Category: Hiking

Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, & North Santiam Park – 07/04/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 6, 2023
5 Comments on Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, & North Santiam Park – 07/04/2023

Traditionally we take a hike on July 4th somewhere in the Cascade foothills. Last year we broke that tendency by spending an extended weekend in California’s Siskiyou Wilderness (post). This year we set our sights back on the Cascade foothills with plans to hike three short trails featured in a couple of Matt Reeder’s guidebooks. All of the trails we were visiting today were impacted by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire.

Our first stop of the morning was at the Natural Rock Arch Trailhead. Located in the Santiam State Forest Reeder combines the Natural Rock Arch Trail and the Rocky Top Trail as hike #15 in his “101 Hikes in the Majestic Mount Jefferson Region” 2nd edition.

The forecast for Salem was for temps in the mid-90s so we got an early start.

The Natural Rock Arch Trail set off downhill from the small parking area through burned woods.

There were a number of wildflowers blooming along the trail including some impressive Cascade lilies.
Bleeding heart and penstemon

Iris

Cascade lily

Scouler’s bluebell

Inside-out flower

A few green trees remain.

Another Cascade lily

The trail was in pretty good shape overall and we could tell there was ongoing trail work. It looked like there were some rock steps that were going be placed in this section.

Penstemon

Oregon sunshine

It was a half mile descent to the Natural Rock Arch.

View from the arch.

Fin below the arch.

The trail continues through the arch and uphill a short distance on the other side to a small cave/overhang.

After visiting the arch we hiked back up to the trailhead regaining the 500′ in elevation we’d lost on the way down. The climb was the main reason we’d started with this trail preferring to make the climb before it got too warm.

In the guidebook Reeder has you drive to the Rocky Top Trailhead which is just under 2 miles away. The last mile or so of the drive to the Natural Rock Arch Trailhead had been a little rough and I didn’t feel like two more miles of the same so we decided to walk the road instead. While there was another 500′ of elevation difference between the two trailheads the gain looked to be very gradual on the topographic map.

This wound up being a great choice as the road was lined with wildflowers for nearly its entire length, and we also spotted a pika along the way.

Snowberry checkerspot

Rocky Top straight ahead.

Penstemon and big deer vetch

Cascade lily

Oregon sunshine, penstemon, Oregon bedstraw, and a daisy or two.

Oregon sunshine and paintbrush

There was a fair amount of shade while the Sun was still low.

Paintbrush and penstemon

Thimbleberry

Bleeding heart. There was more bleeding heart on this hillside than we’d ever seen in one spot.

Eight-spotted Forester-Alypia octomaculata

Pika below the road.

Pika

Rhododendron

The Three Sisters on a hazy morning.

Anemone

Paintbrush and lupine

Beargrass

A few patches of green below Rocky Top.

This was probably the worst spot in the road in between the two trailheads.

Bunchberry

Trillium with a few petals yet to fall off.

Violets

Spirea and valerian

Large boykinia

Lots of lupine.

Larkspur and phacelia

Arriving at the Rocky Top Trailhead.

A Marion County Sherrif drove up in his pickup as I arrived at the trailhead. We had a nice talk before he started back down the road. Heather arrived shortly afterward and we started up the Rocky Top Trail together.

Clodius paranssian

More flowers awaited along the 0.7 climb to the former lookout site atop Rocky Top.
Columbine

Beardstongue

Lupine

The road from the trail. The taller, rounded, peak in the center is Sardine Mountain (post). Sardine Mountain Road has yet to reopen after the 2020 fire.

Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters.

We decide the primary cause of the haze was smoke from the Tunnel 5 Fire on the Washington side of the Columbia River across from Hood River with the fires in Canada most likely adding their own smoke to the mix. The hazy view didn’t bother us though as the wildflowers and abundant pollinators held our attention.

Mt. Jefferson, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Washington and the Three Sisters.

Mt. Jefferson through the haze.

Elkhorn Ridge (post) with Mt. Hood in the distance to the right. Elkhorn Ridge and Opal Creek Wilderness beyond were severely impacted by the fire and remain closed for now.

Mt. Hood above ridges of burned forest.

The loss of the trees did result in better views of the various rock formations in the area.

We’d never seen so many of these eight-spotted forester moths.

Hummingbird taking a rest from visiting the penstemon and paintbrush.

Another moth that had some excellent camo.

The moth putting its camouflage to use.

Penstemon

Rose

Rocky Top from the trail.

This was the only pink colored penstemon we spotted.

Lupine and beargrass

Not sure which of the Lycaenidae this is but it was pretty.

The spirea was popular.

Bumble bee

At one point it looked like Three Fingered Jack was sitting on top of Coffin Mountain (post).

Nice blue sky overhead.

Looking North. Henline Mountain (post) is the high peak on the other side of Elkhorn Ridge.

Bistort and penstemon

Haven’t been able to identify this one yet.

Beargrass

A snowberry checkerspot and some fried avalanche lilies.

The trail wound behind Rocky Top to come up the West ridge to the summit.

Arnica

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Tiger lily and beardstongue

Catchfly

There was a 360-degree view from the summit which was of course impacted by the smoke. On a clear day we would have been able to see Mt. Adams and Mt. St. Helens in Washington but we settled for a string of Oregon Cascades and Mary’s Peak in the Coast Range.
Not sure what the story is behind this chair, but we weren’t about to test its stability.

Detroit Lake

Mary’s Peak (post) is really hard to make out, but it is on the far left of the horizon.

Looking North we could see Table Rock (post), the high point in the center, behind Henline Mountain closer and to the left and Elkhorn Ridge nearest.

Closer look at Table Rock.

Henline Mountain, Table Rock, Mt. Hood, in front and just to the right of Mt. Hood is Whetstone Mountain (post) and the two humps in the distance to the far right are North and South Dickey Peaks.

Mountain bluebird checking us out.

Mt. Jefferson

Three Fingered Jack behind Coffin Mountain, Maxwell Butte (post), Mt. Washington, the Three Sisters, and The Husband.

While we were at the summit we spotted another car driving up the road to the trailhead so after a nice break we headed back to let the next visitor(s) have their turn.

Zerene fritillary

Beargrass

Moth and a checkerspot

We passed the couple from the car about halfway down the trail. It would be the only other hikers we would pass on the trails this day. (We did see a few others but not on the trails.)
The road walk between trailheads was a butterfly bonanza. The road was now in full sunlight and that had brought out hundreds of butterflies and moths.

A bee, a moth, and a butterfly land on some flowers…

Painted lady

Fireweed Clearwing Moth (Albuna pyramidalis).

A fritillary and a copper.

Two coppers and a bee.

Checkerspots, a bee, a copper and part of an eight-spotted forester moth.

Eight-spotted forester moth.

The previous four photos were all from this group of Oregon sunshine.

Bleeding heart, no butterfly but a nice group of blossoms.

More moths and butterflies.

Swallowtail on penstemon

One of the blues I think, but not sure which.

Lorquin’s admiral

With the road walk included our hike here came in at 6.4 miles with a little over 1800′ of cumulative elevation gain.

We headed back toward Salem and turned into the North Santiam State Recreation Area (3.8 miles West of Mill City or 28.6 miles East of Salem along Highway 22.) While this is a State Recreation Area Marion County is managing the park through at least 2024 following the 2020 fire. Reeder described a 2.3-mile loop here but we weren’t sure what we’d find with limited information available online. We parked near the day-use picnic area and followed the sidewalk left past a large signboard for the campground to a small “Trail” sign.

We turned onto a wide mowed path and followed it into the fire scar which was hosting masses of very tall fireweed.

Sparrow

Stellar’s jay

We almost missed the spur trail to the larger loop which was unsigned and hidden by some brush.
The spur trail is to the right just ahead.

We turned right onto the spur and quickly came to a “T” junction where we turned right following a “To River” sign.

We watched a norther flicker fly into the snag ahead and it took a minute to figure out where he was.

The flicker

At the river the trail curved right following it to the camping area.

Trailing blackberries. We might have found a few ripe ones.

Arriving at the camping area.

North Santaim River

We continued on what was now a paved path to a road
Oregon grape

Mock orange

The boat launch.

North Santiam River

It was a lot cooler by the river than it was on the paths so we lingered for a bit before heading back to the loop. Prior to the fire the loop crossed the road to the boat launch and continued in the forest eventually crossing the park entrance road and completing the loop near the “To River” sign. We quickly discovered that the loop no longer existed on the north side of the roads. We up the boat launch road past the trail we arrived on then past the park host. We could have just turned right at the parking lot, but we decided to see if any of the loop remained. A short way up the entrance road we spotted paint for a crosswalk.
The park host on the left and the parking lot on the right.

Crosswalk for the pre-fire loop.

Looking North from the crosswalk there was zero sign of the former trail.

They had at least restored this short section of the loop so we were able to return to the spur trail and turn right then right again to complete the inner loop.

The “To River” sign at the spur trail junction.

Possibly a western wood pee-wee

Spotted towhee

Osprey

The park host from the trail.

The loop as we did it is now only 1.7-miles with 50′ of elevation gain.

The park wasn’t as crowded as we thought it might be on a hot holiday and there was no one else hiking the trails here. It was a nice enough end to a good day hiking and we had finished just after Noon so we had avoided the hottest parts of the day. To be honest we hadn’t expected a whole lot from any of these hikes and had chosen them primarily for their proximity to Salem, but the Natural Rock Arch and Rocky Top far exceeded our expectations. We were home around 1pm and had the rest of the afternoon to relax with the cats. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Natural Rock Arch, Rocky Top, and North Santiam Park

Tags Albuna pyramidalis, Beachie Creek Fire, Butterfly, hiking, Natuarl Rock Arch Trailhead, Natural Rock Arch, North Santiam Park, North Santiam River, North Santiam State Recreation Area, Oregon, Rocky Top, santiam state forest, wildflowers

Hiking Mt. St. Helens Trip report Washington Washington Cascades

The Hummocks to Johnston Ridge – 07/01/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 3, 2023
1 Comment on The Hummocks to Johnston Ridge – 07/01/2023

On May 14, 2023 a washout along Washington’s SR504 below the Johnston Ridge Observatory closed vehicle access for the foreseeable future. We’d visited the observatory in August 2013 (post) and had planned on revisiting this July. While the washout made driving to the observatory impossible the trails in the area were not impacted. The shortest route was to start at the Hummocks Trailhead and take the Boundary Trail from its intersection with the Hummocks Trail to the observatory. We actually had this hike on our 2024 schedule for July so we swapped those (hoping that the road is repaired before then).

This would also be our second visit to The Hummocks having hiked the 2.5-mile loop in May of 2014 (post) before hiking a longer loop around Coldwater Lake. From the trailhead we set off on the left most trail (next to the large signboards).

While the loop did come in at 2.5-miles it was a little over 3/4 of a mile to the Boundary Trail.

There were a lot more flowers (and green vegetation) along the trail than there had been during our May hike.
Lupine

One of several ponds along the trail.

Interpretive signs, trail guide markers, and “Student Stops” are located throughout the loop.
A “Student Stop” marker surrounded by dwarf lupine. We aren’t sure what the these meant or what program they are related to.

An interpretive sign along the trail facing some of the hummocks.

Penstemon

Mt. St. Helens as we neared the Boundary Trail junction.

Trail guide marker #3 and an interpretive sign at the junction.

We turned left onto the Boundary Trail which began as a level path passing by more hummocks.
The lower left map shows the current closure area and open trails. In a nutshell, all the trails are open but everything off-trail to the side facing SR504 is currently closed.

The views of Mt. St. Helens were great.

The trail began to climb as it squeezed between a gap in the hillsides ahead.

View back to the hummocks from the gap.

Trees in the gap.

After exiting the gap we got another good view of the mountain before the trail veered left turning away from the mountain.

After another short level stretch the trail began to climb in earnest. While the climb never felt very steep the trail netted 1400′ of elevation gain over the next 3 miles to reach the parking lot at Johnston Ridge.
Heading away from Mt. St. Helens to start the climb.

Dwarf lupine was profuse below the ridge.

Scouler’s bluebell

Thimbleberry blossoms

Castle Peak above Castle Lake with Spud Mountain to the right and the North Fork Toutle River below.

Horned lark

Tiger lily

Savannah sparrow

Heading back toward Mt. St. Helens.

The North Fork Toutle River flowing between Spud Mountain (left) and Elk Rock (right).

Castle Peak and Castle Lake

Elk Rock on the left and Coldwater Lake on the right.

Coldwater Lake

Mountain bluebird.

At one point quite a bit of dust? kicked up from the South Fork Toutle River canyon.

The trail contoured along the hillside, occasionally entering a stand of trees or losing sight of the mountain behind a ridge.

Cardwell’s penstemon

A little over 2 3/4-miles from the Hummocks-Boundary Trail junction we came to a viewpoint at a ridge end where we could see Coldwater Peak and the top of Mt. Adams.
Coldwater Peak with Mt. Adams to the far right of the photo. The hiker ahead to the left of Coldwater Peak was from Belgium. He was here on work but using the weekends to explore the area. We would see him two more times, once from the observatory as he continued on the Boundary Trail and then as we were exiting the trailhead. He had done a loop using the Coldwater Trail (post) which by our calculations would have been at least 16-miles and that is assuming he didn’t detour to Coldwater Peak.

Mt. Adams from the viewpoint on our way back. The angle of the Sun earlier caused the mountain to look pretty washed out.

Mt. St. Helens from the viewpoint.

Variable-leaf collomia

The Loowit Viewpoint on the ridge ahead.

Paintbrush covered hillside.

The Loowit Viewpoint is located along SR504. The Boundary Trail passes by the viewpoint 3/4 of a mile from the Johnston Ridge Observatory.
Mt. St. Helens from the Loowit Viewpoint.

Mt. St. Helens crater.

As we continued on from the viewpoint we were under the watchful eye of some nosey locals.

Golden mantled-ground squirrel. These brazen con-artists often convince visitors they would starve without humans help. While this is definitely not the case and wildlife really shouldn’t be fed it happens all too frequently. (They are awfully cute though.)

The closer we came to the observatory the more paintbrush we began seeing.
A single plant.

A lot of paintbrush.

Daisies and paintbrush

Penstemon, yarrow, and Scouler’s woolyweed along with the paintbrush.

Paintbrush and penstemon along the trail.

The Boundary Trail turns to a paved path across from the parking lot for the observatory following the parking entrance road for approximately 450′.

Passing by the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

Before and after photos of the 1980 eruption.

We followed the Eruption Trail uphill to a mountain identifier then down the other side to rejoin the Boundary Trail.

Mt. Adams peaking over the ridges with Spirit Lake also visible (center).

Spirit Lake

The mountain identifier ahead on the left.

We could see where the repair work was happening on SR504 from this trail.

The rounded peak to the right is Goat Mountain (post).

Goat Mountain with a few patches of snow still showing up.

Rock Arch near Coldwater Peak.

Memorial for the lives lost in the 1980 eruption.

Junction with the Boundary Trail.

The views and flowers were so nice that we decided to continue on the Boundary Trail for a bit. The trail had been slowly losing elevation and after a little over a half mile neared a saddle where more elevation would have been lost. We decided to turn around there since shortly after climbing up from the saddle on the far side the trail would lose sight of Mt. St. Helens as it passed behind the ridge for a bit.

Pussypaws

Another view of the washout.

Our turn around spot. You can see the trail on far side of the saddle veering left behind the ridge.

Coldwater Peak from our turnaround spot.

We headed back to the Hummocks Trail, sticking to the Boundary Trail the entire way.
The Johnston Ridge Observatory from the trail. We hadn’t realized how much elevation we’d lost until we turned around.

Castle Peak and Spud Mountain on the left and the observatory above some colorful cliffs.

Penstemon

White crowned sparrow

Boundary Trail leaving the Loowit Viewpoint.

Snowberry checkerspot on penstemon.

Another checkerspot, this time on lupine.

Cedar waxwings

When we arrived back at the Hummocks Trail we turned left to finish that loop.

Mt. St. Helens and the North Fork Toutle River.

Between it having been 9 years since we’d hiked this trail and the difference in the time of year the scenery was very different.

The same view in May 2014.

Same spot, different angle 2014.

Monkeyflower

Maybe a yellow-rumped warbler.

Caterpillar

Dragonfly

Pearly everlasting

Arriving back at the Hummocks Trailhead.

The hike came in at 12.5 miles with just under 2000′ of cumulative elevation gain.

This turned out to be the perfect day for this hike. The weather was pleasant, the views and flowers great, and the road closure provided solitude at the observatory. In addition to the Belgian hiker we passed a couple near the small viewpoint on the way to the observatory. We passed a few more people on the way back but nearly half of those were volunteers with the Mt. St. Helens Institute. The only thing that the hike lacked was any larger wildlife. It was one of the only hikes we could recall at the mountain where we didn’t see at least one deer, elk or mountain goat. Maybe next time. Until then Happy Trails!

Flickr: Boundary Trail – Hummocks TH to Johnston Ridge

Tags Boundary Trail, hiking, Hummock Trailhead, Hummocks, Hummocks Trail, Johnston Ridge, Johnston Ridge Observatory, Loowit Viewpoint, Mt. St. Helens, mt. st. helens national volcanic monument, North Fork Toutle River, Washington, wildflowers

Hiking Oregon Roseburg Area Trip report Willamette Valley

Fern Falls and Comstock Day Use Area – 06/25/23

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 28, 2023
1 Comment on Fern Falls and Comstock Day Use Area – 06/25/23

We spent the night in Roseburg after making the long drive from Salem to Marial for a day hike along the Rogue River (post) and on the way home we made a couple of stops. Our plan involved portions of two of Sullivan’s featured hikes. Because we’d done one of the options for each of the hikes we had checked them off our to-do list, but we didn’t want to pass up the chance to do the additional options.

Our first stop involved a short out-and-back to Fern Falls along the North Umpqua Trail. In his Fall Creek Falls hike Sullivan provides two options, the hike to Fall Creek Falls (post) or three stops including Fall Creek Falls, Susan Creek Falls (post), and Fern Falls.

It took a bit of research online to figure out if the section of the North Umpqua Trail to Fern Falls was actually open. The area burned in the 2020 Archie Creek Fire closing the lower sections of the trail. The first few miles are managed by the BLM before the Forest Service takes over at the Umpqua National Forest boundary. The Forest Service has not lifted their closure order but it wasn’t clear whether or not the BLM had reopened their portion. Since there was no information on the BLM site stating that the trail was closed and several people had posted recent trip reports on Alltrails we decided to give it a try and drove to the Swiftwater Trailhead along the North Umpqua River.

There was no closure order posted at the trailhead and a couple of fishermen had beaten us to the parking area so we set off on the trail.

Fireweed

At the quarter-mile mark we forked right on a spur trail to an interpretive sign overlooking Deadline Falls.

Deadline Falls

After admiring the falls we returned to the North Umpqua Trail and continued on through the fire scar.
Signs of ongoing trail work.

Northern phlox

Remains of a footbridge lost to the Archie Creek Fire.

The current creek crossing. We joked that this was a prime difference between the BLM and Forest Service. It feels like the Forest Service waits until everything has been repaired (plus a year or two) before reopening trails after a fire while the BLM reopens them once they are passable.

Self-heal

The trailing blackberries were ripening along the trail providing us with a nice second breakfast.

North Umpqua River from the trail.

We also spotted a few ripe blackcap raspberries.

Bleeding heart

Crab spider on a California harebell.

Heather was really excited to find ripe thimbleberries too.

Highway 138 on the far side of the river.

Approximately 1.7 miles from the trailhead we arrived at Fern Falls.

A fallen log dissected the view of the falls, a result of the fire but it was a nice view and a good turn around point.

Musk monkeyflower

I managed to pull a ripe salmonberry out of this bush below Fern Falls.

We returned the way we’d come under increasing sunlight. Birds had been singing all morning and with the increased light we were finally able to spot some of them.

Moth

Lazuli bunting

Black-headed grosbeak

Unidentified small bird.

Wren, possibly a house wren.

This little one was way up atop a snag. Merlin suggests it’s a Macgillivray’s warbler.

Woodpecker

Backside of a Stellar’s jay.

Raven

Our hike here came to 3.4 miles with maybe 300′ of elevation gain.

We hopped into the car and drove to our next stop at the Comstock Day Use Area for the BLM managed North Bank Habitat Management Area.

We had visited the area in 2015 starting a loop from the West Access Trailhead. We planned another loop from this trailhead which would share a 1.2-mile section of that earlier loop.

We began by passing a green gate at the NW end (left) of the trailhead parking area and following an old roadbed for 0.1-miles to a fork.

We stayed right on the signed Soggy Bottom Trail.

We followed the Soggy Bottom Trail for 0.7 miles to the Middle Barn.

Checker-mallow

Turkey vulture

We spotted a deer way up on the hillside in the distance.

Heading down to Soggy Bottom.

Middle Barn

We stayed right past a road to the barn and continued to the next fork and turned left on the North Gate Trail.
Soggy Bottom

Bindweed

The North Gate Trail ahead on the left.

North Gate Trail

Elegant brodiaea

Common wood nymph

The trail climbed steadily for the first three quarters of a mile passing a grove of cedars near the end of the stretch.

The cedar grove.

A little past the cedar grove we passed an old structure on the opposite side of a barbed wire fence.

On the far side of the structure was a sign for the Wrong Way Trail which looked as though it saw little to no use. The map at the trailhead showed this trail dead-ending in the forest which might explain why.

Beyond the Wrong Way Trail junction the North Gate Trail began a much steeper climb up to a junction at a saddle with the Middle Ridge Trail.

Much of this section was in full sunlight making it a bit of a trudge.
View from the North Gate Trail.

Steepest section of the trail but at least there was some shade here.

Gopher snake

Trail sign at the saddle.

We turned left on the Middle Ridge Trail for 1.2 semi-familiar miles.
The Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the Middle Ridge Trail.

View from the saddle.

A dip along the ridge.

First view of the North Umpqua River.

Hawk on a tree.

A different hawk in flight.

Elegant brodiaea

Looking back along the Middle Ridge Trail.

We remembered this structure in the ground.

Approximately 1.2 miles from the saddle we arrived at a junction with the Thistle Ridge Trail.
Approaching the junction.

View back up along the trail.

Whistlers Bend Reservoir and the North Umpqua River. Despite a bit of haze the view was far better than it had been in 2015.

The 2015 view on a cloudy June 5th.

We turned onto the Thistle Ridge Trail which led us past a few great madrone trees.

Ookow

View from the Thistle Ridge Trail. Below is the lower portion of the trail which seemed to be quite a way down.

We quickly realized why it seemed so far down when we came to what we believe may be the steepest section of trail we’ve hiked.
When you can’t see the bottom of the hill you know it’s steep.

The trail finally leveled out a bit through a stand of oak trees.

After just under a mile on the Thistle Ridge Trail we came to a junction with the West Barn Road.
The junction below from the Thistle Ridge Trail.

We turned left again and followed this steepish trail down 0.2 miles to the West Barn.
European centaury (invasive but pretty)

West Barn

The West Barn Road was a little muddy in spots.

We followed this road a total of 0.7 miles back to the junction with the Soggy Bottom Trail where we turned right to return to the trailhead.

Daisies were profuse in some areas.

We ignored the Deer Hollow Tie Trail that joined on the right.

The Comstock Day Use Area from the West Barn Road.

Our loop here came to 5 miles with a little over 1000′ of elevation gain, some of which was impressively steep.

The trails here were lined with poison oak at times but they were always wide enough for us to easily keep away from it.

These were a couple of pleasant hikes and made for a nice outing before driving back home to Salem. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Fern Falls and North Bank Habitat

Tags Comstock Day Use Area, Deadline Falls, Fern Falls, hiking, Middle Barn, Middle Ridge Trail, north bank habitat, North Gate Trail, North Umpqua River, North Umpqua River Trial, Oregon, roseburg, Soggy Bottom Trail, Swiftwater Trailhead, Thistle Ridge Trail, West Barn, West Barn Road

Grants Pass Area Hiking Oregon Trip report

Rogue River Trail Marial to Paradise Lodge – 06/24/23

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 27, 2023
4 Comments on Rogue River Trail Marial to Paradise Lodge – 06/24/23

At the beginning of May we spent a week in Grants Pass completing several of Sullivan’s featured hikes. Our attempt to hike a section of the Rogue River Trail out of Marial during that trip ended with us being turned back by lingering snow on the BLM roads to the trailhead (post). We rescheduled that hike for the end of June which was now upon us. At just over four hours this was too long a drive for a day hike so we’d made reservations in Roseburg for that night. We followed the BLM’s driving directions from Glendale to the Rogue River Ranch National Historic Site and then continued on BLM Road 32-9-14.2 (Mule Creek-Marial Road on Google Maps) for another mile. Just past a large parking area on the left for the Marial Lodge is where Sullivan suggest parking, but a sign at the entrance stated it was for overnight guests of the lodge only. The actual trailhead for the Rogue River Trail is at the end of the road, another half mile away so we continued on what quickly became a much rougher road. Less than a tenth of a mile was enough for us and we parked across from the Mule Creek Fireman Station in a small two car parking area.

From the fireman station we walked the road to the official trailhead.
There were trail pointers at spur roads to ensure we stayed on the right one.

The trailhead near Marial. I couldn’t find any directions online for this trailhead which is why we used a combination of the BLM’s directions to the ranch and Sullivan’s to the trailhead.

We followed trail signs downhill and into the Wild Rogue Wilderness.

Shortly after entering the wilderness the trail arrived at Rogue River.

The trail passed along the rocky cliffs above Mule Creek Canyon. We had hoped to see some rafters navigating this narrow canyon, including the Coffee Pot rapids, but there weren’t any around.

Dragonfly

A peak into Mule Creek Canyon.

There weren’t many flowers left blooming but we did see a lot of elegant brodiaea.

Elegant brodiaea

After following the trail for 0.7 miles we arrived at Inspiration Point across from Stair Creek Falls.

Mule Creek Canyon from Inspiration Point.

We spent a good deal of time admiring the falls. This was our fifth hike along the Rogue River and of those hikes this was one of our favorite views.

We continued on passing above a much calmer river, at least for a moment.

Skipper

Common wood-nymph

Paintbrush

Calmer waters.

Madrone

Salal

The trail alternated between rocky cliffs and brushy vegetation. Poison oak was common among the plants along the trail but there was enough room to pass through without coming into contact.
Some poison oak on the right.

Another madrone at the start of more brush. This area was full of small birds that turned out to be bushtits.

It took a bit to get one of the bushtits out in the open and in the camera frame.

Near the 2-mile mark we got our first view of the boulders at Blossom Bar, the trickiest rapid along the Rogue River.

Blossom Bar Rapid

Near Blossom Bar the trail crosses Burns and Blossom Creeks in quick succession.
Footbridge over Burns Creek.

Footbridge over Blossom Creek.

Blossom Creek

After crossing the creeks the trail climbed above the river where a spur trail to the left led downhill to Gleason Bar.
Trail crossing Blossom Bar.

Rogue River leaving Blossom Bar.

Trail to Gleason Bar on the left.

We detoured down to Gleason Bar where we were greeted by a lizard.

Variable-leaf collomia

We returned to the trail and continued West making our way to another footbridge, this one crossing Paradise Creek.
Bear box near Gleason Bar. We didn’t see any bears on our hike but we did have a bear cub run in front of our car on the drive to the trailhead.

On the far side of the footbridge we detoured down to the creek to get a view of the small waterfall named Devils Stairs.

We followed a path along Paradise Bar paralleling the Rogue River Trail.
Paradise Bar

After a tenth of a mile the Paradise Bar airstrip came into view. Sullivan had mentioned detouring left at the airstrip 200 yards to visit the Paradise Lodge, but a sign here stated that the lodge and property were only open to overnight guests with reservations.

Not sure if this is a recent change, a result of COVID or if we misinterpreted the sign, but we veered right to get back onto the Rogue River Trail.
The trail skirted the grassy airstrip before entering the forest.

Paradise Lodge was the turn around point for Sullivan’s featured hike, but we decided to continue on until we got one more view of the river.
Jackson Creek. Most if not all of the creeks had signs letting us know their names.

Some of the buildings related to Paradise Lodge.

Across the river was another lodge, the Half Moon Bar Lodge.

Rafters and kayakers passing through Half Moon Riffle.

One of Jerry’s Rogue Jets out of Gold Beach. These boats turn around at Blossom Bar Rapids.

We turned around above Half Moon Bar, approximately 4 miles from the official trailhead.

We stuck to the Rogue River Trail on the way back, keeping our eyes out for snakes (again no rattlesnakes despite this being a prime area for them) and lizards.
Alligator lizard

Wine-cup clarkia

A few fluffy clouds moving in.

Stair Creek Falls on the way back.

Mule Creek Canyon

Our hike came in at 9.8 miles with only 250′ of elevation gain, but we felt the heat (mid to upper 80’s) which made the hike feel quite a bit harder than it looked on paper.

We had left open the possibility of stopping at the Rogue River Ranch on our way to Roseburg but by the time we had gotten changed at the car all we wanted to do was get to our motel and then find a Dairy Queen for some ice cream so that’s what we did. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Rogue River West

Hells Canyon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Hells Canyon Reservoir and Dam – 06/16/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 24, 2023
7 Comments on Hells Canyon Reservoir and Dam – 06/16/2023

For the final day of hiking on our vacation we had two of Sullivan’s featured hikes on tap, Hells Canyon Reservoir and Hells Canyon Dam. We left our motel in Enterprise and drove the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway to Oxbow. Our first stop was at Copper Creek where a short hike would take us into the Hells Canyon Wilderness.
The smoke that had moved in the day before was still around.

A small post directed us to the trail.

The next post read “Trail Not Maintained Hazards May Exist”

We weren’t sure what to expect, but we hoped it wouldn’t be another poison ivy filled hike like Wednesday’s hike at Eureka Bar (post) and that we would at least be able to make it to McGraw Creek which was 1.8 miles away.

Toadflax

A short distance from the trailhead we entered a signed wilderness study area.

Fleabane

There were lots of fish visible in the reservoir.

The tread on the trail wasn’t great but poison ivy wasn’t an issue which was nice.

Penstemon

Showy milkweed

After approximately three quarters of a mile we entered the Hells Canyon Wilderness.

At the 0.9-mile mark we crossed Nelson Creek.
Approaching Nelson Creek.

Nelson Creek

Red-eyed vireo

Looking up Nelson Creek.

More fish.

Lazuli bunting

We made it to the outwash plain of McGraw Creek where the trail turned inland.

We made it another 100 yards before coming to a missing section of trail.

We weren’t comfortable with trying to continue. There was a faint path climbing uphill that might have taken us past the missing section but we didn’t feel the need to push it and turned around.
McGraw Creek

Lizard

Common wood nymph

Moth

Cabbage whites

Lorquin’s admiral

Copper Creek Trailhead from the trail.

After completing our hike here we drove back to Oxbow and crossed the Snake River into Idaho and headed north to the Hells Canyon Dam. Sullivan’s featured hike here includes two separate options, a 2.4 mile hike to a beach just beyond Stud Creek on the Oregon side of the river and a shorter hike on the Idaho side on the Deep Creek Stairway Trail. This is the only featured hike located in the state of Idaho and we had planned to do this hike first, but the trailhead parking lot was busy with fishermen heading toward the trail. The trail consists of a series of metal stairs and catwalks leading down to the bottom of the dam near Deep Creek and we weren’t too keen on being in a crowd so we drove on across the dam to the Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Center.

The trail here starts near the boat ramp where an interpretive sign announces the former site of a prehistoric pit house.

The start of the trail.

This trail was in better shape than the one along Hells Canyon Reservoir, but it was a wild mix of wooden stairs, rocky cliffs, and scenic viewpoints.

Penstemon

Western clematis

We watched an osprey dive for a fish in the river.

It pulled a small fish out of the water.

Threadleaf phacelia

Rafters that had set off from the dam.

Ant in a sagebrush mariposa lily.

Monkeyflower and heart-leaved bittercress

View near Stud Creek.

We didn’t see any water in Stud Creek’s outwash plain but there were a number of differently colored mariposa lilies.

Our turnaround point was a white cobble beach where fish occasionally jumped.
Cobble Beach near Stud Creek

Jet boat passing by.

After a short break we returned to the visitor center which we checked out before driving back across the dam.

Interpretive sign near the visitors center.

Hells Canyon Creek

View from the visitors center.

We were still hoping to stop a the Deep Creek Stairway Trail and as luck would have it all but one of the cars that had been at the trailhead when we drove by earlier were gone.
The empty trailhead parking area.

A short road walk led us to the start of the trail.
The structure on the right is an old fish trap.

This was only our second hike in Idaho (Jump Creek Falls was the first), and the first in one of Idaho’s National Forests.

The Payette National Forest manages this trail.

The trail began by heading briefly down a staircase and then climbing another set of stairs.

Going up.

Snake River from the trail.

Going back down.

There were a couple of dirt/rock sections, but the trail was mostly metal stairs and catwalks.

We passed the owner of the remaining car, Ahmed, heading up with a pair of good-sized fish.

Ahmed’s fishing pole was still out, and you might notice a little red to the left of the structure ahead.

Heather decided not to go all the way down to Deep Creek but I wanted to see it so I followed the trail to its bank.
There was a very short scramble to get up to the continuation of the trail above the structure along the creek.

A few patches of snow in the Payette National Forest.

Deep Creek

I was greeted at the creek by a rock covered with different butterflies.

It was a hot, tiring climb back up to the car where we changed, grabbed some drinks and snacks, and got ready to drive to Pendleton where we would spend the night before driving back home.

These three hikes came in at 3.7, 2.6, and 1.0 mile respectively. Hells Canyon Reservoir had over 500′ of elevation gain while the final two were under 200′ although the staircase felt like more.

We were thankful that poison ivy was a non-issue on these hikes. They were all enjoyable but given the rough condition of the Hells Canyon Reservoir Trail we wouldn’t recommend that one for kids or inexperienced hikers.

With the vacation hikes now over, we had made just a little progress on finishing 100 featured hikes from one of Sullivan’s Eastern Oregon guidebook editions (post). We had been at 79/100 heading into the vacation whith plans on completing six more but our decision to skip Dug Bar and change the edition that we were focused on meant adding five featured hikes that we hadn’t done and losing a couple that we had. Instead of sitting at 85/100 at the end of the vacation we are currently at 80/100. We’ve already worked the five new featured hikes into our plans over the next 18 months so we are still on track to be finished by the end of 2024. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Hells Canyon Reservoir and Dam

Tags Copper Creek, Deep Creek, Deep Creek Stairway Trail, Hells Can Reservoir, Hells Canyon Dam, Hells Canyon Visitors Center, Idaho, McGraw Creek, Nelson Creek, Oregon, Payette National Forest, Snake River, Stud Creek

Hells Canyon Hiking Oregon Trip report

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