Category: Oregon

Lost Corral Trail – Cottonwood Canyon State Park – 05/30/21

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 3, 2021
2 Comments on Lost Corral Trail – Cottonwood Canyon State Park – 05/30/21

After a 14 mile three stop day on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we had another 14ish mile day planned for Sunday but this time just a single stop at the J.S. Burres Trailhead at Cottonwood Canyon State Park.

This was our second visit to the park having previously hiked the Hard Stone and Pinnacles Trails in 2017. The John Day River acts as the boundary between Sherman and Gilliam Counties and those trails are located on the north (Sherman Co.) side of the river. The J.S. Burris State Wayside is on the south side of the river which puts it in Gilliam County. This makes it one of the only hikes that I could find in Gilliam County and Gilliam County was one of the two remaining counties in Oregon in which we had yet to hike. (The other is Umatilla which has plenty of trails, we just haven’t gotten around to them yet.)

The main attraction at the wayside is the boat ramp but it also serves as the trailhead for the Lost Corral Trail.
Afternoon photo of the start of the trail.

It was already 68 degrees, according to the car anyway, when we arrived shortly before 7:30am which meant it was going to be a hot hike. We had planned for high temperatures and were each carrying extra water. The Lost Corral Trail follows an old roadbed for 4.3 miles to the start of the 0.9 mile Esau Loop Trail. There is also an option to tack on a 4.3 mile off trail loop that would take us up into the hills above the river. It was an ambitious plan given the expected temperatures but we set off determined to give it a go. Shortly after setting out, and stopping to watch a couple of rabbits, I asked Heather if she remembered if I locked the car. She didn’t and neither did I so I double timed it a quarter mile back to the trailhead to make sure it was locked then rejoined Heather up the trail.

This section was so nice I did it twice.

We both felt the Lost Corral Trail had better views of the John Day than the other trails had offered.
Cottonwood Canyon State Park main area across the river.

There were less wildflowers despite being the same time of year but that was likely due to the drought conditions that are plaguing the West this year.
One of the exceptions was mock orange which was blooming profusely along the trail.

Dalmation toadflax and yarrow.

Beetle on what might be hairy golden aster

A lupine

This would be a day of missed opportunities where the wildlife was concerned and it started about a mile into the hike when a pheasant waited until we had unknowingly passed him before he flew off never to be seen again. Later as we approached the second bench along the trail (near the 3 mile mark) I spotted the brown back side and tail, of what I believe was an otter, dive into the water and disappear. On our way back a family of Chukars startled us and scattered before I could turn on the camera and finally a snake (not a rattler, possibly a yellow bellied racer) slithered through the vegetation not quite allowing for a clear picture, but I digress.

Back to the hike, just after the pheasant encounter, the trail crossed a wide sandy flat where tracks revealed the presence of a number of critters.

More mock orange along the trail.

20210530_082907 Close up of the mock orange.

Butterfly on western clematis

This red winged blackbird cooperated for a photo op.

20210530_083630 Salsify

Wild roses

There had been a large number of cliff swallow nests along the Pinnacles Trail but we only saw a few on this side of the river.

There might not have been a lot of swallows but there were plenty of butterflies.

We saw this viceroy on the way back to the car.

There were also a large number of birds but most could only be heard and not seen as they stuck to the thick vegetation along the river.
Magpie dive bombing a hawk.

Coming up on the second bench.

The otter or whatever it was was right in this area.

We sat at the bench and rested hoping to get another glimpse of the animal but it never rematerialized. We did however spot some big fish in the water below.

After resigning ourselves to the fact that the otter was not going to make another appearance we continued on.

Cedar waxwings

The Pinnacles

Ducks

We turned left when we reached a sign for the Esau Loop Trail.
Esau Loop Trail sign.

Looking back at The Pinnacles from the Esau Loop Trail.

This was a much rougher trail that passed through the sagebrush along the river before looping back over a low rise.

Unknown flower

Sagebrush mariposa lilies

Before completing the this loop we came to a signboard at a roadbed.

Our planned off trail loop began here. The roadbed that the Lost Corral Trail followed turned up Esau Canyon after passing a rocky ridge end. The Oregon Hikers Field Guide entry described “rounding the corner of the low cliff” then scrambling up to the ridge top to a fence line and following that up the ridge crest. Having turned left on the Esau Loop Trail we were approaching from the opposite direction but it gave us a clear view of the cliffs that we needed to get around in order to scramble up the ridge.
The more open looking hillside to the right of the cliffs was deceptively steep so we followed the road to the left until the the terrain appeared more hospitable.

We set off from the roadbed here.

The hillside was steep so there was a lot of switch backing and pausing along the way.
Have these gone to seed or blossoms?

Possibly a hawksbeard

20210530_102726 Sagebrush mariposa lily

Found the fence line.

Cattle trails followed the fence line uphill which gave us something to follow although they tended to just go straight uphill.
I took this photo at 10:35, it looks like I’m close to the top.

This one was taken ten minutes later.

Twenty more minutes later and the high point was in sight.

These two lizards beat us to the top.

The climb gained approximately 900′ in a little over 3/4 of a mile. From the high point we could see the top of Mt. Adams beyond the John Day River Canyon.

The very top of Mt. Rainier was also visible (barely)

We followed the ridge south picking up a faint jeep track and gaining better views of Mt. Adams.

View SE

The jeep track dropped to the left of the crest and after a little over a half mile it turned sharply downhill into Esau Canyon.
Descending into Esau Canyon on the jeep track.

Lower on the hillside the track began to switchback passing through a fence(we had to crawl under) before arriving at a creek bed with a little running water.

After using the steps to get over the fence we followed the road back down Esau Canyon to the Lost Corral Trail.

Second climb over the fence.

Beetles on thistle.

Yarrow and lupine

Western meadowlark

The Lost Corral Trail where it passes the cliff at the ridge end.

From there we followed the Lost Corral Trail through the Lost Corral (which we had missed earlier due to turning onto the Esau Loop Trail) and returned to the trailhead.

Cottonwood Canyon State Park in the afternoon.

My GPS read 14.3 miles but factoring my trip back to lock our car it was probably closer to 13.8 miles. On a cooler day that wouldn’t be so bad, even with the steep scramble up the ridge, but it was over 90 degrees by the time our hike was over and the heat had made it a tough hike. Carrying the extra water had been a good call as we were down to our hydro flasks by the end. Despite the challenge of the heat it had been an enjoyable hike with a good amount of wildlife sightings and no ticks or rattlesnakes were seen. Happy Trails!

Our route with the “highlighted” section showing the off-trail loop.

Flickr: Lost Corral Trail

Tags cedar waxwing, Esau Canyon, hiking, J.S. Burres State Wayside, John Day river, Lost Corral Trail. Cottonwood Canyon State Park, Oregon, The Pinnacles, Viceroy Butterfly, Western Meadowlark

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Whychus Canyon Preserve, Alder Springs, & Huntington Wagon Road – 05/29/21

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 2, 2021
2 Comments on Whychus Canyon Preserve, Alder Springs, & Huntington Wagon Road – 05/29/21

**In 2025 the Alder Springs Fire burned over the Alder Springs Trail and the Flat Fire burned over the Whychus Canyon Preserve.**

For Memorial Day weekend this year we headed to Bend to visit Heather’s family and of course do some hiking. Having finally reached our goal of completing all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Oregon Cascades” 4th edition last year (post) we kicked off this trip with a stop at a the Whychus Canyon Preserve, which was a new featured hike in his 5th edition.

The 930 acre preserve is owned and managed by the Deschutes Land Trust who have established over 7 miles of hiker only (dogs on leash) trails open to the public. The focus here is conservation so respecting the rules and Leaving No Trace is imperative (as it always should be) in order to keep the access open. We arrived at the trailhead a little after 7am on Saturday morning to find the parking area empty.
Kiosk and bench at the trailhead.

A map at the kiosk shows that there are a number of loops possible here and we decided to deviate slightly from the route described by Sullivan.

From the kiosk we followed a pointer for the Rim & Creek Trails onto a dirt path.

The trail led slightly downhill, through a red gate and after just 0.2 miles arrived a “T” shaped junction with the Rim Trail where Sullivan has you turn right. We opted for a slightly longer loop and turned left instead.
Tent caterpillars (and the red gate)

As we followed the Rim Trail west along the canyon we began to get some good mountain views.
Mt. Washington and Black Butte (post)

Broken Top, The Three Sisters, Black Crater (post), Little Belknap & Belknap Crater (post), and Mt. Washington.

After 0.4 miles the trail made a 180 degree turn dropping further into the canyon.

Whychus Creek was hidden by trees for the most part.

While there weren’t a lot of wildflowers a number of different types were present.
Balsamroot

Lupine

Paintbrush

A Penstemon

Western stoneseed

Sedum leibergii -Leiberg’s Stonecrop

Spreading stickseed

Western wallflower

In addition to the various flowers we spotted some varied wildlife as well.
Magpie playing hard to get.

Spotted towhee

Black-headed grossbeak

Ochre ringlet

Pair of bucks in Whychus Creek

This is a good time to mention how much I appreciate the zoom on my Canon XS740HS. While I often look at other peoples photos and wish mine were as crisp/clear the compact size and low price (compared to even low end DSLR cameras) of the little point and shoot has worked well enough. Those two bucks are a good example as we spotted them from here.

Approximately 0.6 miles from the big turn we arrived at a signed junction. Uphill led back to the trailhead (where we would have come down following Sullivan’s directions) while the Creek Trail headed downhill to the left.

We turned downhill and switchbacked downhill for 0.2 miles to Whychus Creek.

We followed along the creek on this trail for 1.5 miles, ignoring a steep trail to the right at the 0.8 mile mark. The sounds of the creek combined with the songs of birds made for a relaxing stroll through the canyon.

20210529_081300 Chokecherry

Star-flower false solomonseal

Trail junction at the 0.8 mile mark.

20210529_082320 Spider on a wallflower.

Lewis flax

20210529_084000 Heuchera cylindrica -roundleaf allumroot

At the 1.5 mile mark the trail turned uphill away from the creek and made a turn back toward the trailhead.

The trail climbed for 0.4 miles before leveling out near a rock outcrop where a side trail to the right led to a viewpoint.

Oregon sunshine

Buckwheat and penstemon

Sign post for the viewpoint.

Heading for the rock outcrop/viewpoint.

Middle and North Sister with Whychus Creek below.

Two tenths of a mile beyond the viewpoint we passed the upper end of the cutoff trail coming up from the Creek Trail.

We were now on the Meadow Trail which we followed for 1.5 miles (ignoring a signed trail to the left at the 0.5 mile mark). We were still spotting different flowers and wildlife on this stretch.
A monkeyflower

20210529_092023 Sand lilies

Trail sign in the distance for spur trail to the Santiam Wagon Road.

Death camas

Sagebrush false dandelions

Pinion jay

Mountain bluebird pair

Mourning dove

unidentified little songbird.

Lizard

Second type of lizard

Showy townsendia

Just before reaching the trailhead the trail joined the Santiam Wagon Road at an interpretive sign.

This wasn’t the first time we’d been on this historic 400 mile route between the Willamette Valley and Eastern Oregon (House Rock, Iron Mountain, Fish Lake, Sand Mountain , ) but it did mark the eastern most portion we’d been on.

We turned right on the Wagon Road for a few steps and were back at the trailhead where there was now a second car. We were surprised there weren’t more considering how nice a hike it had been. We logged just a little over 5 miles on our GPS and were now ready to head to our second stop of the day at the Alder Springs Trailhead.

This was another chance to visit Whychus Creek but unlike Whychus Canyon we had done the hike at Alder Springs before (post). That hike had been almost 10 years prior having taken place on 8/3/2011. Two things stand out about that first visit. Most notably we only did the Alder Springs hike because our Plan A, Benson Lake/Scott Mountain Loop, was still under too much snow (also the mosquitos were horrendous). It has been quite some time since there has been that much snow that late in the year, yes climate change is real. Secondly it was a really nice hike but August probably wasn’t the best month for it. It’s been on my list of hikes to revisit at a different (better) time of the year. The road to the trailhead is seasonally closed (typically 12/1-3/31) so April or May seemed the best time to catch wildflowers and cooler temperatures.

Another difference between Whychus Canyon and Alder Springs is the access road. While the former is almost entirely paved with a short stretch of good gravel the latter is not far removed from a 4×4 jeep track. Rocks, washouts, and dried mud holes await for most of the final 4.7 miles to the rather larger parking area which we were surprised to find nearly full at 10:15am. At first we couldn’t figure out why there were so many ~~cars~~ SUVs and trucks here while it was just us and one other car at the preserve then it hit us, you can camp here. That realization came from overhearing a large group saying something about having to make two trips down and “the beer”.
Looking back up the dirt access road to the North Sister, Mt. Washington and Black Butte
The trailhead signboard.

This time we didn’t take the side trip down the 0.4 mile Old Bridge Trail but otherwise it was the same route as we had taken nearly 10 years before. The big difference was the number of wildflowers in bloom and the number of people we encountered, mostly on the way back to the car. The scenery was stunning and the ford at the 1.5 mile mark refreshing.
Buckwheat

20210529_103018 Rough eyelashweed

Yarrow

Fiddleneck

20210529_104231 Largeflower hawksbeard

Purple cushion fleabane

Oregon sunshine

20210529_104625 Blue mountain prairie clover

20210529_104747 Lewis flax

Lupine

Bearded hawksbeard

Haven’t id this one yet.

The Three Sisters, Belknap Crater and Mt. Washington with some dancing clouds.

Whychus Creek Canyon

Love the different rock formations in the canyon.

Catchfly

Balsamroot

Paintbrush

Pretty sure this side creek was dry on our previous visit.

Whychus Creek at the ford.

We’ll get into a little more of the history of Whychus Creek when we cover our Memorial Day hike but we noted that the water level seemed about the same as it had on our previous crossing and that the water was surprisingly warm given the source of the creek is the glaciers and snowfields of Broken Top and the Three Sisters. After a bit of thinking it dawned on us that higher up near Sisters water is diverted to irrigation ditches and other uses.

Alder Springs

Columbine

20210529_113821 A clarkia, possibly Lassen

20210529_113835 Threadleaf phacelia

Unknown

20210529_121450 Creek dogwood and a beetle covered in pollen

20210529_125533 Grand Colloma

20210529_124730 Deadly nightshade

Rose with crab spider

20210529_125446
Veatch’s blazingstar

Dragon fly

We took a break at the end of the trail along the Deschutes River before hiking back just as we had done on the previous visit.

Confluence of the Deschutes (left) and Whychus Creek (right).

Butterflies and birds were out in force on the hike back.
Bald eagle

Cedar hairstreak

Turkey vulture

Mountain chickadee

The hike here came in at 6.4 miles and 650′ of elevation gain giving us a little over 11.5 miles and 1120′ of climbing so far on the day.

We had one more quick stop planned for the day. Our first hike had been on Deschutes Land Trust land and the second in the Crooked River National Grassland managed by the Ochoco National Forest and our final stop at the Huntington Wagon Road was on BLM land. The hike here was of particular interest to me as the trailhead is only 2 miles from where I lived from 2nd grade until leaving home for college and yet I had no idea it was there. The BLM has created a 1.2 mile long interpretive trail along a section of a route that was built to haul supplies from The Dalles to build Fort Klamath.
Trailhead on McGrath Road.

There is a lot to see along the trail as far as scenery goes. It’s mostly sagebrush and juniper with some lava formations mixed in. The history is what makes this hike interesting, and the dozens of lizards scurrying about.
A 300+ year old juniper named an Oregon Heritage Tree

Sagebrush, juniper and lava – my childhood 🙂

Tree blaze

Buckwheat

Ruts along the wagon road.

Skipper on Showy townsendia.

Post marking the relic fence line and turnaround point.

An old fence post and barbed wire.

Junipers are some interesting trees, they come in all shapes and sizes.

In total we hiked 14 miles with 1150′ of elevation gain. We got to see two sections of Whychus Creek and Canyon as well as parts of two historic Wagon Roads. We ended the day by enjoying some homemade lasagna at Heather’s parents place. Not a bad way to start a holiday weekend. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Whychus Canyon Preserve, Alder Springs, and Huntington Wagon Road

Tags Alder Springs, Bald Eagle, Butterly, Central Oregon, Crooked River National Grassland, deer, hiking, Huntington Wagon Road, Huntinton Wagon Road Trail, Oregon, Santiam Wagon Road, Whychus Canyon Preserve, Whychus Creek, wildflowers

Badger Creek Area Hiking Oregon Trip report

Surveryor’s Ridge – 05/22/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 24, 2021
3 Comments on Surveryor’s Ridge – 05/22/2021

For the first time in 2021 we were forced to change plans having to delay our hike at the Ridgefiled Wildlife Refuge until the Kiwa trail reopens. (Nesting sandhill cranes have temporarily closed access as of this writing.) Since Ridgefield was out we looked at our schedule late May 2022 and decided to move up a hike on the Surveryor’s Ridge Trail. We had previously hiked portions of the 16.4 mile long trail as part of our Bald Butte (post) and Dog River Trail (post) hikes. For this visit we planned on hiking the center section of trail to visit Shellrock Mountain and Yellowjacket Point.

There are several possible trailheads for the Surveyor’s Ridge Trail and the Oregon Hikers Field Guide suggests starting at the Shellrock Mountain Trailhead for a 7.9 mile hike. We decided to be a bit different though and chose to park further south along the Forest Road 17 in a large gravel pullout at a spur road on the left. (Coming from FR 44/Dufur Road it is 1.4 miles after turning off of Brooks Meadow Road.)
Mt. Hood partly obscured by clouds from the parking area.

There were three reasons we chose this starting point. First it meant 2.5 miles less driving on gravel roads. Second if you’re visiting both Shellrock Mountain and Yellowjacket Point from the Shellrock Mountain Trailhead you wind up going to one then back past the trailhead to the other because the trailhead is in between the two. The final reason was this way we would get to experience more of the trail (although the tradeoff is an extra 5 miles of hiking round trip).

We followed the spur road downhill just over a hundred yards to the Surveyor’s Ridge Trail crossing.
The signpost is laying on the ground.

We weren’t really sure what to expect out of the trail. It is popular with mountain bikers (we saw maybe a dozen or so on the day) so it is well maintained but we weren’t sure what kind of views it might offer except for at Shellrock Mountain and Yellowjacket Point.

We were pleasantly surprised when just a third of a mile in we came to an opening with a view of Mt. Hood to the west.

The forecast for the day was mostly sunny skies in the morning with a 20% chance of showers developing after Noon. Our drive to the trailhead had been through low clouds/fog with no view of Mt. Hood to speak of so even seeing this much of the mountain was exciting plus a nice lenticular cloud was developing up top.

Over the next two and a quarter miles the trail passed through alternating forest types and several more views of Mt. Hood (and one of Mt. St. Helens). While no snow remained, much of the vegetation was in its early stages although a variety wildflowers were blooming.
Manzanita

Lupine

Mt. Hood again.

Jacob’s ladder

Red-flowering currant

Trillium (can you spot the crab spider?)

Sticky currant

Western larch tree and red-flowering currant on the left.

Larks spur and blue-eyed Mary

Columbine well before blooming.

Anemone

Largeleaf sandwort

Vanilla leaf getting ready to bloom.

Arnica

False solomons seal starting to bloom.

Star-flower false solomons seal prior to blooming.

Ballhead waterleaf

Ponderosa

Scarlet gilia not yet in bloom.

Balsamroot

Hood River Valley and Mt. St. Helens

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Hood

Indian Mountain (post)

Western serviceberry

Fairy bells

Glacier lily

Shellrock Mountain from the trail.

Just to the south of Shellrock Mountain there is a signed spur to the left for “Shellrock Mountain” which does not go to Shellrock Mountain but rather ends after few hundred feet in a small meadow below the mountain. Despite knowing this we ventured out to the meadow just to check it out.

First paintbrush of the day spotted in the little meadow.

The route to the 4449’summit lays .2 miles further north at the crest of the trail where a rough unsigned user trail veers uphill.
User trail to the left.

The faint trail was fairly well flagged and easy enough to follow through the vegetation to the open rocky slope of Shellrock Mountain.

Once we were out in the open we simply headed uphill to the summit where a lookout once sat. The three-hundred and sixty degree view includes Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in addition to Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.

Shellrock Badlands Basin, an eroded volcanic formation.

View east into Central Oregon.

Mt. Hood

Mill Creek Buttes with Lookout Mountain and Gunsight Butte (post) behind to the right.

Buckwheat

Bird below Shellrock Mountain.

We took a nice long break at the summit before descending back to the Surveyor’s Ridge Trail where we continued north.

A whole lot of trillium.

Fairy slippers

Approximately .4 miles from the user trail we arrived at the Shellrock Mountain Trailhead.

Sign at the trailhead.

Continuing beyond the trailhead the Surveyor’s Ridge Trail passed above the Shellrock Badlands Basin with views back to Shellrock Mountain and eventually Mt. Hood again.

parsley and popcorn flower.

Lupine

Over the course of the morning the cloud situation improved substantially, enough that when we arrived at a viewpoint 3/4 of a mile from the Shellrock Mountain Trailhead most of the sky around Mt. Hood was blue.

While Mt. Hood wore a lenticular cloud for a hat, my hat wore an inch worm.

I frequently have insects hitching rides, so often that we joke about me being an Uber for bugs.

Beyond this latest viewpoint the trail began a gradual climb to the former site of the Rim Rock Fire Lookout (approx 1.75 miles from the Shellrock Mountain Trailhead).
Rock out cropping in the Rim Rock section of trail.

Tailed kittentails

Western tanager female

Western tanager male

View from a rocky viewpoint just before crossing from the east side of the ridge back to the top.

Phlox

When the trail regained the ridge crest we took a user trail to a viewpoint where Mt. Hood once again dominated the view.

Hood River Valley

Interestingly the improved visibility of Mt. Hood had been countered by a loss of visibility of the Washington Cascades.
Clouds encroaching on Mt. Adams.

Mt. St. Helens

Another unmarked side trail led to the former lookout site.

The other viewpoint had a better view.

Three tenths of a mile from the lookout site we crossed an old roadbed then crossed a second in another .3 miles.
The first roadbed crossing.

Violets

There was a profusion of Red-flowering currant in between the road crossings.

Trail signs at the second road crossing.

Coralroot sprouting

Four tenths of a mile beyond the second road crossing we thought we had reached Yellowjacket Point when we arrived at an open hillside where we followed a faint path out to some rocks.

Balsamroot and paintbrush

Desert parsley

Western stoneseed

Wildflowers on the hillside.

After another long break (and removing two ticks from my pant legs) we started to head back. Something just didn’t seem right though so we checked our location on the GPS and discovered that we hadn’t quite gotten to Yellowjacket Point yet. We turned around and hiked an additional 0.1 miles to a junction where we turned left.
Sign at the junction.

Spur trail to Yellowjacket Point.

We arrived at Yellowjacket Point a tenth of a mile later.

No yellowjackets, just a robin.

Having finally reached Yellowjacket point we could head back. As usual we kept our eyes open for anything we missed on our first pass.
Things like this gooseberry shrub.

Chipmunk

Townsend’s solitare?

The biggest story on our hike back was the deterioration of the view of Mt. Hood. NOAA had not been wrong about the chance of showers in the afternoon and we watched as the clouds moved in. By the time we had arrived back at the car it had indeed started to sprinkle ever so lightly.
12:40pm

12:50pm

1:00pm

1:30pm

2:04pm

Returning to the parking area at 2:11pm

The 12.9 mile hike came with approximately 1800′ of elevation gain. We were really impressed with the variety of scenery and the views on this hike. Despite being a multi-use trail we didn’t see that many other users; a few trail runners, a couple of hikers, and a dozen or so mountain bikers. All in all a great day in the forest. Happy Trails!

Flicker: Surveryor’s Ridge

Tags hiking, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon, Rim Rock, Rim Rock Fire Lookout, Shellrock Mountain, Shellrock Mountain Trailhead, Surveryor's Ridge, Surveryor's Ridge Trail, Trillium, Western Tanager, wildflowers, Yellowjacket Point

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon Trip report

Golden and Silver Falls – 05/16/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 22, 2021
1 Comment on Golden and Silver Falls – 05/16/2021

Our trip home from the southern Oregon coast was very different than our six stop drive that started our long weekend (post). We had only one stop planned at Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area. Only 24 miles from Highway 101 in Coos Bay the park felt further removed due to the winding back country roads to the trailhead.

We started our morning off by heading for Golden Falls first. The trail led to a footbridge across Silver Creek and then forked.

We took the right hand Lower Trail first which followed Glenn Creek to the base of 254′ Golden Falls.

Rough skinned newt

Monkeyflower

Thimbleberry

Wren below Golden Falls

After exploring the area below Golden Falls we returned to the fork and turned onto the Upper Trail. This trail climbed for .4 miles to a switchback below 259′ Silver Falls.

Columbine

Ginger

Inside out flower

Iris

Anemone

20210516_074045

Ouzel

Marshall’s saxifrage

Beyond the switchback the trail continued to climb along an long abandoned road over half a mile to cliffs at the top of Golden Falls.

Plectritis

Manroot

Stonecrop

Upper portion of Golden Falls.

Glenn Creek above Golden Falls.

The trail petered out after a short distance so we turned back. As we began our hike back down blue skies emerged overhead.
Despite a cloudy morning they stayed high enough to not obstruct the view of the falls.

We returned to the trailhead where another car had joined ours and walked to the west end of the parking area to the Silver Falls Viewpoint Trail.

This .3 mile trail led to the base of Silver Falls across from the switchback.
Epic battle between a rock and a tree.

Pacific waterleaf

I was treated to a single ripe salmonberry along this stretch of trail. It didn’t survive long enough for a photo but I found another that was almost ripe.

Larkspur

Ouzel (might be the same one as earlier)

We did some more exploring around the base of the falls before saying goodbye and heading back to our car.

At 4 miles this was a perfect hike to end our trip on, even with 4 more hours of driving we made it home around 1:30pm giving us plenty of time to unpack and get ready for the work week ahead. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Golden and Silver Falls

Tags Glenn Creek, Golden and Silver Falls, Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area, Golden Falls, hiking, Oregon, Ouzel, Silver Creek, Silver Falls

Hiking Oregon Oregon Coast Southern Coast Trip report

South Slough Reserve and Shore Acres State Park – 05/15/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 21, 2021
1 Comment on South Slough Reserve and Shore Acres State Park – 05/15/2021

Our third day on the southern Oregon coast was set to be our longest day mileage wise with stops at the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve and Sunset Bay State Park. The second stop would allow us to hike through that park, Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago State Park.

We started our day parking at the closed (stupid COVID) interpretative center at South Slough Reserve.

It looked like it would be full of good info and we’ll have to come back someday post pandemic when we can experience it. For now we settled for the trails walking behind the center and picking up the Ten Minute Loop Trail where we turned right.

After just a tenth of a mile we came to a junction with the Middle Creek Trail where we turned right detouring briefly to check out an opening where in better times talks are given by staff members.

We followed the Middle Creek Trail downhill through a coastal forest to a road crossing where the Hidden Creek Trail continued on the far side.

All the bridges had labels consisting of the first initial of the trail and then the bridge number making this the 4th bridge along the Middle Creek Trail.

Interesting seat.

That’s a fancy hat for a stump.

The Hidden Creek Trail continued downhill following the creek to Hidden Creek Marsh where a series of boardwalks passed through giant skunk cabbage patches. We stayed to the right each time the boardwalks split (they eventually rejoined along the way).

We saw a lot of rough skinned newts on the trails, but what we were really hopping for was a Pacific Giant Salamander. No luck there this time.

A few trillium still had petals.

Woodpecker

We heard a few frogs and we were looking in the skunk cabbage to see if we could spot any. We didn’t see any of the frogs but we did spot several others on the plants.

A hedgenettle

At the end of Boardwalk 2 the trail became the Tunnel Trail and headed back into the forest.

After a short climb we came to a nice big observation deck. The view was good but there wasn’t much to observe on this morning.

We ignored the Big Cedar Trail to the left when we passed it and continued on the Tunnel Trail passing a couple of more viewpoints out to the South Slough. While we had struck out at the observation deck we now could see movement which turned out to be over a half dozen raccoons crossing the mud flats in search of breakfast.

Tunnel Trail indeed.

This marked the first time we’d seen raccoons on a hike and we had a lot of fun watching them search for snacks. Shortly after passing some restrooms the trail came to a junction where we headed downhill to a shed and another junction.

We turned right by the shed passing under an awning to the Sloughside Trail

We turned right first passing several wooden decks before the trail ended along the slough.

Castilleja ambigua – Estuarine Paintbrush

After watching more raccoons from the end of this spur we returned to the shed and took the left hand fork. This spur was a bit longer (still only .1 miles) and passed along a narrow strip between flats.

>End of the line.

South Slough

It was interesting to see how this uprooted tree peeled back a layer of the ground.

We again returned to the shed staying to the right and crossing a nice bridge on the North Creek Trail.

Rhoades Marsh

Sloughside Marsh

Rhododendron

A third of a mile along the North Creek Trail we came to the signed .15 mile North Creek Spur.

We decided to check it out and followed the short trail downhill to a different view of the Sloughside Marsh.

We returned to the North Creek Trail and followed it uphill back to the Ten Minute Loop Trail where we turned right for a tenth of a mile to the Interpretive Center.
Bleeding heart, fairy bells, and youth-on-age.

This was an excellent 4 mile hike with 300′ of elevation gain.

From the Interpretive Center we returned to Seven Devils Road and followed it north to Charleston were we turned left onto the Cape Arago Highway to Sunset Bay State Park, a total of 6.7 miles from the center. We parked at Sunset Bay Middle (there is a North, Middle, and South but we didn’t realize that before we parked) which added a tenth of a mile each way to our hike but we had a nice view of Sunset Beach and Bay.

We walked over to Sunset Bay South and picked up the Oregon Coast Trail at a bridge over Big Creek.

The trail climbed to the top of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific as it looped around a large grass clearing that in non-pandemic times acts as a group camp.

Cape Arago Lighthouse (not on Cape Arago) on Chiefs Island.

Salal

The group campsite.

We followed pointers for the Oregon Coast Trail which briefly followed the shoulder of Cape Arago Highway as it passed Norton Gulch.

On the far side of the gulch the trail veered away from the highway and by staying right at junctions soon got back to the cliffs above the ocean providing some excellent views.

A long pause in our hike came when we stopped to watch some harbor seals on the rocks below us.
Harbor seals in the lower right hand corner on the rocks.

Drama was unfolding in front of us as one pup repeatedly attempted to follow its mother up onto the rocks only to slide back into the water. It finally found success and then back into the water they went. Apparently it was just a practice run.

Success!

After tearing ourselves away from the seal show we continued south along the cliffs.
Paintbrush

Sea thrift

Mariposa lilies

Iris

Just over two miles into the hike we came to the first noticeable remnants of the 1906 estate of timber baron Louis Simpson.
Former tennis courts.

It was windy on the plateau and I couldn’t help but wonder how anyone could play tennis in the windy conditions that are often present on the coast.

View near the tennis courts.

These roots explain how some of the trees that look like they should be plunging into the ocean don’t.

Observation Building ahead on the cliff.

The rocks along the coastline here had been pounded and carved by the ocean into some interesting shapes and designs.

We walked past the Observation Building (closed due to COVID) to a viewpoint overlooking Simpson Cove.

The Oregon Coast Trail dropped down to the cove before climbing again and continuing onto Cape Arago State Park but before we headed down we wanted to check out the Shore Acres Gardens which were open (limit of 75 persons at a time).

It was a little early yet for many of the flowers, especially the rose garden, but there was still a lot to see. The most impressive specimens to us were a plant and tree from South America.

Prickly Rhubarb from Chile

Monkey Puzzle Tree from South America

The yet to bloom rose garden.

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After winding our way through the gardens we returned to the Oregon Coast Trail and followed it down to Simpson Beach.

After climbing up from the beach we came to an unsigned junction where we turned right continuing to follow the cliff south for .9 miles to an overlook along the Cape Arago Highway of Simpson Reef.

Looking back across Simpson Cove to the Observation Building.

Simpson Reef extending into the Pacific.

There was a lot of action going on out on the reef, in particular on Shell Island where sea lions barked and eagles engaged in aerial combat.
Shell Island in the middle of Simpson Reef.

Sea lions and juvenile bald eagles on Shell Island.

Harbor seals on the reef.

After watching the action for awhile we continued on our trek by crossing the Highway onto a hiking trail marked by a post.

Coltsfoot

After a half mile on this trail we arrived at the Cape Arago Pack Trail.

Left would loop us back to Shore Acres State Park while heading right would drop us into the main part of Cape Arago State Park. We turned right to check out more of the park and popped out near the South Cove of Cape Arago.
Woolly bear caterpillar

Looking back up the Pack Trail.

A short trail led down to the beach in the South Cove (and possible tidepools) but we were starting to feel the effects of 3 straight days of hiking and having to climb back up from the cove just didn’t sound appealing so we opted to take a break at bench overlooking the cove in a picnic area.

Plaque near the bench commermorating Sir Frances Drake’s visit to the area in 1579.

Our stalker while we sat at the bench hoping we would leave some food behind (we didn’t).

After the break we continued to follow the parking area around Cape Arago passing Middle Cove and then arriving at the North Cove Trail.

We thought we might be hearing things, but no it was a rooster crowing.

Stellar’s jay

We decided to take this trail as it only lost a little elevation on its way to a ridgeend viewpoint with a view of a different side of Shell Island.
North Cove (A trail down to that beach was closed for the season.)

From the North Cove Trail it was shorter to continue around the parking loop to reach the Pack Trail instead of backtracking so that’s what we did. The Cape Arago Pack Trail gained approximately 300′ in just under a mile to reach its high point at 530′. There had been caution signs regarding storm damage which we found near the high point where a clearcut had left trees overly exposed to winds causing several large ones to be uprooted. Luckily crews had cleared the trail beacuse the size and amount of trees down here would have been very problematic to get past.

The trail then descended to a small stream crossing before climbing again to a ridgetop.
Heading down.

Going up.

On the ridge we turned left at a junction on an old roadbed which followed the ridge down to the highway passing an old WWII radar installation bunker near the highway.

The Cape Arago Pack Trail at the highway.

We recrossed the highway here into Shore Acres State Park.

Just five hundred feet after crossing the road we came to the unsigned junction where we had turned right earlier after climbing up from Simpson Beach only we both missed it. Luckily we realized our mistake less than fifty yards later and got onto the right path. At this point we had hiked 12.5 miles on the day and it was closing in on 3pm due to all our extended breaks and we were getting tired. We decided to take the straightest path back to our car instead of following the Oregon Coast Trail as we had done earlier. We followed the entrance road in Shore Acres to the fee booth where we turned left on an old roadbed that now acts as a trail.

Going this way shortened our return trip by nearly 3/4 of a mile but it meant missing the views along the cliffs where we had watched the seals earlier. When we reached the Oregon Coast Trail we turned right and followed it back to the group camp at Sunset Bay State Park. We shortened our hike even further here by cutting through the empty camp, a move that shaved another 1/2 mile off the hike. It was a good thing too because our feet were not happy with us when we finally made it back to our car.

It had been a great day though with the two hikes combining for a 14.3 mile day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: South Slough Reserve and Shore Acres State Park

Hiking Klamath/Siskiyou Mountains Oregon Trip report

Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill – 05/14/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 20, 2021
1 Comment on Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill – 05/14/2021

Day two of our Southern Oregon Coast extended weekend had us visiting the Rogue River Trail for the first time. We were admittedly a bit apprehensive about this hike as we had hiked another river trail (the Illinois) in the area around the same time of year in 2016 and had been overrun with ticks on that outing. This turned out to be a much more pleasant outing with just a single tick needing to be flicked off Heather which she promptly flicked straight at me.

We started our hike at the Big Bend/Foster Bar Trailhead at the western end of the Rogue River National Recreation Trail.

It was a beautiful morning as we set off on the trail in the forest skirting a pasture.

Madia

Blue dicks

Near the half mile mark the trail passed below the Illahe Lodge where a couple of deer had their eyes on us.

The trail passed through a fence that was booby trapped with poison oak.
The poison oak trap in the afternoon.

While the relative absence of ticks was great we still aren’t accustomed to hiking with the amount of poison oak that tends to be present in the southern part of the State but we’re working on that. This hike was a good test as the majority of the first 4.5 miles of the trail passed through quite a bit of vegetation that more often than not included poison oak. We weren’t entirely sure what to make of the hikers we saw in shorts or pants that left open skin near the calves and ankles, were we being too paranoid or are they crazy? The first four miles also included a couple of climbs to bypass private land which limited the views of the river quite a bit.
Bridge over Billings Creek.

20210514_072347 Del Norte iris

Tolmie’s mariposa lily

20210514_074548 Douglas iris with insect.

More mariposa lilies (with a poison oak background)

Thimbleberry

The Rogue River from the trail during one of the climbs.

20210514_091222 Henderson’s stars

One of dozens of lizards we saw (or heard).

Camas

We watched a number of rafts float by and later learned that it was the last weekend to float the river without needing a permit so it was an extra busy weekend.

We had honestly been a little underwhelmed with the trail as we reached the bridge over Flea Creek at the 4.5 mile mark. We had equated the Rogue River Trail with the dramatic views we’d seen in others photos but the section of trail up to now was short on those.
Footbridge over Flea Creek

Things changed in a hurry beyond Flea Creek though as the views opened up a bit before the trail arrived at Flora Del Falls less than a quarter mile later.

We took an extended break at the falls before continuing on another 1.75 miles to the Clay Hill Lodge where we decided to turn around. The scenery was now excellent, exactly what we had been hoping for but it was warmer than we were used to and we had more hiking to do over the next couple of days so as tempting as continuing on was, the lodge made for a good turnaround point.

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20210514_094757 Oregon sunshine

20210514_095219 Elegant brodiaea

Yarrow

Bindweed

Poppies

Clay Hill Lodge

Rafts in Clay Hill Rapids

Winecup clarkia

We saw our only snake of the day on our return trip when we spotted our first ring-necked snake in the trail.

The rafts seemed to have given way to Jet Boats which we could hear coming well before we saw them.

We stopped again at Flora Del Falls where I was tormented by a swallow tail that just wouldn’t land.

One of the dozens of photos I took trying to get the swallow tail in flight.

After the break we headed back to the trailhead. We were trying to come up with markers to break up the 4.5 mile section and Heather remembered that Sullivan had said that there were 5 bridge crossings over named creeks. We ignored the “named creeks” detail and began counting bridges down from 5. There were well more than 5 bridge, closer to a dozen but only 5 crossed “named creeks”. Either way we made it back to the car (and past a few cows) finishing a very nice 12.9 mile hike just after 2:15pm.

After staying in Gold Beach the night before we were now headed north to Bandon for a couple of nights. We stopped for dinner in Port Orford at the Crazy Norwegian on a recommendation from Heather’s Dad. We shared a clam chowder and split the fish and chips. They were wonderful, a perfect ending to our day.

We found out a couple of days later that we had missed running into the folks from Boots on the Trail, one of our favorite hiking blogs. They had been hiking the entire trail one way and would be doing this section on Saturday the 15th, one day after our hike. We have wondered if that might happen sometime when we are down in that area and it almost did. Maybe next trip. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Rogue River Trail – Big Bend to Clay Hill Lodge

Tags Big Bend Trailhead, Clay Hill Lodge, Crazy Norwegian, Foster Bar Trailhead, hiking, Lizard, Oregon, ring-necked snake, Rogue River, Rogue River National Recreation Trail. Illahe Lodge, Rogue River Trail. Port Orford, Wild Rogue Wilderness

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon Oregon Coast Southern Coast Trip report

Trail Hopping Down the Southern Oregon Coast – 05/13/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 19, 2021
4 Comments on Trail Hopping Down the Southern Oregon Coast – 05/13/2021

Our first big trip of the year was an extended weekend visit to the southern Oregon coast area to finish the remaining featured hikes from Sullivan’s “100 Hikes Oregon Coast & Coast Range” (3rd ed.) as well as a couple from his additional hikes section. For the first day of the trip we had set an ambitious goal of stopping at five different trailheads on the way to our motel in Gold Beach and after checking in continuing almost to the California border for a sixth hike on the Oregon Redwoods Trail. We got our typical early start driving from Salem to Eugene to take Highway 126 toward the coast and our first stop at the Mapleton Hill Pioneer Trailhead .

The short loop (0.6 miles) on the Pioneer Trail here follows portions of the historic North Fork Trail and Mapleton Hill Road which were early routes connecting Florence and Eugene.

The trail was in good shape and there were a some wildflowers in bloom to go along with the numerous interpretive signs along the loop.

Thimbleberry

Salmonberry

McLeod Creek

One of the sharp turns.

Fairy bells

Columbine

20210513_073907 Bleeding heart

20210513_074116 Monkeyflower

Sourgrass

20210513_074232 Star flower

Trillium

20210513_074727 Star flower solomonseal

20210513_074801 Twisted stalk

Wren – We heard lots of birds but didn’t see many of them.

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Waterleaf

After completing the loop we drove west from the trailhead on Road 5070/North Fork Siuslaw Road to Road 5084 which we followed 5 miles to the Pawn Trailhead.

This was another short loop hike (0.8 miles) which combined with the Pioneer Trail make up featured hike #57 in the 3rd edition (they were moved to the additional hikes section in the 4th edition). This trail suffered some storm damage over the Winter and as of our hike had only been 80% cleared. It is also an interpretive trail but instead of signs there are markers which correspond to information on a brochure that can be downloaded from the Forest Service here. The name “Pawn” was derived from the last names of four families that settled in the area in the early 1900’s – the Pooles, Akerleys, Worthingtons, and Nolans.

While this trail was relatively close to the Pioneer Trail the presence of the old growth trees gave the hike a different feel.

Marker for a fire scarred Douglas fir. According to the brochure the last major fire in the area was in the 1860s.

The storm damage proved to be a bit tricky but it appeared the Forest Service had started a reroute of the trail which we were able to follow.

We had to climb over this big tree.

We lost the reroute after climbing over the big trunk and had to bushwack our way through some debris before climbing up on a second downed trunk and walking along it to the resumption of the trail. At one point Heather bumped a limb and pine needles exploded over her head like confetti giving us both a good laugh.

The loop ended shortly beyond the damage and we were soon back at the trailhead. From there we drove west on North Fork Siuslaw Road into Florence. From Florence we took Highway 101 south toward Coos Bay. We turned off a little north of North Bend at a sign for Horsefall Dune and Beach. Our next stop was yet another short loop trail, this time at Bluebill Lake. We parked at the Bluebill Trailhead and set off on the wide trail.

We went clockwise around the loop. The water level of the lake varies throughout the year but there was a good amount of water now but no flooding which can be an issue in late Winter/early Spring.
Looking at the bridge at the north end of the lake.

Canada geese

Cormorants flying above the lake.

Cormorant

Ring necked ducks

Rhododendron

Boardwalk at the south end of the lake.

Sparrow

Coming up on the bridge at the north end.

Yellow rumped warbler

Finch

After completing the 1.5 mile hike here we returned to Highway 101 and continued south into Coos Bay where we detoured to our fourth stop of the day at Millicoma Marsh. This was an interesting trailhead given that it was right next to a middle school track and field.
The trail on the far side of the track.

We followed the posted directions and kept to the outside of the grass as we walked around the track to the trail.

One of three panels on a signboard at the start of the trails.

<img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51186413813_b626e92da2_c.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="IMG_4030">Woodpecker

Two tenths of a mile from the signboard the grassy track came to a junction. The loop continued to the left but a quarter mile spur trail to the right led to an observation bench. We hiked out to the end of the spur trail before continuing on the loop.
This bench is at the junction.

Sparrow near the junction.

Heading to the observation structure.

Looking toward Coos Bay along the Coos River.

McCullough Memorial Bridge spanning Coos Bay.

Wetlands from the end of the spur.

We returned to the loop and continued counterclockwise around. There wasn’t much wildlife activity which was probably a matter of timing as it looked like an area where we might see quite a bit. In any case the hike was pleasant with nice scenery.
Bitter cherry

Crow

Turkey vulture

Cormorants overhead

Canada goose with goslings

Buttercups

Pale flax

Arriving back at the field.

Up to this point we had only passed one other hiker all day (at Bluebill Lake) but this area was popular and we ran into over a half dozen other users on this 1.8 mile jaunt.

From Coos Bay we continued south on Hwy 101 for 14.6 miles before turning right onto West Beaver Hill Road at a sign for the Seven Devils Wayside, our next stop. We parked in the large lot where only one other vehicle sat and promptly headed down to the beach.

Ground squirrel enjoying the view.

Twomile Creek

Our plan here was to hike south along the beach at least as far as Fivemile Point to complete another of Sullivan’s featured hikes. We hopped across the creek using rocks and logs and set off on what is considered possibly the windiest beach along the Oregon coast (it was windy).
Shore bird in the creek.

The occupant of the other vehicle had headed north so we had this stretch of beach to ourselves, and a few feathered friends.

The hillside was covered with yellow gorse, an invasive but colorful shrub.

The gorse wasn’t the only yellow flowers present though.
Brass buttons (another non-native)

We were looking for a side trail up to a viewpoint bench that Sullivan showed as .7 miles from the trailhead just beyond a brown outcrop.
The brown outcrop a little way ahead with Fivemile Point further on.

We couldn’t pick out any trail just several stream beds and seeps so we kept going coming next to a rock spire a short distance from Fivemile Point.

We passed the spire and continued to Fivemile Point where the ocean was coming up to the rocks effectively creating our turn around point.
Whiskey Run Beach lay on the other side of the rocks with another parking area 0.8 further south.

A cormorant off Fivemile Point

We turned back and headed north past the spire.

We were now walking into the stiff wind but from this direction Heather was able to spot some stairs in the vegetation marking the side trail to the bench.

We followed a good trail .2 miles to said bench.

View from the bench.

After a short break at the viewpoint we descended to the beach and returned to our car.

We returned to Highway 101 and drove south into Gold Beach where we checked into our motel and dropped our stuff off before hitting the road again. Our final stop of the day had us driving south of Brookings to the Oregon Redwoods Trailhead.

A 1.2 mile barrier free lollipop loop trail starts at the trailhead.

We were once again the only people on this trail which was especially nice given the setting amid the giant trees. Although the trees here aren’t as big as those found in California we were once again awestruck by them. We stayed right where the barrier free loop started which brought us to a hollowed out trunk with room for several people.

Coming up on the hollow trunk straight ahead.

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Approximately a half mile into the loop portion of the trail the Oregon Redwoods Trail split off allowing for a longer (2.5 miles total) hike.

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We set off on the Pioneer Trail at 7:19am and stepped off the Oregon Redwood Trail at 5:51pm. We logged 9.8 miles of hiking but nearly 147 miles (as the crow flies) separated the Oregon Redwoods Trailhead from the Pawn Trailhead (and another 70 miles home) making for a long but great day. We had gotten to see a great variety of scenery all in one day. To top it off we could now check three more featured hikes off our yet-to-do list. The only thing that could have made the day better would have been an actual knob on the cold water handle in the motel shower. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Southern Oregon Coast

Tags Bluebill Lake, coos bay, Fivemile Point, Gold Beach, hiking, Mapleton Hill Pioneer Trail, Millicoma Marsh, Oregon, Oregon Coast, oregon coast trail, Oregon Redwoods, Oregon Redwoods Trail, Pawn Old Growth, Pawn Trail, Pioneer Trail, Seven Devils Wayside

Corvallis Hiking Oregon Willamette Valley

Finley Wildlife Refuge Loop – 4/14/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 15, 2021
7 Comments on Finley Wildlife Refuge Loop – 4/14/2021

A day after visiting the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge (post) I headed out to the William L. Finely National Wildlife Refuge for another attempt at spotting wildlife. Heather once again was working so I was on my own again. We had done two previous hikes here, one in 2017 visiting the Cabell Marsh and hiking the Woodpecker and Mill Hill Loops and the other in 2020 starting near Pigeon Butte. My plan was to combine most of those two hikes and add a few new short stretches to make a big loop through the refuge starting from the Woodpecker Loop Trailhead. One item to note is that some of the refuge is closed from November 1st through March 31st making this loop impossible during the seasonal closure.

The refuge is open from dawn to dusk and I arrived at the trailhead just as the Sun was beginning to rise behind Mt. Jefferson.

From the Woodpecker Loop Trailhead I walked down to the refuge road and followed it to the left back to the Cabell Barn then turned right on a road at a season trail sign for the Cabell Marsh Overlook. I followed the roadbed to the Cabell Lodge and past the overlook down to Cabell Marsh.
Mt. Hood from the refuge road

The Three Sisters from the road

Yellow paintbrush

Cabell Barn

img src=”https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51116225393_9feb61f994_c.jpg” width=”800″ height=”600″ alt=”IMG_1860″>Cabell Lodge

Rabbit at the lodge

Cabell Marsh Overlook

White crowned sparrows

Deer in a field near Cabell Marsh

Cabell Marsh (the marsh had been drained when we visited in 2020)

I slowly walked along the dike at the marsh using binoculars to try and identify how many different ducks were out on the water.
Norther shovelers

American coots

Ring-necked ducks

Buffleheads

Black pheobe

American wigeons

IMG_1915_stitch Cabell Marsh

Canada geese

Wood duck, ring-necked ducks and a pied billed grebe

More northern shovelers

Ring-necked ducks

Green winged teal

Robin

At a junction on the SW end of the Marsh I stayed left following a roadbed past a huge flock of geese and some ponds to a junction with the Pigeon Butte Trail.

Killdeer

Red-winged blackbird

Junction with the Pigeon Butte Trail (grassy track heading uphill)

Originally I had planned on skipping the half mile trail to the top of Pigeon Butte but it was a beautiful morning and it had been too cloudy to see much on our hike in 2020 so I turned uphill an tagged the summit before returning to my originally planned loop.
Tortoiseshell butterfly

Spotted towhee serenade

Bewick’s wren

Madrone

Mourning dove

Camas blooming near the summit

View from Pigeon Butte

Scrub jay spotted on the way down.

One of the “blue” butterflies, maybe a silvery blue

Acorn woodpecker

When I got back down to the junction I continued south on the Pigeon Butte Trail to a junction at a pond below Cheadle Barn.
Looking back at Pigeon Butte, the yellow paintbrush was starting its bloom on the hillside.

Instead of heading for the barn and the Cheadle Marsh Trail which we had used on our 2020 visit I went right following a roadbed to Bruce Road across from the Field 12 Overlook.
Looking back at Pigeon Butte and the Cheadle Barn

Western bluebird

Bruce Rd and a sign for the overlook.

Swallows at the overlook

Mary’s Peak and Pigeon Butte from the overlook.

Mary’s Peak (post)

I then walked west on Bruce Road to the trailhead for the Beaver Pond and Cattail Pond Trails passing the Mitigation Wetland along the way. I paused at the wetland to watch a great blue heron and egret along with a number of ducks in.
Ground squirrel on Bruce Rd.

Sparrows

Western bluebird

Mitigation Wetland

Egret

heron flying by the egret

Northern shoveler

Green winged teals

Trailhead off of Bruce Road

I turned off of Bruce Road at the trailhead and followed the grassy track to a fork where I veered left on the Beaver Pond Trail. This trail led briefly through the woods before arriving at the Beaver Pond where I startled a heron and a few ducks but an egret and a few other ducks stuck around.
Ground squirrel

Entering the woods

Giant white wakerobin

Fairybells

Startled heron

Egret and a cinnamon teal pair and maybe an American wigeon

As I was watching the egret I noticed something else in the water but I wasn’t sure if it was an animal or a log/rock in disguise. Even with binoculars I could decide but after looking at the pictures it was in fact a nutria that appeared to be napping.

The egret finally flew off and I continued on to a junction just beyond the pond where I turned left heading slightly uphill toward the Refuge Headquarters and the Mill Hill Loop.

Candyflower

At a signed 4-way junction I followed a pointer for the Mill Hill Trail to the left but not before I checked out a patch of pink along the trail straight ahead.

The pink turned out to be shooting stars.

I hiked the Mill Hill Loop (which led back to the junction right past the shooting stars) and then turned left on the Intertie Trail. The Mill Hill Loop was full of surprises with a number of different wildflowers blooming and a turtle sighting. The turtle was on a log in a wetland quite a bit below a bench along the trail and I only spotted it with the help of the binoculars but that counts.
Iris

Bleeding heart

One of many fairy slippers

It took some work to get the camera to stop focusing on the brush in the foreground.

Buttercups

Violets

Fawn lilies

Back at the junction and onto the Intertie Trail

I followed the Intertie Trail to the Woodpecker Loop ignoring side trails to the Refuge Headquarters.

Service berry

The Woodpecker Loop

I turned left opting to head uphill on a slightly longer route back to my car so that I could check out the view from a hilltop viewing structure.
Norther flicker along the Woodpecker Loop

Amphibian pond and interpretive kiosk.

Viewing structure

Mt. Jefferson

The Three Sisters

I watched a pair of raptors chase each other around but couldn’t get a clear enough view to tell what kind they were (maybe Cooper’s hawks?).

This was the best shot I could get at 40x zoom with the sun in front of me.

After accepting that a clearer picture wasn’t possible I left the shelter and hiked downhill to my waiting car. While I only passed two other hikers on the trails there were a number of folks at the trailhead either just arriving or getting ready to leave. My loop with the mile detour up and down Pigeon Butte came in at 11.3 miles. The great thing about Finley is the diversity it offers with forest, woodlands, marshes and fields each supporting different plants and wildlife. The possibility of long, medium and short hikes is also nice. The one drawback is that there is a lot of poison oak in the area but they keep the trails wide enough that it really isn’t much of a problem.

Happy Trails!

Flickr: Finley Wildlife Refuge Loop

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Willamette Valley

Ankeny Wildlife Refuge – 04/13/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 13, 2021
4 Comments on Ankeny Wildlife Refuge – 04/13/2021

I found myself with some time off that Heather does not and after spending the first day getting the car serviced and receiving my first dose of COVID vaccine (YAY) I spent the next morning exploring the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. We had visited once before in 2014 for a short hike described by Sullivan in his “100 Hikes in the Central Oregon Cascades” guidebook (post). This time I hoped to explore more of the refuge by hiking some of the dike trails that are open from April 1st to September 30th. I started my morning at the Eagle Marsh parking area on Buena Vista Road.

There is a nice kiosk there overlooking the marsh from which quite a few ducks and geese were visible.

Buffleheads

Canada goose and mallards

American coot

Ring-necked ducks (I’m not sure all the females are the same.)

Geese flying over Eagle Marsh as the Sun rises.

There was more vegetation at the southern end of the marsh where robins and blackbirds were singing.

At the end of Eagle Marsh the dike split and I had intended to stay straight (the Refuge trail map appeared to show a possible loop around Willow Marsh but other maps do not show a dike at the southern end) but a sign there announced that dike was closed due to active nesting so I turned left instead.
Willow Marsh

There were a lot of ducks in Willow Marsh but they were keeping a safe distance from me.
A bufflehead and mallards

Mallards and ring-necked ducks

I then turned right along a dike passing between Willow and Teal Marshes.
Teal Marsh to the left of the dike.

It was more of the same treatment from the ducks in Teal Marsh.

Mallards an northern shovelers

Buffleheads

While the ducks stayed away I had better luck with the smaller birds.
Spotted towhee

Red-winged blackbird

Female red-winged blackbird

Sparrow

Yellow-rumped warbler

At the end of Teal Marsh I turned around and headed back past the ducks.

Geese coming in for a landing on Teal Marsh

Northern flicker

Green-winged teal

Ring-necked ducks and a bufflehead pair

Scrub jay

Pie billed grebe at Eagle Marsh

The out-and-back was a nice, albeit windy, 3.2 mile walk with no elevation gain. From Eagle Marsh I turned left (SW) onto Buena Vista Road and drove a quarter mile to a small pullout at a green gate.

From here I planned on following another dike past Mohoff Pond and Pintail Marsh to Wintel Road and then follow that road briefly to the Rail Trail Loop Area which is where we had been on our first visit. A bald eagle flew over Mohoff Pond just as I set off.

Mohoff Pond was busy with a number of different ducks but primarily they seemed to be northern shovelers.

I didn’t see it when I took the picture but it appears there is an eagle on the ground in the distance here.

The activity wasn’t only at Mohoff Pond though as a handful of egrets were mostly out of view in a field on the other side of the railroad tracks.
One of the egrets taking off.

Brewer’s blackbird on a tree along the railroad tracks.

I stayed right at a junction with a dike running between Mohoff Pond and Pintail Marsh.
Pintail Marsh ahead on the left.

The dike between Mohoff Pond and Pintail Marsh.

Ducks at Pintail Marsh

There was a gravel parking area at the southern end of Pintail Marsh where I hopped onto Wintel Road and headed left following the narrow shoulder for .3 miles to another green gate on the right hand side of the road.
Pintail Marsh

Looking back at the gate and Wintel Road

I followed a grassy track which split 100 feet from the gate and turned right (left would have led me to the Rail Trail Parking area). The path led past a little standing water before leading onto a dike along Wood Duck Pond.

Yellow legs

I passed the Rail Trail Boardwalk and stayed on the dike now retracing our steps from our first visit.

The dike turned south wrapping around Dunlin Pond.
The boardwalk across Dunlin Pond from the dike.

Ring-necked ducks

Ring-necked ducks taking off.

Sparrow

Common yellowthroat

Hawk and a sparrow

At the far end of Dunlin Pond the dike split again at Killdeer Marsh. Here I turned right and looped around Killdeer Marsh.
Killdeer Marsh

Another yellow legs?

Mustard along Killdeer Marsh

A killdeer amid ducks at Killdeer Marsh

The dike didn’t quite go all the way around the marsh but it was easy walking along the edge of a field to get back to the dike on the north side of the marsh. The only issue was a 5 foot wide wet area between the field and dike where try as I might my shoes wound up wet. Once I was back on the dike I had the choice to go left back along Killdeer Marsh or a different dike veering off to the right along South Pond. I chose right and followed this dike around the end of South Pond.

South Pond

Cinnamon Teal in South Pond

The dike led me to one of two actual trails in the Refuge, the Rail Trail.

Damaged trees from the ice storm earlier this year.

Turkey vulture

Candyflower

I turned right at the boardwalk and followed it over the water to the dike on the far side.

American coots

I think this is a ring-necked duck and a lesser scaup.

At the dike I turned right and retraced my steps back to Witnel Road and headed back toward Pintail Marsh. Instead of going to the gravel parking lot that I had been at earlier I left the road at the Pintail/Egret Marsh Boardwalk Trailhead.

I followed this short boardwalk along and over Bashaw Creek to a bird blind.

Again on the trail map it appeared that the boardwalk connect to a dike at Egret Marsh but it instead it dead ended at the blind.
The dike from the blind.

I turned around and headed back to Witnel Road a little dissapointed but then I spotted a little green frog on a log and all was good.

When I got back to the lot a Pintail Marsh I turned right thinking I would follow the dike on the other side Pintail Marsh and Mohoff Pond.

I stayed right when I passed another dike that allowed for a loop around Frog Marsh and stopped at a photo blind (reservable from 10/1-3/31).

At the junction with the other end of the Frog Marsh Loop I ran into another obstacle, more active nesting had closed the dike along Pintail Marsh so I did the loop around Frog Marsh and back to the gravel lot I went.

I retraced my steps on the dike along the west side of Pintail Marsh before turning right on the dike between the marsh and Mohoff Pond.
Killdeer on the dike.

A whole lot of geese in the air ahead.

I turned left at a four way junction where the closed dike joined from between Pintail and Egret Marshes.

I was now on a dike between Mohoff Pond (left) and Mallard Marsh (right).

Ducks and geese were everywhere as I trudged directly into the wind along the dike.
Green-winged teals

Northern shovelers

Canada geese

Another green-winged teal

Various ducks

Northern pintails

Crow

A green-winged teal and a yellow legs

My second stop wound up coming to 7.5 miles making for a 10.7 mile day. I only passed two people all day and saw a lot of different birds which made for a great hike. If I were a more patient person I would have sat at a blind or two and waited for some closer encounters but I prefer to keep moving so I have to settle for the long distance shots more often than not. Either way Ankeny is a great place to visit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Ankeny Wildlife Refuge

Columbia Gorge North Columbia River Gorge South Hiking Trip report

Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill – 3/27/21

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 29, 2021
1 Comment on Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill – 3/27/21

**Note – In 2025 the Rowena Fire burned over Sevenmile Hill.**

We normally only do one hike a month from November through April but a forecast of sunny skies and highs in the low to mid 60’s combined with a chance to see some early wildflowers was enough to break that rule and head to the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. The first wildflowers (usually grass widows and/or parsleys) can show up as early as January in areas such as Catherine Creek (post) with things really picking up by late March and running through early June in the upper meadow of Dog Mountain (post). We had previously been to Catherine Creek (along with Coyote Wall), the Tom McCall Preserve (post), Columbia Hills State Park (post), Memaloose Hills (post) and Swale Canyon (post) so for this outing we decided to check out the Lyle Cherry Orchard and Sevenmile Hill.

Before we got to those wildflower hikes we planned a quick stop at the Mitchell Point Trailhead to make the 1.1 mile climb up to the top of the point. We had actually stopped here in 2018 (after our Memaloose Hills hike) to take the Wygant Trail up to a viewpoint. Originally my plan had been to do these three hikes in a different order starting at the Lyle Cherry Orchard and ending with Mitchell Point but after looking at the plan a little more I realized that it had two flaws. First the exit to the Mitchell Point Trail is only accessible from the eastbound lanes of I-84 and there is no westbound access to I-84 from the trailhead either. (I had made this mistake with the outing in 2018 leading to some extra driving.) The second issue had to do with crowds and our never ending attempt to avoid them. Leaving Mitchell Point as the last hike might have meant dealing with some crowds whereas we didn’t expect Sevenmile Hill to be busy. Our plan seemed to be working pretty well as we were the first car at the Mitchell Point Trailhead.

We headed to the left of the signboard to the Mitchell Point Trail which began climbing almost immediately.

The trail switchbacked up a forested hillside with a few blooming toothworts.
Bench at a switchback.

20210327_080649

We then crossed a talus slope beneath Mitchell Point where lots of tiny blue-eyed Mary grew amid the rocks.

Reroute below Mitchell Point

Mushrooms’ and some sedums.

Views to the west along the Columbia River opened up as we climbed.

The trail briefly reentered the forest and climbed to a set of power lines and an accompanying road.

The trail never quite reached the road instead turning east then north as it headed out toward Mitchell Point.

Houndstongue

We followed the trail out onto Mitchell Points Ridge which was dotted with wildflowers including a lot of bright grass widows.

Grass Widows

Woodland stars

Yellow bell lily

Desert parsley and woodland stars

A saxifrage

Gold stars and woodland stars

In addition to the wildflowers the view from Mitchell Point was impressive.
Looking west

North across the Columbia River into Washington

East

In typical Gorge fashion it was a bit windy (a theme that would continue throughout the day) which didn’t seem to bother the birds.
Looks like moss for a nest maybe?

We returned the way we’d come arriving back at the trailhead to find we were still the only people there, but we weren’t alone.

Turkeys on the Wygant Trail

At just over 2 miles round trip the hike to Mitchell Point made for a nice short hike but it comes at a price gaining over a thousand feet on the way up. From this trailhead we continued east to Hood River where we paid the $2 toll to cross the bridge into Washington. We continued east on SR 14 through the town of Lyle then parked at a gravel pullout on the left hand side of the road just beyond a tunnel. This was the unsigned trailhead for the Lyle Cherry Orchard Hike. There were maybe a half dozen or so cars here already which we were pleased with given the large number of cars we already passed by at the Coyote Wall and Catherine Creek Trailheads (and it wasn’t even 8:45 yet). The unsigned trail starts near the eastern end of the parking area and passing along a rock wall through oak trees with lots of poison oak.

Red leaves of poison oak behind a death camas

More poison oak behind a waterleaf

Poison oak around some balsamroot

A short distance up the trail there is a nice map and trails signboard announcing the start of land owned by the Friends of the Columbia Gorge.

From the signboard the trail continues to climb through the rock and oaks to a plateau where the poison oak is briefly left behind.

Fiddleneck

Desert parsley

Manroot

Lots of death camas blooming on the plateau.

We followed the trail as it headed gradually uphill toward a second plateau.

Looking up at the cliffs above.

Balsamroot blooming below the rim.

At a fork in the trail we detoured left for a view of the Columbia River.

20210327_091929

We returned to the main trail which began to climb the hillside below the rim. While it was still a couple of weeks from prime wildflower season here there was a good balsamroot display along with a few other flowers in bloom.
Balsamroot

Woodland stars with some lupine leaves

Columbia desert parsley

A biscuitroot

Balsamroot

20210327_092349 Balsamroot

The trail leveled out again after reaching the rim of the upper plateau where it also reentered an oak woodland.
View west (With a snow capped Mt. Defiance (post) in the distance.)

Amid the oaks were some additional types of flowers.
Larkspur

Buttercups

Glacier lilies

Yellow bell lily, woodland stars, grass widows and shooting stars.

20210327_104840 Yellow bell lilies

Toothwort

Sagebrush false dandelions

Tortoiseshell butterfly

Just under 2.5 miles from the trailhead we came to a junction which is the start of a short loop. We stayed left arriving at an old road bed a short distance later where we turned right and soon entered the site of the old orchard. Nearly all the cherry trees are gone and the few that remain only have a few branches that continue to bloom and we were too early for those.

The trail looped through the now open meadow with views east of the Columbia River.

A short spur trail on the SW part of the loop led to a viewpoint to the west.

Tom McCall Point and the Rowena Plateau with Mt. Defiance in the distance.

After checking out the view we completed the loop and headed back the way we’d come. We had only encountered a couple of other hikers up to this point (we’d seen more from afar) but the return trip was a different story. There was a lot of mask donning and stepping aside on the way back to the trailhead.
Hikers on the trailhead and below.

One bit of excitement on the return trip was spotting a couple of orange-tip butterflies. We rarely see these pretty butterflies and it’s even rarer that I manage to get any kind of picture.
Just my third photo of an orange-tip.

The hike here for us came to 5.5 miles with another 1200′ of elevation gain giving us over 2200′ for the day so far. The parking area was now a full two rows of cars with more arriving (it was between 11:30 & 12:00). We quickly packed up and opened a spot for someone else and once again headed east on SR 14. We re-crossed the Columbia River on Highway 197 into The Dalles and took I-84 west for 5 miles following the Oregon Hikers directions to the Sevenmile Hill Trailhead

We weren’t sure how popular this hike is given that there are no official trails. That question, at least for this time of the year, was answered when we pulled into the empty gravel pullout.

Our plan was to follow the entry in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide (description). The area consists of Forest Service land surrounded by private holdings (note the no trespassing sign across the road in the photo above).
We headed uphill and left, away from the blocked road passing a gravel pit on our left.

We were supposed to reach a knoll with a small windbreak made out of erratics (rocks from the Rocky Mountains deposited by the Missoula Floods). The first knoll we climbed had some erratics but no windbreak.
Mt. Hood and Columbia desert parsley from the first knoll we tried.

Top of knoll #1.

A lone balsamroot blossom.

We weren’t sure if this was the right knoll or not but we did know from the map in the field guide that we should continue uphill and to the left. We kept climbing up the grassy hillside and reached the top of another knoll where we did indeed find a small windbreak.

From the knoll we followed a faint grassy track past a spring to a stand of oak trees.
The path leading past the spring to the oaks.

The spring

There was a fence on the hillside at the oak trees. We got a bit confused here reading the hike description. It reads “Head up gradually to your left, reaching a draw. Walk across the broken fence line here and cross a small bench. Continue hiking up to your left. At some point, you should see the southwest boundary corner of the property and a fence line ahead.” We had not noticed another fence line and this fence was broken here with no signs so we continued on the faint path. That was a mistake and the fence we passed through was the boundary. When we reached a small crest where we could see everything ahead of us there was no other fence in sight.

We quickly turned and began heading uphill to the NE to relocate the fence line and get ourselves on the correct side (Our apologies to whomever that land belongs too).
Back on the right side

Now we were back on course and followed the fence line uphill. While the wildflowers here would have been better from mid to late April there were a few splashes of color here and there.

Balsamroot surrounded by some little white flowers.

Lupine thinking about blooming.

Larkspur

Yellow bell lilies

We deviated from the description as we neared the top of the hill electing not to follow the fence through a stand of oak trees, where the guide indicates there is a profusion of poison oak, opting instead to pass through the oaks lower on the hillside.

We didn’t notice any poison oak here.

On the far side of the oaks we turned almost directly uphill reaching a viewpoint where Mt. Adams rose to the north beyond the Columbia River.

A grass widow at the viewpoint.

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood over the oak stand.

We turned right along the rim following deer and elk trails through the oaks and past more viewpoints.

From a grassy rise along the ridge we could see a faint path leading into another stand of trees where we could also make out the fence line marking the eastern boundary of the Forest Service Land.

We headed downhill and followed the path to the fence line and then followed it down.
The Dalles beyond the fence line.

Heading down the fence line.

As we lost elevation we began to see quite a few more flowers. It seemed that the flowers at this eastern end were ahead of those to the west.
20210327_143435 Large head clover

A lupine with blossoms.

Hillside covered in Columbia desert parsley

Our car had been joined by one other. (middle left of photo)

Gooseberry Creek

We turned away from the fence on an old farm road following it back to the road near the trailhead by the “No Trespassing” signs.

This loop came in at 4.3 miles according to my GPS and was at least 1250′ of elevation gain which was made more difficult by the cross country terrain. There was little to no level footing for the vast majority of this hike and coming after we had already hiked 7.6 miles and gained 2200′ it really tired us out. That being said it was a great day to be out. One thing to note is that all three hikes are in located in tick country (we were lucky enough not to pick up any) and both Sevenmile Hill and Lyle Cherry Orchard are in rattlesnake country (again didn’t see any). Happy Trails and stay safe out there!

Flickr: Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill

Tags balsamroot, Columbia River Gorge, hiking, Lyle Cherry Orchard, Mitchell Point, Oregon, Sevenmile hill, The Dalles, Washington, wildflowers