooper Mountain Loop which turns uphill at the junction.

An endangered species of larkspur, pale larkspur (Delphinium leucophaeum), typically blooms in the park in late Spring into June. With everything running late this year we didn’t spot any yet this year as we completed the 0.7-mile lollipop loop.
Prior to the loop the Larkspur Loop dips to cross a creek in the trees.

The little creek.

View from the Larkspur Loop.

While watching for the larkspur I noticed these giant blue-eyed Mary.

We returned to the Cooper Mountain Loop which made a steep climb to its junction with Blacktail Way.

Blacktail Way to the right.

Map at the junction.

Blacktail Way climbed more gradually on its way to the Little Prairie Loop.
The “earphone” next to the bench here was neat. There was also one at the trailhead and they really allowed you to isolate the sounds of the woods.

The Little Prairie Loop.

We turned right onto the loop and then quickly detoured to the Little Prairie Overlook.

The pale larkspur also grows in this area but again we were too early.

These were the only woodland-stars we spotted.

After checking out Little Prairie we finished the loop and returned to our car. This stop came to 3.1 miles with 300′ of elevation gain.

From Cooper Mountain we drove 18 miles south to our final stop of the day at Graham Oaks Nature Park. Another one of Metro’s parks Graham Oaks also hosts approximately three miles of trails. Unlike many of the other Metro parks we’ve visited recently this one allows bikes and dogs (on leash) albeit limited to the Tonquin Trail.

Our planned route here was another counterclockwise loop starting on the Tonquin Trail. We would follow that trail to the hiker only Oak Woodland Walk and then turn onto Coyote Way then take the Legacy Creek Trail returning to Coyote Way just before its end at the Tonquin Trail. Then we would simply follow the Tonquin Trail back to the trailhead.

Despite this being our third stop, the early start had gotten us here shortly after 10am, it was already over 70 degrees when we set off on the Tonquin Trail. Luckily for us there was an occasional breeze that helped cool things off a bit.
Heading toward Acron Plaza on the Tonquin Trail.

Interpretive sign at Acorn Plaza.

There were large amounts of large camas blooming along the trail along with yellow buttercups and some patches of lupine.
Lupine and buttercups

Lupine

Meadow checker-mallow

We detoured to Elder Plaza at a trail marker.

The “elder” oak is between 150-200 years old.

We watched this American Kestral hover on a near vertical line for what felt like quite a while. It eventually dove and attempted to catch something in the grass. We couldn’t tell if it had been successful.

We continued down the Tonquin Trail and made a second detour to visit the Wetland Overlook.

Mylitta crescent

We made a third detour when we reached a 4-way junction with the Oak Woodland Walk and Arrowhead Creek Trails. We turned right onto the Arrowhead Creek Trail to see what the creek might look like since we could see a little footbridge from the junction.

Footbridge over Arrowhead Creek.

There wasn’t really any water flowing in the creek bed and we turned around after crossing and returned to the 4-way junction where we crossed the Tonquin Trail onto the Oak Woodland Walk.

The Lycaenidae family of butterflies remains a mystery to me. This appears to be an Eastern Tailed Blue based on the ventral spots.

Snow in the Cascade foothills. If you look really closely behind the bigger snow patch to the far-right, you can just barely make out Mt. Jefferson.

We turned onto Coyote Way and quickly spotted several species of birds.
Starling

Northern flicker

This scrub jay would not come out from behind the oak leaves.

Coyote Way eventually entered some trees and crossed a boardwalk.

There was a lot of candy flower beneath the trees.

We turned onto the Legacy Creek Trail and found ourselves under a much denser canopy of trees. This extra shade made this feel like the coolest section of trail we’d been on all day which was welcome because it was now over 80 degrees in the Sun.

Mushrooms along the Legacy Creek Trail.

Violets, candy flower and the invasive herb robert (pink).

We left the trees and quickly arrived back at Coyote Way where we took a right followed by another right on the Tonquin Trail after 200′.
Coming up to Coyote Way.

Back on the Tonquin Trail and heading for the trailhead.

This was our shortest stop of the day coming in at just 2.7 miles. For the day we logged 9.4 miles with approximately 400′ of cumulative elevation gain, primarily from our stop at Cooper Mountain. These were all enjoyable stops and each provided a different experience. Happy Trails!

Grants Pass Area Hiking Oregon Trip report

Eight Dollar Mountain and Illinois River Beaches – 05/04/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 11, 2023
1 Comment on Eight Dollar Mountain and Illinois River Beaches – 05/04/2023

For our fourth day of hikes in the Grants Pass area we had chosen a series of short hikes along the Illinois River which would allow us to check off two more featured hikes (post). Going in we knew that our hikes wouldn’t exactly match Sullivan’s description in the featured hikes because of a closure of the Swinging Bridge which is part of the Fall Creek Trail. Repairs need to be made to fix a hole in the bridge so it is currently under a closure order until 10/31/23 (may be lifted sooner). Several of the hikes we had planned were also in the path of the 2018 Klondike Fire so we weren’t sure what condition the trails might be in.

Our first stop at the Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Area was not in the fire scar.

From the parking area we crossed 8 Dollar Road and hiked 0.1-miles to a small, two parking spot, ADA Trailhead where a 0.2-mile boardwalk led to a Fen with California darlingtonia.

Wedgeleaf violets

Showy phlox

Oregon rockcress

Many of the flowers were just getting started but there were a few darlingtonia blooming in the fen. This was our second stop this year that involved the Cobra lilies, having visited the Darlingtonia Wayside near Florence in April (post).
Camas and buttercups

Shooting star

Western azalea

The fen at the end of the boardwalk.

A darlingtonia blossom.

The trailhead where we parked also acts as the trailhead for the Jeffrey Pine Loop Trail, so after returning from the boardwalk we started down this trail.

Our plan for this trail was to follow it NW for 1.2-miles to the Little Falls Trail Loop. The Jeffery Pine Trail drops to the Illinois River then follows the route of a former flume to the Little Falls Loop Trail. We were a little apprehensive knowing that we’d be hiking along the Illinois River once again. Our only previous hike along the river was a bit of a nightmare (post). We had stumbled into some sort of tick convention and spent nearly the entire hike brushing the little blood suckers off our clothing. Add in a good amount of poison oak crowding the trail and let’s just say this wasn’t one of our best experiences. That being said the Illinois River itself is beautiful, so we were willing to give it another chance. The scenery was nice and there were a number of wildflowers along the trail as we headed down toward the river.
We stayed right at this junction just below the trailhead. There is a 0.5-mile loop option which we planned on skipping.

Death camas

Mariposa lily

Yellow leaf iris

Coast flat stem onion

Heather picked up a tick passing through the grass on the hillside.

We turned right at a sign for the Little Falls Trail Loop.

Silky balsamroot

The trail crossed an old roadbed at the half mile mark which gave us a chance to get down to the river without having to dodge poison oak.

The trail jogged away from the river at the road, presumably to reach the old flume. We started up the hill but the trail condition got a little rougher here and poison oak began crowding the trail to the point where we became uncomfortable. We had already had it brushing against our pant legs, but it was now tall enough that our hands were at risk and in order to avoid it we would need to move off trail into the brush on the opposite side. Having already seen a tick we didn’t really want to go through any vegetation.
The trail as we started up the hillside.

We quickly devised a Plan B which was to follow the old roadbed up to 8 Dollar Road (Forest Road 4201) and walk that road to the Little Falls Trailhead where we could attempt the 0.9-mile Little Falls Loop.
Checker lily

Silky balsamroot and buttercups

Paintbrush and silky balsamroot with the Illinois River below.

Eight Dollar Mountain from the roadbed.

We saw a lot of these getting ready to bloom but none actually blooming. Really curious as to what they are.

The roadbed bent back toward the trailhead where we’d parked and we wound up just a tenth of a mile away from our car but instead of just walking back to it and driving to the Little Falls Trailhead we turned left and road walked the mile.

As road walks go this one was fine, and we passed another bunch of darlingtonia along the way.
Western azalea

A closer look at a darlingtonia blossom.

At the trailhead we walked through the small campground to the signed Little Falls Trail Loop.

At a 4-way junction we turned right briefly following the flume before turning downhill toward the river.

Serpentine arnica

California gromwell

Wedgeleaf violet

Spotted towhee

Paintbrush and violets

Narrowleaf blue-eyed Mary

Deltoid balsamroot

Illinois River

Field chickweed

Spreading phlox

We took use paths down to the rocks near Little Falls to explore along the river a bit.

Mallard drakes

After exploring the rocks we continued on the loop trail.
Pool above the falls.

Wildflowers above the trail.

Interesting colors on this iris.

Pine violets

The trail eventually veered uphill away from the river to complete the loop.

After completing the loop we returned to FR 4201 and walked back to our car at the Eight Dollar Mountain Trailhead and headed for our next stop, the Kerby Flat Trailhead.

The view from the trailhead was great and wound up being the best part of our attempted hike here.
Pearsoll Peak and Gold Basin Butte in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.

The trail begins at the railed viewpoint and heads downhill.

The Illinois River below.

Lupine

Plectritis

At first the trail followed what may have been a fire road and was nice and wide but as it began to follow a ridge downhill it quickly became crowded by poison oak.

We managed to find a way around the first bad section but then we were stymied. With no desire to come in contact with poison oak we turned back after just a third of a mile and headed back to the car.
This section was great.

Swallowtail

This stop was supposed to have been a 4.3-mile lollipop loop visiting both Kerby and Star Flats, but it wound up being a 0.6-mile out-and-back. The good news was we had three other stops that were part of Sullivan’s featured Illinois River Beaches hike. The second stop was for Snailback Beach, just a 1.1-mile drive from the Kerby Flat Trailhead. We parked in a small pullout on the left side of the road at a small signboard.

Here a half mile trail follows an old roadbed down to Snailback Beach. This hike started encouragingly as the wide roadbed helped keep the poison oak to the sides.

Female black-headed grosbeak

Balsamroot

Paintbrush next to some yet-to-bloom lupine.

The Illinois River below.

Our optimism about reaching the beach here took a hit when we arrived at Snailback Creek. The creek was flowing pretty good and would have required fording in calf deep water to continue. Normally that wouldn’t stop us, but it also looked like the trail on the far side was in need of maintenance which made us question if we would be able to reach the beach even if we did ford the creek. At the time the chance of reaching the beach wasn’t worth the assuredly wet feet that would result from the ford, so we once again turned back after just a third of a mile.

Snailback Creek

We hiked back up to the car and drove another 1.6-miles west on Illinois River Road to the signed Horn Bend Trailhead.
The “trail” is immediately to the left of the sign here. You can make out some of it further back through the bushes.

This trail supposedly follows the road for 0.4-miles before turning downhill on a cat road that leads to the beach. The 2018 fire (this area also burned in 2002) damage was most evident on what was left of this trail. Heather decided not to even bother opting to wait at the car while I attempted to make the 0.7-mile hike down to the river.
After crashing through the initial brush the trail cleared for a moment.

The clear trail didn’t last long.

Fawn lilies

The road sign in the distance was easier to see than the trail here.

Poison oak and downed trees forced me off the tread and after just 0.2-miles I’d lost any sign of it.

I’d also picked up one tick as I wandered through the brush so enough was enough and I found a break in the poison oak where I could hop onto the road and followed the shoulder back to Heather and the car.

We had one stop left from the featured hike description, the Swinging Bridge which we knew was closed. While the bridge was closed Forest Road 087 was not and it led down to the river past the bridge so we had decided to road walk down and at least see the bridge. From the Horn Bend Trailhead we drove another 4.2-miles and parked at a pullout at Road 087.

We hiked down the gravel road a half mile, passing the Fall Creek Trailhead along the way, to the bridge.

Dogwood blossoms

The Fall Creek Trailhead to the left.

The car bridge across the Illinois River to McCaleb Ranch. Technically we could have continued down to that bridge and crossed on it then turned left onto the Fall Creek Trail for a half mile to Illinois River Falls, but the closure order posted at the Fall Creek Trailhead was unclear. It stated that it was illegal to be “on a trail” not just on the suspension bridge itself. The Forest Service webpage seems to indicate that it is only the bridge that is closed until repaired. Either way we were just happy to see the bridge as that was the turnaround in Sullivan’s description.

Assuming these are some of the needed repairs.

We climbed back up to our car and started back toward Highway 199. At some point earlier between trailheads I had come up with an idea to try an alternate way to reach Star and Kerby Flats. Sullivan’s map showed a roadbed off of Illinois River Road 0.7-miles east of the Kerby Flat Trailhead that led past Star Flat to a ford of Deer Creek. I remembered seeing the road on the way to the Kerby Flat Trailhead so we decided to try parking on the shoulder and seeing if the road was a better option. When we arrived there was another vehicle parked there which gave us some hope.
The start of the road which the map lists as Forest Road 011.

As we started down this dirt road we passed the group from the other vehicle on their way back. They were locals who apparently hike this road regularly. They had been to the ford and said that the flowers were good and they also mentioned that there was a car in Deer Creek at the ford. They said it hadn’t been there the week before but that there had been a different car there in the past that had finally washed away. Now a new one had taken its place. We thanked them for the information and continued downhill.

Monkeyflower

Oregon rockcress and buttercups

Balsamroot and Oregon rockcress

Alpine? pennycress. There was a lot of this along the road, the first we’d seen of it this trip.

Star Flat. It was obvious from the tire marks which extended into the vegetation in places that yahoos like to come here and tear things up (sigh).

Duskywing

There was a fence around the bog at Star Flat which hosts more California darlingtonia.

Plectritis

Iris

Darlingtonia

Deer Creek

Showy phlox and paintbrush

Just over a mile on the road we passed the rocky trail that we would have taken back up to the Kerby Flat Trailhead had we made it down from there.

Checker lily

Just before the ford we passed an old car with kids toys on it. Not pictured is the tower of Coors Light cans that was just off to the left.

Just as advertised there was indeed a car abandoned in the ford.

We assume it was a stolen vehicle (or someone was really drunk/high). From the amount of garbage and fire pits in the area it was clear that people drive down here to party and do stupid stuff. Truly unfortunate because the beach at the confluence of Deer Creek and the Illinois River could have been really nice but the general feeling all the trash gave off made it uncomfortable.

We continued past the beach following the trail toward Kerby Flat.

Hairy pink

Plectritis along the trail.

Illinois River

After 0.2-miles the trail ahead appeared to begin to get overgrown and we’d had enough of that for the day so we declared victory and turned around.

We returned the way we’d come half expecting to encounter some ne’er-do-wells heading down to party. Thankfully that didn’t happen although we did come across a suspicious group of butterflies.

Star flower

Shooting stars along the creek leading to the bog in Star Flat.

Fawn lily

It started to sprinkle as we neared the car which was the opposite of how the weather had been all week. Monday through Wednesday it had been cloudy in the morning and cleared up in the afternoon but today the clouds moved in later.

We were back to the car a little before 2pm but it had felt like a much longer day. We’d managed to get 10.2-miles of hiking and road walking in over the course of our six stops. The cumulative elevation gain was just over 1300′ so it was a pretty solid day of hiking even though none of the stops went as originally planned. Sometimes you just have to get creative, and we seem to be getting more and more practice at that.

Back in Grants Pass we picked up dinner from the Tacos Don Goyo food truck on K Street (excellent food) and started packing up for our drive home the next day. We decided not to try and replace the Rogue River hike that we didn’t do on Wednesday (post) opting instead to get home to Merry and Pippin. This was the first time we’d been away from them since adopting the kittens in October and we missed the little guys. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Eight Dollar Mountain and Illinois River Beaches

Tags California darlingtonia, Deer Creek, Eight Dollar Mountain, Eight Dollar Mountain Botanical Area, Fall Creek Trailhead, Grants Pass. Tacos Don Goyo, hiking, Horn Bend Trailhead, illinois river, Jeffery Pine Loop Trail, Kerby Flat Trailhead, Little Falls Trail Loop, Little Illinois River Falls, Oregon, Snailback Creek, Star Flat, Swinging Bridge

Grants Pass Area Hiking Oregon Trip report

Dollar Mountain, Limpy Creek, and Waters Creek – 05/03/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 10, 2023
3 Comments on Dollar Mountain, Limpy Creek, and Waters Creek – 05/03/2023

When I’d first planned our vacation to Grants Pass the plan had included seven of Sullivan’s featured hikes, six of which we needed to check off our to-do list, and one to tie up loose ends (post). One of those planned hikes had been Babyfoot Lake but with a trailhead elevation of 4340′ that hike had been postponed due to this years above average snowpack. Before leaving I had checked all our hikes including using a couple of snow-depth maps. At the time they showed 10-20 inches of snow at Babyfoot Lake but nothing for any of our other planned hikes including along the driving route to Marial which was our planned destination for day three. I had been concerned because the BLM roads to the Lower Rogue River-Mule Creek Trailhead spends a fair amount of time between 3400 and 3800′ in elevation before dropping to the trailhead at an elevation under 500′. There was no snow showing up online and neither the BLM nor Forest Service websites mentioned impassable roads. Sullivan lists this hike as open April to December but that is “normal” and this year’s snowpack is not that.

We started Wednesday morning by attempting the roughly 70-mile, nearly 2:30 hour drive. We managed to get within 17 miles of the trailhead before encountering large snow drifts still covering the roads, primarily on the North facing slopes. With no way to reach the trailhead (we couldn’t have even hiked the trail from Grave Creek due to a washout at trail mile 21) we pivoted to plan B. Plan B was to do some or all of the hikes that we’d planned for Friday before driving home. So after a little over 4 hours of driving we wound up at the Dollar Mountain Trailhead less than 2 miles from where we’d started at our cabin.

This was an odd little hike as the trail had no signage apart from the trailhead sign and it basically went straight uphill. There were some narrower trails off what appeared to be the main trail which may have been gentler switchbacks, but they just as easily could have been use trails leading to the surrounding neighborhoods or to nowhere in particular. We opted to go straight up on the wider rutted path.
Larkspur along the trail.

A pollinator in a Tolmie’s mariposa lily.

Shooting star

Grants Pass below Dollar Mountain.

Hooker’s Indian pink

Silver crown

Naked broomrape

Too cloudy for a good view.

Lupine

Scarlet fritillary

Sullivan had it as 1.2 miles from the trailhead to the summit but going straight up got us to the cell towers on top in exactly 1 mile (regardless of the route the climb is over 750′ of elevation gain).

View from the summit.

The view from the summit isn’t as good as those just below. From the summit we had the choice of heading back the way we’d come or following a rough roadbed down and around to Crescent Street 0.2 miles NW of the trailhead. We opted for the loop option and headed down the road.
We stuck to the road ignoring any side paths like this one since we had no idea where they might lead.

There were dozens of California groundcones along the roadbed.

California groundcones

Approaching Crescent Street.

It was a mile and a half from the summit to Crescent Street which we followed back to the car. From there we made the 16-mile drive to the Limpy Botanical Interpretive Loop Trailhead

Here we planned to do a mile long loop. We started clockwise from the trailhead signboard following Sullivan’s directions to stay left at all junctions.

Monkeyflower

Dwarf ceanothus

Paintbrush

Camas and shooting stars

Siskiyou fritillary

We got into a little trouble when we came to what we thought was another trail junction with a path leading to the right to a bench.

Since the directions we were following said to stay left at all junctions we stayed left following an increasingly rocky path uphill. We wound up just below a roadbed when the “trail” completely petered out. We headed back down to the trail with the bench and tried that one which turned out to be the correct route. This path led us across a pair of boardwalks then to a scenic little waterfall.
Passing the bench.

Trillium

Fairy slippers

Boardwalk #1

Second boardwalk

Waterfall on Limpy Creek.

Beyond the falls the trail crossed Limpy Creek then began to descend to another nice little creek.

Limpy Creek

Arriving at the second creek.

Unnamed creek

Mushrooms

The path turned along the unnamed creek and recrossed Limpy Creek before arriving back at the trailhead.
Final crossing of Limpy Creek.

With our wrong turn we managed to turn the 1-mile loop into a 1.3-mile hike and nearly doubled the 120′ of elevation gain that it should have been. From Limpy Creek we headed for our final stop of the day at the nearby Waters Creek Interpretive Trailhead. (The trailheads are just over 2.5 miles apart as the crow flies but the drive between them is close to 15 miles.)

This was another interpretive trail offering two loops, a 1-mile barrier free option or a nearly 3-mile longer, hiker only, loop. Both loops begin by following Waters Creek for a tenth of a mile then crossing it and passing by a grassy meadow.

Candyflower

Waters Creek

A phacelia

At the end of the meadow when the trail enters the forest it splits. We stayed left at all junctions again on this loop.
The start/end of the loops with the bridge being our return route.

Staying left.

This was the barrier free loop splitting off and heading back across an unnamed creek.

Sign announcing the hiker only extended loop.

Snail

The first vanilla leaf we’ve seen blooming this year.

There were a bunch of fawn lilies blooming along this trail.

One of several little footbridges across side streams.

Trillium

Bench where the trail turned to head back on the opposite side of the unnamed creek.

The view from the bench.

The trail climbed above the creek on the way back before descending via switchback to rejoin the barrier free loop.
Houndstongue

The barrier free trail below in the trees.

Back on the barrier free trail.

Biscuitroot and larkspur

Giant white wakerobin

The Sun was starting to shine a bit as we passed back by the meadow which brought out some butterflies and lots of lizards.

Our three hikes of the day added up to 7 miles and 1480′ of elevation gain. (2.8mi & 830′, 1.3mi & 250′, and 2.96mi & 400′ respectively.)

Despite the rocky start it had turned out to be a pleasant enough day and we were still back to our cabin around 3pm which gave us time to clean up and head to the Bohemian Bar & Bistro for an excellent dinner. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Dollar Mountain, Limpy Botanical Loop, and Waters Creek

Tags Bohemian Bar & Bistro, Dollar Mountain, Grants Pass, hiking, Limpy Botanical Interpretive Loop. Waters Creek Interpretive Trail, Limpy Creek, Marial, Oregon, Waters Creek, wildflowers