Another rainy weekend was in the forecast which had us questioning whether or not it was worth heading out. Our original plan had involved a hike with mountain views so we wanted to save that for a day with a clearer forecast. This had us looking for something that wasn’t view dependent. The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge a.k.a the Columbian White-Tailed Deer Refuge fit that bill and was on our schedule during the month of June in 2025. I had it penciled in for June due to one of the trails in the refuge, the Center Road Trail, only being open to hiking from June through September. While a refuge hike is typically okay on a rainy overcast day it had poured Friday and we were expecting Saturday to be similar and weren’t keen on driving over two hours to be drenched for an entire 12 mile hike. Friday evening we had all but decided to take the weekend off but just to be sure I pulled up the NOAA forecast for the refuge. To our surprise there was just a 10% chance of showers in the morning followed by partly sunny skies and a high in the low 60s. That sold us and we got our packs ready for a 5am departure the next morning.
After a brief conversation with a very friendly Washington State Trooper (I completely missed a 45mph sign and was given a warning) we pulled into the refuge HQ (open Mon-Fri 7:30am – 4pm). We had gotten the hike for this idea from the “more hikes” section of Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast & Coast Range” guidebook as well as an entry in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide describes a 6.1 mile loop, which for reasons that will become evident later, is no longer possible. (I have contacted both with updated information.)
A damp and cloudy morning.
Swallow
Our plan had been to to the described loop but after reaching the far end of the loop we were going to do an out-and-back along Steamboat and Brooks Slough Roads to add a little hiking time since a six mile loop would likely violate our rule of not having our driving time be greater than our hiking time on day trips. From the HQ we walked out of the parking lot onto Steamboat Slough Road and turned right crossing Indian Jack Slough. The loop description was to then turn right through a gate into the refuge shed/garage yard.
Indian Jack Slough and the garage from Refuge HQ.
The gate, including a secondary pedestrian gate were padlocked and there were “Area Closed” signs on the driveway gate. This was a bit unexpected, but shouldn’t have been if we’d have read the Refuge website more closely. What we discovered after our hike was that at some point a 0.3 section of Center Road, from Steamboat Slough Road west, had been closed to the public making the loop impossible and leaving the Center Road Trail as a 5 mile round trip out-and-back. At this point though we weren’t sure what was going on so we decided to simply head out Steamboat Slough Road and were prepared to skip Center Road and make the hike a simple out-and-back.
Beyond the shed/garage there was a living quarters and just beyond that we spotted the first Columbian White-tailed deer of the day.
We followed this road for 2.3 miles to the start of the White-tail Trail. It is possible to drive to this trail and park at the nearby dead end of Steamboat Slough Road.
Elochoman Slough
The first of many bald eagles we spotted (atop the dead tree across the slough).
Working on drying out.
Lots of non-native yellow flag iris in the area.
Little birds such as this sparrow were everywhere but rarely sat still.
A different eagle waiting to dry.
There are at least 5 birds in the tree including four goldfinches.
A male goldfinch takes off.
The morning clouds were starting to break up as forecasted.
One of many great blue herons.
A male wood duck.
Another great blue heron with the female wood duck on the log below.
The first of several osprey.
Cattle in a field along the road.
Geese
Snail crossing the road.
Maybe a yellow warbler. I had to use the digital zoom to get between the branches so it’s not the clearest photo.
The start of the mile long White-tail trail which travels along a setback levee.
There was a pole with a bunch of bird nests hung from it near the start of the trail. We’d never seen one like it before.
It turned out to be nests for purple martins, a bird that as far as we know we hadn’t seen before.
Bald eagle in the same area.
Slug on lupine
A different type of lupine.
Lupine, daisies and yellow gland-weed.
Bumble bee needing to dry out.
We spotted more white-tailed deer along the levee, a pair of young bucks.
A look at the white tail. He gave us a better look but in that one he was also doing his business so we stuck with this uncentered, slightly blurry version.
There was also a great blue heron sitting in a nearby snag.
While we were keeping an eye on the bucks and the heron to the inland side of the levee there were geese, ducks, and various small birds all around us.
Guessing marsh wren.
Ducks
Goose with goslings.
Common yellow throat.
Male gadwall?
We eventually tore ourselves away from the wildlife bonanza and continued on.
There was pretty much non-stop bird song throughout the day.
Traffic on the Columbia River.
The Santa Maria on the Columbia.
Female brown-headed cowbird?
Flowers along the levee.
American robin
Red-winged blackbird chasing a heron.
When we reached the end of the White-tail Trail we turned right onto Steamboat Slough Road. You can also park near this end of the trail but you must come from the west as Steamboat Slough Road is missing a section (which is why you hike on the levee).
We followed this two-lane version of the road for approximately 1.25 miles to a fork and turned right on Brooks Slough Road. After just 0.2 miles we passed the western end of the Center Road Trail. This end was clearly open. We talked ourselves into believing that either we missed where we were actually supposed to go or that they just hadn’t unlocked the gate yet since we were still unaware of the updated rules for the trail and decided that we would take this trail on our way back and we could do the loop after all.
Note the sign does not indicate that you cannot reach the HQ from the road, it simply says it is 5 miles round trip. Online it adds that hikers must exit the trail the way they entered.
Roses along the road.
Muskrat
Warbler
Osprey
Brooks Slough Road junction.
We turned right and followed this narrow one-lane road along Brooks Slough. For the first mile it ran parallel to Highway 4 then it veered away becoming a quieter walk.
Another eagle sitting near the top of the first tall tree on the far side of the slough.
Interesting shrub along the road.
The partly sunny skies had indeed materialized.
Kingfisher
California scrub jay
White pelicans
Some sort of ornamental shrub/tree but it had cool flowers.
Turkey vulture
Couldn’t tell what type of ducks they were.
We followed the road for approximately 2 miles to what was shown on the GPS as Alger Creek.
Alger Creek somewhere in the grass flowing into Brooks Slough.
Pond on the other side of the road.
Black pheobe?
After a short break we headed back. It was actually starting to feel warm now but we distracted ourselves with even more wildlife.
Red-tailed hawk
American goldfinch
Swallowtail
Cedar waxwing with a salmonberry.
Goat lounging in a driveway across the highway. There had actually been a black goat in nearly the same spot on our first pass.
Caterpillar
When we got back to Center Road we reread the signage and stuck to our plan to try and complete the loop.
We had been discussing all the different wildlife that we’d seen already and I mentioned that the only thing missing was a turtle. Not long after starting down Center Road I noticed something brown (that didn’t look like a cow) in the distance near the tree line. As I was staring at it a large set of antlers raised from the grass and I realized it was a bull elk.
The elk is in the center of the photo near the tree line.
We watched him as he munched on grass for quite a while before moving on. At that point I said something to the effect of forgetting about the turtle because that was better. It wasn’t too much longer before we came to some more wetlands. Lo and behold there was a turtle.
Many pictures followed before resuming our hike.
Heather spotted a pair of egrets in a distant tree which proved impossible to get a decent picture of.
Here is a not so decent picture of the egrets.
We also startled up a pair of American bitterns.
One of the bitterns in flight.
After 2 miles we spotted a set of posts with signs where we finally understood that the Center Road Trail no longer runs the entire length of the roadbed now.
We were less than half a mile from the HQ which was visible from where we were but we obeyed the signs and turned around. It would have been about a perfect distance for us as we were at the 12.1 mile mark when we had gotten to the closed area. Now we had to backtrack two miles on Center Road before the mile long White-tail Trail and the 2.3 mile road walk back to the HQ parking lot. Not only was this a lot longer than we’d planned but the surface had been mostly paved and what wasn’t paved was packed gravel road beds so our feet were really protesting as we retraced our steps.
Heather spotted this garter snake along Center Road. Another animal to add to the days list.
Back at the White-tail Trail.
It had cooled down again which provided some relief as we trudged back.
A second turtle
Mallards
Way more water in the afternoon.
Another kingfisher. It was in the same tree as the heron had been earlier that morning when we were watching the bucks.
Family swim
By Steamboat Slough Road we had all kinds of blisters/hotspots on our feet.
Arriving back at the refuge HQ.
I got to the car first, changed shoes and drove back to pick up Heather who was only about a quarter mile behind me. My GPS read 17.5 miles of almost entirely flat hiking.
Fortunately I had thought to bring my parents camera which has more powerful zoom than my point and shoot and also our binoculars which Heather had been using since there was so much wildlife to be seen. We encountered a couple of other hikers on the White-tail Trail as well as a pair of cyclists and several cars along the various roads but for the most part it was a fairly peaceful (long) hike. The one thing we kept coming back to was that if we hadn’t done the hike the we did we wouldn’t have seen some of the wildlife that we encountered. Was it worth the blisters though? You betcha – Happy Trails!
Dropping into the forest.
Anemone
Vanilla leaf
Baneberry
Quite a few snails and slugs along the trail.
Starflower
Some of the logs had had tiles and ropes placed on them to help avoid slipping.
Surprisingly this was the only rough-skinned newt we spotted all day.
Foam flower
Inside-out flower
There were some huge nursery logs in the forest here.
A good example of a makeshift crossing.
Most of the flowers were white or pale pink but this salmonberry blossom added a splash of bright color.
Violets
This was an interesting log/bridge.
Millipedes were everywhere but this one was a color we hadn’t seen before.
These were the ones we were seeing all over.
The dismount was a little awkward but doable.
Star-flowered solmonseal catching a moment of sunlight.
Fairybells
Solomonseal
False lily of the valley
Moss and lichens
Spotted coralroot
Bunchberry
Small fall along the trail.
Did I mention millipedes were everywhere?
Another creek crossing.
The reroute
This was one of the log crossings that looked too slick and high to warrant an attempt so we forded here. The water was ankle deep and we crossed easily.
We forded just above the larger rocks in the middle of the creek.
The lower of the two cascades.
The upper cascade.
Looking across the old crossing you can see where some of the hillside was washed out.
Looking back at the trail from the creek. The large downed tree was the one that was too wide to climb over.
Most of the downed trees were like this although there was one that required ducking pretty low.
We could hear the songs of wrens throughout the hike but only caught flitting glimpses of the little singers.
Two of the footbridges were in a state like this. It held but we had to watch our step to not only avoid the holes but also the millipedes.
This was another ford/rock hop. There was a log serving as the bridge but it also looked slick. The rope in the picture was connected to the log and I almost didn’t see it (both times by).
Deep pool near the crossing.
First view through the trees.
The pool was a beautiful green.
More cascades and clear pools were located downstream.
Heather taking in the view.
Since I was already wet from the fords I waded out in the calf deep creek to get a different angle.
The right fork heading on toward Mount Mitchell.
A really long nursery log spanning across this whole depression.
Camouflaged mushrooms.
The only trillium that still had its petals.
It looked like someone took a slice of this mushroom.
There weren’t too many views of North Siouxon Creek from the trail but this was a nice one.
Sour grass
Youth-on-age
Scouler’s corydalis
Candy flower
Setting off at 5:20am from the 1st gate.
Roxy Ann Peak from the road.
Jack rabbit
Coming up on the 2nd gate.
Sunlight hitting the hillsides on the far side of Medford.
Roxy Ann’s shadow being cast over Medford.
Lots of purple vetch along the trails.
One of the posts used to identify trails.
Madrones along the Madrone Trail.
We turned left following the pointer for the Oak Trail.
Juvenile great horned owl along the Oak Trail. We didn’t get a good look at the second owl to the left but it looked to be an adult.
This segment of the Madrone Trail (MD3) ended at Roxy Ann Road with the Oak Trail picking up on the far side.
The Oak Trail
Lupine amid the vetch
Camas in front of poison oak.
Carrotleaf horkelia
ookow
Death camas
Blue-eyed grass
Oak along the Oak Trail.
Roxy Ann Peak
Blow wives
The Oak Trail appeared to be the least used of all the trails we would hike on this day.
Lower Table Rock (
The only post we saw that wasn’t helpful.
Challenge Course just off the Oak Trail.
Parts of the Challenge Course
Trail junction near the Challenge Course with the Oak and Ponderosa Trails.
Dove
Hopping onto the Ponderosa Trail.
Mariposa lily
Lazuli bunting. We saw quite a few of these during our trip but they proved to be very difficult to photograph.
Medford from the Ponderosa Trail.
Paintbrush
Madia
Lower Table Rock again.
A bench and Ponderosa pines along the Ponderosa Trail.
Plectritis
Two more deer above the trail.
Deer and balsamroot.
Young deer
Momma deer
Larkspur
Nearing Park Tower Road.
Serenading lazuli bunting.
A lot darker clouds toward the Cascades.
Sign for the Manzanita Trail
The lower flank of Grizzly Peak (
Looking NE from the trail, still a lot of clouds.
Another bunting, we were on a roll.
The clouds were really starting to break up as we descended.
Arrow-leaf buckwheat on the hillside.
Roxy Ann Road
Back on the Madrone Trail.
Back on the road walk. The trail post here is for the Greenhorn Trail.
Spotted towhee.
Walk in campsite at French Gulch.
French Gulch
Hooker’s Indian Pink
White lupine
Violet
Iris
Pretty face
Starflower
Columbine
Osprey
Ground cone
Madrones near the the 5-way junction.
The side trail to the right.
Collings Mountain
Penstemon
Stricklin Butte in the distance.
We didn’t see many mushrooms on the trip but this one was good sized.
Collings Mountain on the left.
Deer brush and manzanita along the trail.
Marble
Rejoining the roadbed.
Oregon sunshine
Kellog’s monkeyflower
heart-leaf milkweed
Blue gilia
Ookow
Silverleaf phacelia
Blow wives?
Lupine
Payette Trail to the left.
The road vanishing into the lake.
Back on the Payette Trail.
Mallards
Clarkia
Looking back down the road.
Mariposa lily
This obvious trail split off from the road to the left. We’re not sure if it would have led us to the Osprey Trail possibly by old cabin ruins that are in the area or if it would have gotten us nowhere so we stuck to the road.
The roadbed petered out a short distance from FR 1075 leaving a short cross-country scramble up to a pullout along the road where a section of barbed wire fence had been broken by what appeared to be an off-road vehicle of some sort based on tire tracks down the slope.
Signboard at the pullout.
Unintended road walk.
The Dagelma Trailhead
These chutes prevent equestrian and motorized users from passing through but also tend to attract poison oak.
Northern phlox
The 5-way junction.
Junco
Canada geese in French Gulch.
Acorns in some of the holes.
On the nature trail.
The bridge
Camas
Ash-throated flycatcher
Srub jay
Acorn woodpecker
Death camas and vetch
A second pond with Upper Table Rock (post) behind.
Mt. McLoughlin
Common madia with Lower Table Rock (
Wildflowers near the bench.
Upper Table Rock
The viewpoint bench.
Wood duck
Denman Trail at TouVille Road.
Mt. McLoughlin
Upper Table Rock from TouVille Road.
A swallow on a fence post with Mt. McLoughlin behind.
Swallow
Yet another pond along Military Slough.
A kingbird, most likely western.
A pair of hawks near the pond.
I I believe this is a paintbrush, possibly Castilleja tenuis – hairy Indian paintbrush.
Mourning doves
Looking back at Upper Table Rock with the stream bed in the trees/brush to the right.
Mt. Ashland (
Mt. Ashland
Ookow
Bunker 6
Jack rabbit
Unsure what type of bird this is.
Trailhead just off TouVille Road.
The fork where we went left.
Passing another bunker.
Lupine
White tritellia
Occasional open areas were followed by thick brush with poison oak hidden among the other vegetation.
This section at least had hoof prints.
More ookow
Headed down to the creek.
Little Butte Creek
Bachelor button near the creek.
Another bachelor button
Nookta rose surrounded by poison oak.
Don’t touch!
Maiden fly
Sign for a Paddle Wheel Trail which we couldn’t really see in the grass.
TouVille Road
Bench near the confluence of Little Butte Creek and the Rogue River.
Rogue River on the left and Little Butte Creek on the right.
Pale flax
Exiting the Denman Wildlife Area.
The Rogue River along the TouVille Interpretive Nature Trial.
Back to the bridge near the parking area.
The target shooting area and the OHV track coming down the ridge.
The track going up the ridge between the two roads. We briefly wondered if this had been the BLM’s work to bypass the road walk in between this trailhead and the Greenstone Trailhead but decided it likely wasn’t (good call).
The “hidden” trailhead sign.
Despite the empty shell casings and garbage left by the shooters there were some nice flowers along the road.
Valerian
Bleeding heart
The Greenstone Trailhead
People suck
Nicer signs on the other side of the berm.
Can you spot the insect?
Trillium
Milkvetch
Iris
Pacific houndstongue
We managed to spot a few of the bloodsuckers before they grabbed my pants but we also had to flick 6-8 of the little buggers off.
Charred tree trunks along the trail.
Snow queen
No signs of fire here.
The Jack-Ash Trail continuing south.
The trail heading west.
Balsamroot
Phlox
Scarlet fritillary – Fritillaria recurva
Parsley, larkspur, prairie stars and blue-eyed Mary.
Lupine and buckwheat
Mt. McLoughlin (
Zoomed shot of Dutchman Peak
Zoomed shot of Red Buttes
Paintbrush, blue-eyed Mary, and redstem storksbill
A stonecrop
Where we left the roadbed.
Back on the Jack-Ash.
Giant white wakerobbin
Paintbrush and waterleaf
Grayback Mountain to the left with snow.
The OHV trail crossing the Jack-Ash Trail.
The OHV trail coming down from the road.
Lupine
Larkspur
Always appreciate a good mountain locator.
Mariposa lily
Paintbrush
Silverleaf phacelia
Some sort of big thistle on the hillside.
Some pink lupine.
Rough eyelash-weed
Western wallflower with a crab spider.
Clustered broomrape
Buckwheat, paintbrush, and lupine
Plectritis
Nearing the Anderson Ridge Trailhead.
Miniture lupine
A ringlet on fiddleneck.
Post at the OHV trail crossing.
Salsify
Yarrow
The Jack-Ash Trail nearing the saddle where we had turned off to go up Anderson Butte.
Wild onion (possibly Siskiyou)
Meadowfoam
Royal Jacobs-ladder
Royal Jacobs-ladder
The berm at the Greenstone Trailhead.
Acorn woodpecker
Death camas and vetch
Carrotleaf horkelia
Lazuli bunting
Finch
Lupine
Oregon sunshine
Andestite boulder
Mt. McLoughlin (
Ground squirrel having breakfast
Blow wives
A clarkia
Blue dicks
Paintbrush (and poison oak)
Could be a cutleaf silverpuff or a hawksbeard
Viewpoint bench at the half mile point.
Clustered broomrape
Siskiyou Mountains including Mt. Ashland (
Another type of clarkia
Possibly bastard toadflax
Mariposa lilies
Balsamroot along the trail.
Bell catchfly
Plumed solomonseal
Approaching the start of the loop.
Looking toward the Siskiyous.
The Red Buttes (
Pilot Rock (
Mt. Ashland (w/snow) and Wagner Butte
A couple of different wildflowers.
Narrowleaf onion?
Pincushion plant
Meadowfoam
Not sure what these yellow flowers are. Yellow flowers are by far the hardest to figure out.
Rock wren
Turkey vulture in flight with Mt. McLoughlin in the background.
Lower Table Rock beyond the other bench of Upper Table Rock.
An American kestral atop a tree.
Lizard
A butterfly and a beetle on arrowleaf buckwheat
Yarrow
Chaparral false bindweed
White tritelia
Rufous sided hummingbird
Lizard
Brown headed cowbird
Mt. McLoughlin on the way down.
Mariposa lilies
Alligator lizard
Henderson’s stars
Hooker’s Indian pink
Fern leaf biscuitroot
Blue dicks
Larkspur
Paintbrush
Mariposa lily
Another alligator lizard. They eat ticks but in this case it appears a couple ticks got the jump on him (or her).
Lupine
View from the trail.
Grayback Mountain to the right in the distance.
Fiddleneck
Miniture lupine
A lupine, clarkia and madia?
Madia
A molting lizard.
A lomatium
Believe this is a female black-headed grosbeak
The Red Buttes (
Red bells, these were on a short wish list of wildflowers that we’d yet to see on trail.
Poppy
Scraggy Mountain behind Little Grayback Mountain
Red Buttes behind Little Grayback Mountain
Butterfly on scat.
Mule Mountain is the lower peak along the ridge with the brown left side.
Lupine
Prairie stars
Balsamroot
Blue-eyed Mary
A collection of various small wildflowers.
Rough eyelashweed
Bee on silverleaf phacelia
Poppies
Butterfly on grass
Blue gilia
Grayback Mountain behind Mule Mountain
Yet another lizard
A colorful moth.
Little Grayback Mountain
Iris
Approaching the trailhead.
Looking back at the trailhead from the road.
Henderson’s fawn lily, another one we could check off our wish list.
A typical obstacle.
Overgrown trail.
Giant white wakerobbin
Some flagging on the left and bleeding heart on the right.
Star flower
Striped coralroot
There was a good pool at this crossing where we could have gotten water.
California ground cones.
A folded up mushroom.
A butterfly
Apparently lady bugs and butterflies don’t care about poison oak.
The trail got pretty faint at times.
Arriving at the Mule Mountain Trail.
White lupine
Grand collomia
Penstemon
A brief section of shade.
Dwarf purple monkeyflower
I needed to get just below the lone tree on the ridge in the distance.
A random Minion in a field.
Deer along the road.
The Twin Pear Farm on the way back by.
Peat Swamp Trail.
One of the two otters that were swimming in the wetlands.
Mallard
The gadwall amid a family of Canada geese. When we got home and looked closer at the picture we realized that one of the round shapes we took for a clump of mud was actually an animal. We can’t make out the tail to know for sure whether it was a beaver or a nutria but we’d like to think it was another beaver.
The beaver? turned a bit in this photo but we still couldn’t make out the tail. It does appear relatively large when compared to the adult goose though.
Fairy bells and bleeding heart.
Elk Creek below the trail.
Junction with the Elk Mountain Trail
Paintbrush
Parsley
Blue-eyed Mary
Viewpoint along the Elk Mountain Trail.
The blue sky is up there.
Snow queen
The trail was as steep and rough as we’d remembered.
White service berry blossoms and a huckleberry plant.
Violet
Red-flowering currant
Trillium
Anemone
Monkeyflower
One of the saddles.
Chocolate lily
Elk Mountain summit.
Kings Mountain from Elk Mountain.
Wilson River
Pacific Ocean
The blooming beargrass below some red-flowering currant.
Beargrass
Looking down the trail.
Heather on her way down.
On the ridge.
Dropping down to a saddle along the ridge.
Mercifully on the old roadbed.
A clump of trillium.
Little moth.
Getting closer to Kings Mountain.
Paintbrush
Coming up to the junction.
Phlox, paintbrush, and chickweed.
Still on the old road.
At the ridge end above the saddle, the trail dropped down to the left then through the saddle.
Below the outcrop headed to the saddle.
Heather getting ready to start down.
The chute in 2010.
The trail is down there somewhere.
Trillium
Bleeding heart
Fringed kitten-tails
Glacier lily
Coming up to the high point.
Kings Mountain
View SE from the high point.
Dropping to the last saddle.
Summit register at Kings Mountain.
Pacific Ocean in the distance.
View north.
Other hikers at the summit.
Valerian
Saxifrage, possibly Saddle Mountain saxifrage.
Phlox, paintbrush, parsley, blue-eyed Mary, and chickweed.
One of the rougher sections.
Wood sorrel
Woodland buttercup and candy flower.
The 4-way junction.
Dog Creek
One of the smaller streams.
Monkey flower
Lily that will bloom in a few weeks.
Fringecup
Coming up on a footbridge across Big Creek.
Big Creek
Pacific waterleaf
Steadily climbing.
A pea or vetch.
Unnamed stream crossing.
Miterwort
Rosy Birdsfoot Trefoil
The third type of monkey flower we saw on the day.
The junction is on the saddle ahead.
Cars to the left through the trees, we made it.
The Castor (Spanish for beaver) Trail on the left, this was the only trail in the park that we didn’t hike on during our visit. It was always a left turn.
Fawn lilies
Our first right turn (left was a short connector to the Woodland Trail).
Again the posts and accompanying maps were some of the best trail identifiers we’ve run across.
Bench at the viewpoint along the Ammefu Trail.
We had to imagine the view today.
The second figure.
Back at the Timber Road and another short connector to the Woodland Trail.
Fog on Timber Road
Passing the Woodland Trail on the left which would be our right turn on the way back.
Christensen Creek
Right turn for the Ayeekwa and Witches Butter Trails.
Witchs Butter on the left and Ayeekwa on the right.
Trillium
Another bench, this one overlooked Christensen Creek.
Common blue violet
Pioneer violets and a strawberry blossom.
Mushrooms under a fern.
Popping out on the Witches Butter Trail.
Witches Butter Trail
Witches Butter Trail winding through Douglas firs.
Turning right onto the Chehalem Ridge Trail.
There was a little more mud on the Chehalem Ridge Trail.
Spring green carpet.
A good example of the differently oriented maps, on this one north is down.
Another fir plantation. The land had been owned by a timber company prior to being purchased by Metro in 2010.
Start of the Chehalem Ridge Loop. We went right which simply swung out along the hillside before dropping down to the Madrona Trail in 0.4 miles.
The loop continued to the left but we turned right onto the Madrona Trail.
Still cloudy and gray but we’d experience very little if any precipitation yet.
Lots of tough-leaved iris along this trail.
One of several blooming dogwood trees.
View on the way down.
Madrone trees began to be a common sight as we descended.
One of the 11 switchbacks.
We hadn’t seen a lot of mushrooms recently but this hike had plenty.
Following the roadbed.
Aside from one other very small (3 in diameter) tree this was the only obstacle we encountered all day.
The start of the loop along with several madrones.
The Tualatin Valley and Coast Range.
Either these worms were racing or it was a bird buffet. The rain had brought a lot of earthworms onto the trails.
Another trail user a rough skinned newt.
A closer look at the rough skinned newt.
It had been so foggy when we had come up the Witches Butter Trail that we hadn’t realized that there was a giant green field nearby.
The end of the Chehalem Ridge Trail with the Mampaꞎ Trail to the right and a very short connector to the Timber Road to the left.
Sunlight hitting the Mampaꞎ Trail.
Fairy slippers
Squirrel
The Zorzal Trail to the right.
Toothwort along the Zorzal Trail.
Stripped coralroot
An assortment of smaller flowers.
One of the few lupines with blossoms.
Camas buds
Oak tree on Iowa Hill. Most of the larger green clumps are lupine.
The third and final figure was also located near the stone circle.
Yarrow
More lupine starting to blossom.
Tualatin Valley
Plectritis
Believe this is a checker mallow.
Parsley
Camas
Iris
White crowned sparrow
Turning down the Timber Road.
I’m not good with these little yellowish birds. It could be an orange-crowned warbler.
Black capped chickadee
Approaching the Woodland Trail on the right.
Woodland Trail
Candyflower
Coming to a switchback.
We ignored a couple of shortcuts that would have led back to the Timber Road.
We also skipped the Castor Trail which would have slightly lengthened the hike.
Lupine along the Woodland Trail as we neared the trailhead.
Much nicer conditions than we’d had that morning and way nicer than anything we had expected.
wanderingyuncks 