Category: Hiking

Fanno Creek Trail – 04/26/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 28, 2025
No Comments on Fanno Creek Trail – 04/26/2024

The Fanno Creek Trail is part of the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District offering several miles of paved trail along Fanno Creek in Beaverton and Tigard. The current trail is 8.3-miles in length with plans to eventually extend the trail between Willamette Park in Portland to the Tualatin River in Durham. The urban trail passes through a number of parks, and we planned on hiking a section that included five such parks. Before starting our hike though we made a short detour to check out Koll Wetlands.

There is no hike at Koll Wetlands, you just park behind some businesses and look for birds and other wildlife.

We arrived too early for decent pictures due to cloud cover limiting light, but we spotted a rabbit and a number of ducks and other birds.

Duck and ducklings along with a killdeer.

After checking out the wetlands we drove to the Denney Road Trailhead.

We headed south on the trail into Fanno Creek Park and followed the paved path 0.7-miles to a crossing of SW Hall Boulevard.

Chickadee

Mallards

Fanno Creek

Thimbleberry and service berry

We crossed SW Hall Boulevard and entered Greenway Park.

Northern flicker

There are several loop options available in this park if the water isn’t too high. The water was low enough today that we were able to stay left at all junctions and only had to navigate a few feet of muddy, flooded trail.

Hummingbird

Red-winged blackbird

Squirrel

The Greenway Loop Trail had the only flooded section on this day.

Wetlands along the Greenway Loop Trail.

Goose

Hooded mergansers

After rejoining the Fanno Creek Trail at the southern end of Greenway Park we passed under SW Scholls Ferry Road.
This is another section that may flood at high water times.

Shortly after passing under the road the trail passes a sign for Englewood Park.

We spent some time here watching a female mallard attempt to join the drakes along with her ducklings only to be repeatedly chased off.

Mallards ducklings

The ducklings finally making it across the trail.

Goose and gosling

Avens

The trail jogged right at a crossing of SW North Dakota Street then crossed SW Tigard St to enter Dirksen Nature Park.

Camas

Dirksen Nature Park

Viewing platform

Wetlands from the viewing platform.

Dove

Finch

Robin

We continued through the nature park and crossed SW Tiedeman Ave. Two tenths of a mile later we arrived at the Woodard Park Trailhead near the park’s playground.

Lupine

Woodard Park Trailhead.

We made this our turnaround point and headed back. We stayed left again in Greenway Park to complete the three loops there. The trail was fairly busy on the way back but not too crowded and there was still quite a bit of wildlife to see.
This may be a lesser goldfinch, I wasn’t able to see anything but its rear end though.

Spotted towhee

Wood duck

Our out-and-back on the Fanno Creek Trail came to 7.1 miles with minimal elevation gain.

This was a nice urban hike, and we can see why it’s popular with all types of trail users. Dirksen Nature Park was a highlight and looked like it would be a great place to bring the kiddos. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Koll Wetlands and the Fanno Creek Trail

Tags Beaverton, Englewood Park, Fanno Creek, Fanno Creek Trail, Greenway Loop Trail, Greenway Park, hiking, Hooded merganser, Koll Wetlands, Koll Wetlands Park, Oregon, Tigard, Wildlife, Wood Duck, Woodard Park

Eugene Hiking Oregon Trip report Willamette Valley

Thurston Hills, Jasper, and Elijah Bristow Parks – 04/19/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 21, 2025
1 Comment on Thurston Hills, Jasper, and Elijah Bristow Parks – 04/19/2025

As we continue to look for hikes/trails that we have yet to visit we turned to the Eugene-Springfield area. There are numerous parks and natural areas offering hikes of varying lengths in or near these cities. We’ve visited a number of them in past and this outing would add three more to our list of places visited.

We began our day at Thurston Hills Natural Area. The trailhead, located within the city limits of Springfield, opens at 6am (restrooms at 7am).

Opened in 2017 the area offers trails for hikers and mountain bikers. The bike only trails are closed during the wet season which making it a quieter time for hiking. We set off on the gravel Mossy Maple Trail and began a gradual climb.

The trails were well marked with plenty of reminders which users were allowed on them.

There was a variety of Spring wildflowers blooming in the forest as we made our way up the trail.
Giant white wakerobin (Trillium albidum)

The only columbine we spotted.

Fairy lanterns

In addition to identifying the trails by name, several had mile markers.

Trillium

Solomon’s seal

Toothwort

Largeleaf sandwort

Bleeding heart

At 1.9-miles the trail crossed a gravel road (Mossy Maple Connector) and leveled out as it traversed a forested hillside.

Old fungus

Oregon grape

The 2.5-mile marker on the Mossy Maple Trail.

Seasonal closure sign and map at the upper junction with the bike only Yee-Haw Trail.

Pacific hound’s tongue

Fairy slippers

Star flowered solomon’s seal

Iris

Vetch

Fringecup

After approximately three miles on the Mossy Maple Trail we arrived at a junction with the Basalt Rim Trail. The Basalt Rim Trail would be our return route so for now we turned left and climbed a small hill to a meadow in a wide saddle.

Strawberry

Shooting star

Spotted towhee

We crossed the saddle (and an access road) to pick up the Camas Crest Trail.

Small-flowered woodland-stars

Checker lily and baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii)

Manroot

Red-flowering currant

The Camas Crest Trail joined the humorously named Cervus Road briefly where we went left for 100 yards to find the Basalt Rim Trail.

Dogwood

On the Cervus Road passing an old quarry on the right.

The Basalt Rim Trail.

The lupine is still a week or so away from blooming.

Basalt columns

We climbed up the Basalt Rim Trail to a junction with the Cascadian Thumb Trail on the right.

Warning signs along this hiker only trail cautioned trail users of dangerous cliffs and the risk of falling.

Fawn lily

Springfield from the trail.

There is a short one-way loop at the top.

The loop passes several rocky viewpoints, and a lot of poison oak.
Looking down from one of the viewpoints.

The highest peak to the left in the distance is Mount June (post) and the peak in the center is Bear Mountain.

Mt. Pisgah (post) just across the Middle Fork Willamette River with Spencer Butte (post) behind to the right.

Biscuitroot

Another viewpoint along the loop.

The peak with two humps is Mount Nebo. With the naked eye we could just make out Tidbits Mountain (post) in the distance to the right.

Camas (and poison oak) near the viewpoint.

Finishing the loop.

Stripped coralroot.

After completing the loop we returned to the Basalt Rim Trail and turned right and made our way back to the Mossy Maple Trail.
Switchbacks leading down to the Basalt Rim Trail.

Wren

Violets

Basalt outcrops

Ginger

Arriving back at the Mossy Maple Trail.

On the way back down we took the Mossy Maple Connector Trail which was simply a fairly steep gravel road but otherwise retraced our steps to the trailhead.

Starflower

Dunn’s salamander

Mossy Maple Connector Trail (left).

The Yee-Haw Trail coming down from the left to the Mossy Maple Connector Trail.

Buttercups

Fairy bells

Meadow near the trailhead.

The hike here came in just under 8 miles with 1215′ of elevation gain, by far the most strenuous stop of our day.

From Thurston Hills it was just a 15-minute drive to our next stop at Jasper State Recreation Site. This is one of the 25 State Park fee sites requiring a $10.00 day use fee. This year we purchased a $30.00 annual pass, so this stop was in part to make use of the pass and get our money’s worth. The hike description (or lack thereof) was from AllTrails so it was no surprise when we were immediately confused as to where to go from the parking area.

There was no obvious path down to the picnic shelters so we simply headed down to a gravel road where we turned right. After passing an impressive display of Menzies’ larkspur we found an actual trail and wound up making a short (0.6-mile) loop through the woods.

Menzies’ larkspur

Western meadowrue

Bleeding heart and purple deadnettle

Completing the loop.

AllTrails showed a 1.6-mile loop that not only went through the woods but also the picnic areas of the park. Aside from a few service roads there weren’t many obvious paths/trails that we could see so we made up our route which stuck mostly to a faint grassy track along the Middle Fork Willamette River.

Faint grassy path.

Golden crowned sparrow

A section of obvious trail.

The faint path disappeared near the fenced off-leash dog area. The AllTrails loop appeared to turn around here, but since we couldn’t see even a faint path leading back around closer to the parking areas we turned around and followed the river back.
We did find this short section of what appears to have been a paved path in the grass.

This was an odd little hike but the park itself was nice. There was some playground equipment, nice picnic shelters, the off-leash dog area, and some disc golf holes. We managed to get 1.5-miles of walking in and saw some really nice larkspur along the way.

A 10-minute drive took us from the Jasper State Recreation Site to Elijah Bristow State Park. Currently this is not a fee park, which was a bit surprising to us given it has wide range of activities to offer. There are over 10-miles of trails open to hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers along with access to the Middle Fork Willamette River for anglers and kayakers. There are several trailheads to choose from, but we parked at the Lost Creek Trailhead.

The trails here were well maintained and all official junctions were marked with posts consisting of pointers and symbols representing the trail names. That being said having a copy of the map handy was very helpful because the trail names, such as the Elk Trail, can apply to multiple spurs in the same area.

We set off past the signboard on the Elk Trail and soon found ourselves hiking along Lost Creek.

An example of the posts. Every directional arrow, including the far side that you can’t see, was for the “Elk Trail”.

Cedar along the Elk Trail.

We simply stayed left at posted junctions which brought us to the River Trail and the Middle Fork Willamette.

Candy flower and woodland buttercups

Picnic tables near Lost Creek.

Lost Creek

Not a signed junction so this is the one time we veered right.

Middle Fork Willamette River.

The River Trail turned eastward and ran parallel to the Middle Fork for a mile. For much of the mile the river was not visible however there were a few opportunities to reach the river bank.

I was hoping that there might be a turtle hiding in this photo but alas it does not appear that is the case.

We veered left here leaving the River Trail briefly to actually get a view of the river.

We hadn’t noticed the goslings in the grass until seeing the picture of the parents.

Another look at the river shortly before the River Trail turned away.

Barrow’s goldeneye

When we reached a post for the Angler’s Trail we turned right.

We stayed left again at the next junction then right at the following two. For the remainder of the hike we stayed left back to the park entrance road across from the Lost Creek Trailhead.
Left here as right led to a picnic area at the end of the entrance road.

Signpost at the second junction where we kept right.

The clouds had been stubborn all morning but by early afternoon they had mostly burned off.

We stayed left on the trail near the entrance road (across from the Channel Lake Trailhead).

ADA accessible path to a brushy wildlife viewing spot along a backwater channel.

Bufflehead and at least three turtles on the logs behind.

The Lost Creek Trailhead on the far side of the entrance road.

Our loop here came to 3.2-miles with less than 50′ of elevation gain.

A look at the relative proximity of our three stops.

On the day we wound up hiking 12.6-miles with approximately 1250′ of elevation gain, nearly all of which came at Thurston Hills. Thurston Hills was a great hike with a lot more varied scenery and wildflowers than we had expected. We are already planning on returning to Elijah Bristow to check out more of the trails there at some point. Jasper State Recreation Area was a pleasant addition to the stops, but it wouldn’t be a place that we would visit again if we were simply looking for a hike. It did however seem to be a great place to have a picnic with the family and spend a day along the river. Happy Trails!

Tags Barrow's Goldeneye, Basalt Rim Trail, Camas Crest Trail, Cascadian Thumb Trail, Dunn's salamander, Elijah Bristow State Park, Eugune, hiking, Jasper State Recreation Area, Lost Creek, Lost Creek Trailhead, Middle Fork Willamette River, Mossy Maple Trail, Oregon, Springfield, Thurston Hills, Thurston Hills Natural Area, wildflowers

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon Trip report

Wilson River Wagon Road Trail – 04/12/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 14, 2025
No Comments on Wilson River Wagon Road Trail – 04/12/2025

Do you enjoy the sound of gunfire in the morning? If so, we have the trail for you! As I continue to look for hiking trails that we have yet to visit the Wilson River Wagon Road Trail located in the Tillamook State Forest caught my eye. An entry in the OregonHikers.org Field Guide described a hike starting at the Deyoe Creek Trailhead that would visit two waterfalls and the Stagecoach Horse Camp. One of the waterfalls, University Falls, we’d visited in February 2015 (post), but other than 0.1-mile spur trail to that waterfall the rest of this hike would be new to us.

We parked on east side of the Devil’s Lake Fork of the Wilson River at a pair of signboards at the Deyoe Creek Trailhead.
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Note that there is a pullout on the west side of the river here as well and each pullout has a signed trail leading off from it. There used to a footbridge across the river upstream from the trailheads, but that bridge is gone so unless your plan is to do a loop (description here) you want to take the trail on the eastern side signed “Nels Rogers Trail.

The trail took us along the river passing an unnamed waterfall on a side creek after a third of a mile.

After passing the waterfall the Nels Rogers Trail climbed a ridge above the river eventually leaving it and arriving at Beaver Dam Road across from the start of the Wilson River Wagon Road Trail.

Moss carpet

The first of several road and/or OHV trail crossings.

The forest was lovely, and the trail was in great shape, but from early on the sound of gunfire was a constant. It was a little surprising given we’d started hiking just after 6:30am but these target shooters were obviously early risers. We crossed the road and started on a three mile stretch of the Wilson River Wagon Road Trail that would end at the University Falls Trailhead. The Wilson River Wagon Road opened in 1893 for stagecoach and ox cart travel. At the time the toll road was the only route between Tillamook on the Oregon Coast and Forest Grove in the Willamette Valley. The trail was easy to follow and marked well at all road and OHV trail crossings. Yellow violets and white trillium were blooming, and we occasionally were able to hear the birds signing when the target shooters were reloading.

Skunk cabbage

Coming to an OHV trail crossing.

Violet

Another OHV crossing.

Trillium

Mushrooms

Approximately 1.4-miles along the Wilson River Wagon Road the trail followed Saddle Mountain Road for 150 yards before resuming on the far side.

The trail resuming on the left off Saddle Mountain Road.

Deyoe Creek

The Wilson River Wagon Road Trail arriving at University Falls Road across from the University Falls Trailhead.

University Falls Trailhead.

We detoured here and descended 0.3-miles on the University Falls Trail to visit the waterfall.

There was a clearcut on the right-hand side of the trail.

The Gravelle Brothers Trail joined from the right after 0.2-miles. This is the trail we’d used to reach the falls in 2015.

Salmonberry blossoms

Trillium near the falls.

After a brief break at the falls we climbed back up to the trailhead and turned right down University Falls Road for almost two tenths of a mile to the resumption of the trail.
Heading down the road from the trailhead.

Coltsfoot

After a tenth of a mile back on the trail we came to a “Y” junction with the Side Step Trail where we veered right to stay on the Wagon Road Trail.

This section of trail used to recross University Falls Road three times, but a clearcut on the north side of the road has apparently rerouted the trail because we didn’t cross the road again. The first two crossings are now gone with the trail sticking to the south side of the road, and the third crossing was closed by yellow caution tape.

Wood sorrel

University Falls Road below to the right.

This appeared to be a new section of trail replacing the old alignment on the north side of the road.

The closed section of the trail that remains on the north side of the road.

We turned left on University Falls Road and followed it two tenths of a mile to a road junction. Here the Side Step Trail joined from the left.

I decided to head down the road to the right to see if the section of the Wilson Wagon Road Trail from that road to the Stagecoach Horse Camp was open.
The closed section of trail coming up on the right with the continuation of the trail ahead on the left.

The other end of the closed section.

This section was open so I waved Heather on and we headed down through the clearcut to the horse camp.

It was a third of a mile down to the horse camp were we took a break from the light rain that had begun falling off and on under the cover of the community shelter.
A lot more hikes may look like this if the current administration gets its way.

The horse camp in the trees.

After another brief rest we headed back uphill to the Side Step Trail and followed it through the forest back to the Wagon Road Trail and University Falls Trailhead.

In hindsight we probably should have done the side trip to the horse camp before visiting University Falls and then we could have continued on a loop from University Falls that may have been a bit shorter with close to the same amount of elevation gain as the hike we wound up doing. We were focused on following the field guide entry though, so we retraced our steps on the Wilson River Wagon Road and Nels Rogers Trails.

Footbridge over Deyoe Creek.

Rough skinned newt.

In true Oregon fashion the weather was a mix of sprinkles and blue skies.

Violet enjoying some sunlight.

This stump looked suspiciously like Davey Jones from the Pirates of the Carribean movies to us.

Huckleberries

Devil’s Fork

Our hike came in just under 12.5-miles with approximately 1800′ of elevation gain.

The trails were great, and I’d love to give the hike 4 stars but the nearly constant gunfire, which was joined by OHV noise by late morning just won’t allow it. That being said if you’re okay with a noisy hike it is worth a visit. As mentioned earlier we would recommend doing a loop using the Gravelle Brothers Trail from University Falls to connect up to the Nels Rogers Trail rather than hiking back on the Wagon Road Trail and of course you could start from any of the trailheads located along the loop. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Wilson River Wagon Road Trail

Tags devils fork wilson river, Deyoe Creek, Deyoe Creek Trailhead, hiking, Nels Rogers Trail, Oregon, Oregon Coast Range, Side Step Trail, Stagecoach Horse Camp, Tillamook State Forest, Trillium, university falls, University Falls Trailhead, Wilson River Wagon Road, Wilson River Wagon Road Trail

Hiking Northern Coast Oregon Oregon Coast

Up and Over Neahkahnie Mountain – 04/05/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 7, 2025
3 Comments on Up and Over Neahkahnie Mountain – 04/05/2025

We had visited Neahkahnie Mountain in January 2014 (post) and had wanted to come back in Spring to hopefully see some wildflowers. The Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) crosses over Neahkahnie Mountain passing below a rocky viewpoint. In 2014 we had come from the north so this time the plan was to start from the south using a newer section of the OCT beginning in Manzanita, OR. Heather had other plans, so I was on my own for this outing, and decided that I would go up and over Neahkahnie Mountain and visit the Devil’s Cauldron before climbing back over to Manzanita.

The trailhead for the OCT is just a pullout on the shoulder of Neahlem Road.
I had arrived just after 6:30am so it was still a little dark as I set off.

It was early enough that I didn’t have to worry much about traffic when I crossed Highway 101 from Nehalem Road to the signed Oregon Coast Trail.

This 2.1-mile section of the OCT was constructed in 2020 and passes through the Neahkahnie Headwaters Preserve managed by the Lower Nehalem Community Trust.
Please respect private landowners wishes when recreating to ensure that public access continues to be allowed.

The trail began with a couple of ups and downs as it followed a powerline corridor.
Looking back at the sunrise.

The trial eventually left the powerlines and passed through a few stands of trees before arriving at a clearcut. The trail continued climbing through the clearcut and then reentered the forest. Approximately two miles from the trailhead I arrived at a signboard along Road 38555 where I turned left, hiking downhill past a gate to the South Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead.

Entering the clearcut.

Bleeding heart

The OCT is well marked.

Woodpecker

Back in the forest.

Interpretive signs in the preserve.

Bench at a viewpoint.

Nehalem Bay (post) from the bench.

Salmonberry blossom

Leaving the preserve.

Violets and pink fawn lilies. These were the first pink fawn lilies I had seen, it seems that we hadn’t timed our coastal hikes right to catch their bloom in the past.

The trailhead was empty at 7:20am.

Trail signs identified the continuation of the OCT which began a series of approximately a dozen switchbacks through the forest.

Trillium

Fringecup

Toothwort

The switchbacks led to a 4-way junction with an old roadbed where the OCT continued on the opposite side.

For the next half mile the trail traversed along the hillside below the summit ridge of Neahkahnie Mountain.

I made use of this bench on the way back to take a break and do some stretching.

View to the north.

Tillamook Head (post) and Haystack Rock (post)

After the half mile the trail made a switchback. The trail here was a little sketchy.

It was obvious that there had been some work done to try and shore up this section of trail.

The trail continued to a saddle where a spur to the right led up a rocky spine to the viewpoint summit.

The view south from the viewpoint.

Cape Meares (post), Three Arch Rocks, and Cape Lookout (post).

Cascade desert parsley near the summit.

After taking in the view I returned to the OCT and continued north.

Looking up at the viewpoint from the OCT.

It was a little over 2-miles down to the North Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead. A September 2020 windstorm had resulted in heavy blowdown to sections of this trail. The trail was closed until 2022 when crews were able to clear it.
Trillium

This was the only obstacle that required any sort of maneuvering.

There are some great trees along the upper section of the trail.

Violets

Recent trail work.

Anemones and violets.

Entering the storm damaged area.

Angora Peak (post) through the trees.

Getting creative with the trail route.

Out of the storm damage.

Skunk cabbage

Cape Falcon from the trail.

Pink fawn lilies

Arriving at Highway 101 near the North Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead.

I dashed across the highway to the trailhead and immediately spotted a few elk in the meadow below the highway.

From the trailhead I picked up the Elk Flats Trail and followed it a tenth of a mile to the Devil’s Cauldron Overlook Trail.

Another tenth of a mile brought me to the overlook.

After admiring Devil’s Cauldron I headed back. The climb back up to the saddle below the viewpoint was approximately 1400′, and after having climbed over 1600′ from Manzanita, and I felt the burn.

Snow queen

He may have been moving faster than I was.

There is nothing better than hearing wrens sing in the forest.

More creative trail in the storm damaged area.

Wood sorrel

The view if you don’t scramble up the spine.

Up to the point that I started back down from the saddle I’d passed 11 people on the trail, all of which were after having spent time at the viewpoint. On the way down I passed at least 30 people between the saddle and the South Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead which was now packed with cars.

Trillium with a touch of pink.

Arriving at the packed trailhead.

Continuing on from the busy trailhead I only passed two more people before arriving back Nehalem Road and my lonely car.
Leaving the crowds behind.

Big patch of pink fawn lilies.

Highway 101 from the powerline corridor.

Margined white

One of the more impressive trees in the preserve.

Nearing the Highway 101 crossing. I arrived just as a long line of traffic was passing by but was able to safely cross shortly afterward.

This hike came in at 11.6 miles and roughly 3000′ of elevation gain.

This was a good hike with quite a few wildflowers, some wildlife, and some nice views. It was also a good training hike for some of the alpine hikes with significant elevation gain later in the season. The various trailheads offer plenty of options for those who might not want to hike as far or climb so much, but even the shortest route (South Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead) gains 840′ in 1.5-miles to the viewpoint. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Neahkahnie Mountain from Manzanita

Tags devils cauldron, elk, Elk Flats Trail, hiking, Lower Nehalem Community Trust, Manzanita, Neahkahnie Headwaters Preserve, Neahkahnie mountain, Neahkahnie Mountain Trail, Nehalem Bay, Nehalem Road Trailhead, North Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead, Oregon, oregon coast trail, Oswald West State Park, South Neahkahnie Mountain Trailhead

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Catherine Creek – Coyote Wall Loop – 03/29/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 31, 2025
1 Comment on Catherine Creek – Coyote Wall Loop – 03/29/2025

** Note the 2025 Burdoin Fire burned over much of the route described here. **

A combination of inclement weather and illnesses had kept us off the trails for a few weeks, so we were excited to get a chance to head out and check out some wildflowers. We decided to revisit a pair of hikes that we’d done back in 2016 as part of our 500 featured hikes quest. On our 2016 outing we made separate stops at Catherine Creek and Coyote Wall but this time our plan was to hike a loop between the two areas.

We based our route on a loop described in the Oregonhikers.org field guide which begins at the Catherine Creek Trailhead.

The Forest Service along with the Washington Trails Association have been working on restoring these areas including by improving, rerouting and decommissioning various user created trails. It is a work in process so knowing the current conditions and respecting any closed trails/areas is important before visiting.

For our loop today we began by following Atwood Road (right of the signboard).
Atwood Road

The first 3.5 miles of our loop followed this old roadbed. The initial 1.5 miles climbed steadily before the road turned west to traverse the hillside toward Coyote Wall. There were a variety of wildflowers blooming along the lower portion of the road.
Death camas

Saxifrage and a yellow bells.

Grass widows

Gold stars, wood-land stars, and blue-eyed Mary.

Catherine Creek from Atwood Road.

Pungent desert parsley

Catherine Creek Arch from Atwood Road.

Closer look at the arch.

Buttercup

One of the highlights of the day was spotting a number of Dutchman’s breeches on a hillside below some cliffs.
I believe this was just our second time coming across these flowers.

Closer look at the Dutchman’s breeches.

The Columbia River from Atwood Road.

Hairy bittercress (non-native)

Entering the sunlight.

Glacier lilies

wood-land stars

Toothwort

Nearing the forest.

Columbia desert parsley

Shortly before Atwood Road turned we passed a roadbed on the right that led to an old stove.

Heading through the forest.

The road exited the forest not long after turning west and passed through an open hillside with views of Mt. Hood.
Looking east as the road emerged from the forest.

Grassy hillside

This signed trail heading down Sunflower hill is the Bitterwood Trail aka Ca2. This is not yet an official trail, and the Forest Service plans to reroute and build out an official trail in 2025. (Assuming they have employees and funding.)

Mt. Hood behind a few clouds.

Mt. Hood

Popcorn flower

The trail descending into another stand of trees to cross Rowland Creek and continued to alternate between open hillsides and stands of trees before arriving at a signed junction.

Rowland Creek

Another user trail on the left, referred to as the Shoestring Trail by the Oregonhikers Field Guide. This trail is not shown on the Forest Service map nor is it mentioned on their website.

Coastal manroot

Grass widows

View of Mt. Hood’s summit.

Robin hunting worms.

Daffodils

The Upper Labyrinth Trail (aka Co8) joining from below. This was the first junction with signs naming official trails.

We had come up the Upper Labyrinth Trail in 2016 making the next three quarters of a mile a repeat.

Labyrinth Creek below Atwood Road.

The Labyrinth Creek crossing.

Wet trail climbing away from Labyrinth Creek.

Red-tailed hawk

A half mile from the Upper Labyrinth Trail junction, and 3.5-miles along Atwood Road, we arrived at another signed junction at a boundary with some private land.

Here Atwood Road enters the private property, so we followed the pointer for the Old Ranch Trail #4426. We followed this trail downhill 0.3-miles to a signed junction with trail #4427 – Traverse to Coyote Wall where we turned right.

Yellow bells

This was once again new trail for us and we followed it uphill just over three quarters of a mile to a confusing signed junction near the rim of Coyote Wall.

We stayed left here.

We ignored the singletrack leading right on the far side of this unnamed stream.

Here we veered right on the single track. I believe the single track is the “official trail” although both paths led to the signed junction.

A multitude of tracks near the junction.

It appears that the ultimate plan is to have one official route for the Coyote Wall Trail #4428 (aka Co1) and to decommission all others. At this point there was only one small sign identifying a closed trail and it was a path along the rim of Coyote Wall that was covered in a type of netting. We turned uphill at the junction to visit the meadow at the junction but were unsure which path to take. The field guide map has not been updated to identify the new official route and showed a narrow-elongated loop. There was no consistency watching other trail users, so we picked a hiker and followed his route up.

We eventually came to the conclusion that the new official trail was the one that used a series of switchbacks to reach the upper viewpoint.
On one of the switchbacks.

Turkey vulture

The upper viewpoint.

After a short break at the viewpoint we headed back down to the signed junction where we continued down the Coyote Wall Trail.

Balsamroot

Looking east over the Columbia River.

Gold stars

A mile beyond the junction the Old Ranch Road Trail joined from the left at a three way junction.

Here we stayed right on the Little Moab Trail (Co3) and continued downhill along Coyote Wall.

Coyote Wall

The Coyote Wall Trailhead.

Woolly-pod milk-vetch

Miniture lupine, redstem storksbill and a popcorn flower.

Fiddleneck

Poet’s shooting star

We turned right at this junction with the Old Ranch Trail to continue downhill.

Naked broomrape and redstem storksbill

We took another right at this junction with the Little Maui Trail to drop down even further to an old highway.

Tomcat clover and redstem storksbill

The old highway below.

We turned left (east) on the highway and followed it for 0.3-miles to the Labyrinth Trail #4423 (Co7) where we turned left.

The Labyrinth Trail wound through rocky outcrops for 1.2-miles to an unsigned junction with the Upper Labyrinth Trail on an open hillside.
We ignored the Little Maui Connector Trail on the left near the old highway.

Larkspur

The trail to the right here is a spur to Labyrinth Falls.

Labyrinth Falls

Crossing for Labyrinth Creek.

Labyrinth Trail

First view of the Catherine Creek Trailhead on the plateau ahead.

At the junction we stayed right on the Labyrinth Trail. We were happy to not be climbing for a bit as the Labyrinth Trail traversed the hillside before dropping to an ancient rockslide where Native Americans built vision quest pits.

Hound’s tongue

Rowland Creek

Rowland Basin

Lupine and balsamroot

We’d done a pretty good job staying on course given the numerous trail junctions, a good number of which were unsigned, but that ended when we reached another unsigned junction with a rough trail on the left marked by a small rock cairn.

We should have turned left here but got confused reading the field guide entry and wound up staying straight. Apparently straight is the Raptor Trail (Ca1). We didn’t realize our mistake until we spotted the highway below.

At that point I turned around to go back to the junction. Heather was just behind me on her way down and when I informed her of the mistake she decided not to climb back up to the junction but to simply walk the highway a little over a third of a mile to the trailhead. (Apparently the Raptor Trail is closed seasonally from Feb 1 – July 15th, but we didn’t see any signs to that effect.)

I returned to the cairn and turned right up the rough path which led to basalt cliffs and up a scree slope to another unsigned junction after just 0.2-miles.

The Rowland Pinnacle

I turned right at the junction and followed this trail just over half a mile back to the trailhead where Heather was waiting. (Eventually the Bitterroot Trail (Ca2) will replace this user created trail.)

One of several small vernal pools.

The GPS put this hike at 11.9 miles consisting of a little over 2900′ of elevation gain.

There was more climbing than we’d anticipated between Coyote Wall and the Upper Labyrinth Trail junction, but we should have expected it since we’d hike that section before. There was an extra 0.6-miles in that total from the Raptor Trail mistake (which also added 280′ of the elevation gain). It was a great hike though with a lot of variety both in flowers and scenery. Hopefully the Forest Service will be able to finish their projects at these areas and add signage to the official trail junctions to help keep people on the correct trails. These are busy areas (as can be seen from the trailhead photos) in later Winter/early Spring when the wildflowers are blooming. Starting early and doing the longer loop as we did helped to keep our hike from feeling overly busy, but if you can swing a weekday, it would be ideal. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Catherine Creek-Coyote Wall Loop

Tags Atwood Road, catherine creek, catherine creek arch, Catherine Creek Trailhead, coyote wall, hiking, labyrinth falls, Labyrinth Trail, Little Maui Trail, Little Moab Trail, Old Ranch Road Trail, Rowland Basin, Rowland Pinnacle, Upper Labyrinth Trail, Upper Viewpoint, Washington, wildflowers

Clackamas Hiking Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Clackamas County Parks – 03/08/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 10, 2025
No Comments on Clackamas County Parks – 03/08/2025

Following a really nice January, February didn’t provide us many opportunities for hiking in decent weather. So far the weather in March has been quite a bit better and we took advantage of it to visit three different parks managed by Clackamas County.

This outing was inspired by our failed visit to Eagle Fern Park on our last day out hiking (post). They fee kiosk was out of order that day and we weren’t carrying enough cash ($8) to pay for the required day-use permit, so we skipped the hike here and continued on to our second destination – Milo McIver State Park. We made sure to restock our emergency cash supply and moved the visit to Eagle Fern Park to our March hikes.

Because the hike Eagle Fern Park is under 4-miles we wanted to add another destination (or two) to increase our time on trail for the day. To make it a theme day we chose two additional Clackamas County parks with short trail systems, Barlow Wayside and Metzler County Park, as stops.

We decided to start with the park furthest from Salem and work our way back home which meant starting at Barlow Wayside Park located 11-miles east of Sandy, OR. We arrived at the trailhead to discover it is now a fee park. With it being a “limited-use” park the day-use fee is $4.00 here but the only option to pay is by phone which requires downloading an app and setting up an account prior to paying.
The small blue sign on the left provides the pay by phone information. This was one of two such signs in the parking area.

Fortunately we had enough cell service to download the app and pay the fee (the fine for not obtaining a permit is currently $80.00). After doing that we headed for the informational signboard to begin our hike. It was a chilly start to the morning with the temperature a crisp 34 degrees Fahrenheit

We began with a short out-and-back on the Little Joe Tie Trail which connects to the Sandy Ridge Trail System which offers 17-miles of mountain bike trails. This level trail paralleled Little Joe Creek and entered BLM managed land before arriving at a signed junction.

Little Joe Creek

The pointer to the right was for the Sandy and Salmon Rivers (.25 miles) while continuing another .18 miles would bring us to the Sandy Ridge Trail System.

The junction seemed like a good turnaround point and we headed back to the information kiosk where I ran to the car to grab an extra Buff for Heather before following pointers for the parks three loop trails.

We turned left onto the Little Joe Loop which just 600′ long but it does lead past a platform above Little Joe Creek.

At the end of the Little Joe Loop we turned left following a pointer for the self-guided nature tour.

Brochures were available here and online. Unfortunately, we are at that age where without reading glasses the brochures were of no use to us.

We crossed the creek on a footbridge then ignored a signed “Primitive Trail” on the right to reach the start of the Falls Loop Trail.

The Primitive Trail.

Start of the Falls Looop.

We turned right on the Falls Loop and climbed up a ridge to a switchback. We ignored another Primitive Trail sign on the right and followed the switchback to the left.

Primitive Trail number 2 with the Falls Loop continuing to the left.

The trail had now leveled out and passed through a nice forest before making a short descent to an unnamed creek crossing above a small “falls”.

This was a nice little cascade this time of year. Later in the Summer the flow reportedly drops down to a trickle.

Shortly after crossing the unnamed creek we arrived at a junction with the Northern Loop Trail where we turned right.
The self-guided nature tour follows the Northern Loop Trail here as well.

The Northern Loop climbed gradually toward a set of power lines where it turned and began looping back toward the Falls Loop.
Passing stop #6 on the self-guided tour (Forested Headwaters).

The powerline corridor below Sandy Ridge.

One of the creeks flowing from the forested headwaters.

Trees are truly amazing.

Back on the Falls Loop.

We turned right on the Falls Loop and followed it as it crossed several streams and eventually dropped down to the base of a larger cascade.

We completed the Northern Loop and then returned to the trailhead where we detoured across East Barlow Trail Road following a pointer for the Sandy River.

It was a just over a tenth of a mile to the river where we took a moment to watch the water rushing past on its way from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River and eventually the Pacific Ocean before returning to our car.

Our GPS recorded our hike here as 2.7-miles with a little under 200′ of elevation gain.

From Barlow Wayside we headed back toward Sandy on Highway 26 turning off at Firwood to make our way to the trailhead at Eagle Fern Park.

After paying the $8 day-use fee at the functioning kiosk we prepared to set off on our planned hike here. Similar to Barlow Wayside there are several loop options at this park and we were hoping to check out the bulk of them. We began by crossing Eagle Creek on a suspension bridge.

There are a few Eagle Creeks in Oregon, this is the Eagle Creek that originates in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness (post).

At a junction on the far side of the bridge we turned right on Loop C which is another interpretive trail.

At a junction we stayed right to begin Loop A.
Trail Keepers of Oregon restoration work sign. TKO does a lot of great work and with the current administration’s hostility toward public land groups such as theirs are needed more than ever.

Loop A made a good climb before leveling out a bit along the hillside above Eagle Creek.

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We ignored this connector trail on the left (Spur B on the park map) and continued along the hillside.

Snow queen

One of several switchbacks.

Rough-skinned newt and snow queen.

Closer look at the newt.

Blue sky

Traversing the hillside.

The trail below as we neared a switchback to begin descending.

Rock overhang along the trail.

Viewpoint near the end of the loop.

After returning to the trailhead we headed off in search of Loop D which begins off of Kitzmiller Road. This meant a short road walk from the trailhead to Kitzmiller Road where we turned right for 0.2-miles where there is a small parking area on left (west) side of the road. The trail was reportedly on the opposite side of the road and had at one time been signed. That sign was gone but a cyclist who had stopped at the pullout was aware of the trail and helped point us in the right direction. He was a little bewildered about us wanting to hike this trail, having tried to follow it himself some years back. At that time he said it climbed out a little way above the main park area and just petered out. The official park map showed a loop, Loop D, here and the Oregonhikers Field Guide described an additional lollipop loop off of Loop D. After confirming that this was indeed the trail we were looking for he wished us good luck and we set off on the unmarked path.
The start of Loop D from Kitzmiller Road.

The trail quickly split and we went right.
The remains of former signs can be seen at the split ahead.

This trail obviously doesn’t see much use but was in decent shape with one large tree requiring a duck under and another smaller tree down across a switchback that meant we had to climb over it twice.

The trail made a steady climb to the junction with the supposed Lollipop Loop.

The lower portion of the tree across the switchback.

There was no sign at the start of the Lollipop Loop but the tread at the split was obvious.
Left is the continuation of Loop D. We stayed right to attempt the Lollipop Loop.

The Oregonhikers Field Guide described the lollipop as a rougher trail and that was accurate. It was still easy enough to follow. After about a quarter of a mile we found ourselves dropping to a footbridge over a small stream.
There were some cut trees along the trail mixed with more recent blowdown but nothing was particularly difficult to navigate.

Wren

There was a lot of snow queen.

The footbridge with a large tree across it.

There was a large tree down across the near side of the footbridge. The bridge appeared to have held up well with just one visibly broken plank. Heather decided she’d seen enough though so she stopped here and we agreed to meet back a what we thought might be the other end of the loop that we’d passed near the top of the hill. I continued on and quickly found myself navigating multiple downed trees and other obstacles.
Look back along the bridge.

The older blowdown had all be cut.

I finally lost the trail in a muddy bog not far from Eagle Fern Road. At some point the loop should have turned uphill to the left and after a series of switchbacks returned me to the trail not far from the footbridge. I had seen no sign of any trail to the left between the bridge and where I turned around.
I made it through this muddy mess but couldn’t find any sign of tread on the opposite side.

I back tracked to the bridge looking for any sign of the loop. I still didn’t see any tread, flagging or cut logs that would have indicated the presence of a trail. I recrossed the bridge and rejoined Heather and then we returned to Loop D. We turned right onto Loop D and followed it back down to Kitzmiller Road.

We detoured across Kitzmiller Road to the pullout and followed a short path down to the bank of East Eagle Creek.

My hike here came in at 3.9-miles with a little under 400′ of elevation gain.

After visiting East Eagle Creek, we returned to our car and made our way to the trailhead at Metzler County Park.

This was by far the busiest park and another requiring the $8 day-use permit (annual permits are also available). I was unsure if the day-use permit we purchased at Eagle Fern Park could also be used here or if a separate permit was required. (The Clackamas County website was no help and they were closed Friday so I couldn’t ask ahead of time.) There was one sign that I took as indicating the day-use permit was good for that day at any of the fee parks, so we did not purchase a third permit.

From the parking area we walked down the paved entrance road toward Clear Creek. At a memorial stone for Alice Metzler we followed a “Swimming Hole” sign passed a picnic shelter to a suspension bridge.

Clear Creek

On the far side of the bridge we stayed left at a junction and followed Swagger Creek gradually uphill.

Swagger Creek

The trail soon veered away from the creek and descended through a mixed forest to an unsigned junction where we stayed and eventually arrived at a second unsigned junction.

Song sparrow (according to Merlin)

The second unsigned junction.

The section junction was part of the Northern Loop where we once again stayed left traversing the hillside above Clear Creek before arriving at a clear cut at the park boundary.

The trail descended beside the clear cut then turned back along Clear Creek to complete the loop.

We turned left and hiked back to the first junction where we again stayed left and returned to the suspension bridge to complete another loop.

Swagger Creek (right) joining Clear Creek at the suspension bridge.

We recrossed Clear Creek and hiked back to the entrance road where we turned left. We followed the road into and through the closed campground to its end and the start of the Nature Trail.

The Nature Trail wasn’t signed other than some “No Motor Vehicles” signs.

This interpretive trail follows an old roadbed behind the campground and through part of the disc golf course to the baseball field where it abruptly ends.

One of the numbered interpretive markers (brochures available on the park website).

The old roadbed.

At the baseball field we had a choice to turn right or stay left, either way we had to pass through more of the disc golf course. There were disc golfers coming up from the right so we stayed left and hiked around the field to the park entrance road and then followed it back to our car. This wound up being our shortest hike of the day at 2.6-miles and less than 350′ of elevation gain, but we missed a small section of the Nature Trail that veered off from the far side of the suspension bridge. That section of the trail follows a pointer for the “Swimming Hole” and thinking it was just a spur to a swimming hole we’d skipped it when we first crossed the bridge.

All together the three stops provided a little over 9-miles of hiking with approximately 875′ of elevation gain.
Relative locations of the three stops plus Milo McIver from our previous outing.

These would be good hikes with kids given each park has interpretive trails and loop options of varying lengths. They also make for a nice destination for a quick stop, although the day-use fee might give non annual fee permit holders pause. Each park is nevertheless worth visiting at least once. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Clackamas County Parks

Tags Barlow Wayside Park, Clackamas County Parks, Clear Creek, Eagle Creek, Eagle Fern Park, hiking, Little Joe Creek, Metzler County Park, Oregon, Sandy Ridge Trail System, sandy river, Swagger Creek

Clackamas Hiking Old Cascades Oregon Trip report

Milo McIver State Park – 02/22/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date February 24, 2025
1 Comment on Milo McIver State Park – 02/22/2025

After getting a couple of extra hikes in during January, Winter finally arrived in February. We were down to our final chance to take our monthly offseason hike so regardless of the weather we planned on heading somewhere. I had a few options ready depending on the forecast which wound up being for a relatively dry morning followed by rain. We originally decided on a pair of hikes near Estacada, Eagle Fern Park and the Riverbend Loop at Milo McIver State Park.

We planned on starting our morning at Eagle Fern Park, but unfortunately the debit/credit card fee station there was out of order, and we weren’t carrying cash, making it impossible to pay the $8 day use fee charged by Clackamas County. (The county doesn’t have a way to pay online, that I could find.) After striking out at Eagle Fern Park we headed to Milo McIver where a State Park Pass is required. Day use passes went from $5 to $10 beginning in 2025 so for the first time we purchased an annual pass (online) which is only $30, or three visits to fee parks.

We parked in the McIver Memorial Viewpoint parking area and began our hike by following a paved path down to the viewpoint.

Gazebo near the parking lot.

McIver Memorial Viewpoint

On a clearer day there would be a view of the mountains here, but we had to settle for the mountain identifier to let us know what we were missing.

Clackamas River from the viewpoint.

We had visited this park in June 2020 and done a 6.5-mile loop around the southern half of the park (post). For this visit the plan was a lollipop around the northern portion. From the viewpoint we walked back toward the parking area and turned right (north) on a gravel path leading to a signboard.
The small trail sign on the left is labeled “Viewpoint Trail”.

Map on the signboard. Oddly the Viewpoint Trail is not shown on this map even though the trail continues past the signboard.

We continued past the signboard on the Viewpoint Trail which descended the hillside above the Vortex Meadow before reaching a junction with the Vortex Loop near the edge of the meadow.

The Vortex Meadow through the trees.

At an unsigned 4-way junction with the Vortex Loop we turned right and headed further into the meadow.

Former model airplane landing strip in the meadow.

The lack of signage combined with some trails not being shown on the maps we had, created some issues as we neared the SE end of the meadow. We came to a group of picnic tables where a trail headed left toward them. It appears, based on our final GPS track compared to the route shown in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide and the park map, that this was the continuation of the Vortex Loop. We assumed it was simply a trail to the tables and continued straight through the meadow to a “T” junction at its edge.

We turned left on this trail, which again had no signage, and followed it staying right at junctions until we arrived at a 4-way junction with signs.

There were some limited views of the Clackamas River from this trail.

While we were happy to see trail signs again it was a little confusing to see the Riverbend Trail pointer here. Here again the maps that we had did not show this junction. They did show a 4-way junction between the Riverbend Trail and Vortex Loop but only after crossing a road which we had not done.

We decided to follow the pointer for the Riverbend Trail to the right since that was the trail we were eventually to be on. A short distance later we came to another signed junction, but this one made no mention of the Riverbend Trail.

This junction really threw us off. We initially turned left following the pointer for the Vortex Trail but quickly talked ourselves out of it when it appeared to be heading away from the river. In hindsight this was the correct choice to follow the Oregon Hikers Route, but I failed to catch that in the hike description. We were still a little confused as to exactly where we were on the route as well due to having come to more junctions than we’d expected already. We backtracked to the junction and headed down into the Kingfisher Group Camp and picked up the continuation of a trail on the far side of the grassy area.

Viewpoint near the group camp.

This trail led us to a junction with the Riverbend Trail at the Riverbend disc golf course.

Had we not backtracked through the group camp we would have connected with the Riverbend Trail after crossing a road then turned right on the Riverbend Trail, recrossed the road, and arrived at this junction on that trail which was now on our left.

We turned right on the Riverbend Trail and were now back on track with the route we had intended to be on. The Riverbend Trail passed between the river on the right and the Riverbend Day Use Area.

Stellar’s jay

We stumbled on a one-leg standing competition that the local geese were engaged in.

The mallards seemed unimpressed with the geese’s balancing abilities.

Common mergansers

The Riverbend Trail brought us to a parking area near a boat ramp where we once again got a little confused.

We should have turned left here following the pointer but instead we continued past the boat ramp and picked up a trail on the far side of the parking area.

This trail was not the Riverbend Trail but rather was part of the disc golf course providing access to holes 5, 6, & 7, and it ended at the riverbank.

Common merganser drake

After consulting our maps once again we realized our mistake and that we should have turned left when we’d arrived at boat ramp.
We found this nice little bridge wandering around the disc golf course attempting to connect with the Maple Ridge Trail.

Stream below the little footbridge.

When it became clear that it wasn’t possible to reach the Maple Ridge Trail from this part of the disc golf course we made our way back to the boat ramp and walked up the paved road to a trail marker on the right.

We crossed a patch of grass to another set of trail signs where we found a pointer for the Maple Ridge Trail.

We were back on track again and followed the Maple Ridge Trail uphill half a mile to Wood Duck Pond.

The Cedar Knoll Trail connects the upper and lower segments of the Maple Ridge Trail. We stayed right on the Maple Ridge Trail.

Colorful fungi

Wood ducks on Wood Duck Pond. It’s pretty rare that the animal a feature is named after is actually present.

At the pond the Maple Ridge Trail made a 180 degree turn and headed SE while continuing its gradual climb. A short distance from Wood Duck Pond was a signed spur trail to the 2008 Landslide Viewpoint.

We detoured the 150′ to the viewpoint.

While the cliffs were dramatic this short detour also resulted in us spotting a large newt/salamander and a great blue heron.
Not sure if this is just the biggest rough-skinned newt we’ve ever seen or a different type of salamander.

Great blue heron by a small pond. It was probably hunting the frogs that were croaking loudly here.

We returned to the Maple Ridge Trail and followed it to a junction with the Riverbend Loop Trail. This stretch of trail climbed a little more before leveling out somewhat and eventually dropping back down to the junction.
The sign ahead is for the Cedar Knoll Trail joining from the left.

Dropping down to the Riverbend Loop Trail junction.

The Maple Ridge Trail makes another nearly 180 degree turn here and drops down to the parking area a short distance from its other end.

We stayed right here again at a junction with a trail leading to the Maple Ridge Picnic Shelter.

I believe these are sweet coltsfoot starts.

There was a bench next to this nice little creek.

Nearing the Riverbend Day Use Area entrance road.

When the Riverbend Trail arrived at the entrance road it turned uphill.

After a short climb we arrived at a junction where we turned right leaving the Riverbend Trail.

A very short distance later we came to a junction with the Vortex Loop where we also turned right.

Had we not gotten confused and gone through the group camp earlier we would have come to both of these junctions before. In any event we followed the Vortex Loop uphill, steeply at times, to a crossing of the paved road across from the Vortex Meadow.

Song sparrow

At the junction in the meadow we turned right onto the unsigned Viewpoint Trail and followed it back uphill to our car.

It’s hard to make out but there is a coyote in this photo.

I have no idea what’s going on with this photo of the coyote as it was trotting away from us. Shortly after this it popped out from behind some brush and jumped into the air to pounce on something. That was the last we saw of it.

Squirrel

Left to right: Silver Star Mountain, Little Baldy, and Bluff Mountain (post).

Mt. Hood making a partial appearance.

The weather held and we stayed dry despite having driven through several rain showers on the way to the park. Despite missing out on Eagle Fern Park it had been a good day of hiking. The trails weren’t too busy, and we got to see a fair amount of wildlife through the morning. This hike was approximately 6.4-miles with a little over 400′ of elevation gain.

We plan on trying Eagle Fern Park again in the not-too-distant future, and this time we’ll be sure to bring cash just in case. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Milo McIver Riverbend Loop

Tags Clackamas River, Common Merganser, coyote, geese, hiking, Mallard, Maple Ridge Trail, McIver Memorial Viewpoint, Milo McIver State Park, Oregon, Riverbend Trail, Viewpoint Trail, Vortex Loop, Vortex Trail, Wood Duck Pond

Coastal Range Hiking Oregon Trip report

Crown Zellerbach (CZ) Trail – Ruley TH to Nehalem Divide – 1/25/25

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 27, 2025
No Comments on Crown Zellerbach (CZ) Trail – Ruley TH to Nehalem Divide – 1/25/25

We hiked a segment of the 24.8-mile-long Crown Zellerbach (CZ), or Crown Z, Trail in March 2022 (post). For that hike we began at the Nehalem Divide Trailhead and hiked to the Wilark Trailhead. With another sunny, but cold, weekend forecast we decided it was time to check out more of the trail. For this visit our plan was to begin at the Ruley Trailhead and make the 4.5-mile hike to the Nehalem Divide Trailhead where we would turn around.

We arrived at the empty trailhead shortly after 7:30am on a frosty 26°F (-3°C) morning.

After stopping to view the interpretive signs here, we set off on the old logging road turned trail.

1930 Caterpillar Model 30

We followed the trail past several homes along North Scappoose Creek before entering a second growth forest.
Bridge over Cedar Creek.

Cedar Creek

North Scappoose Creek

Sun hitting the top a hill in the distance.

There was a lot of hair ice along the trail.

Forest along the trail.

One of several interpretive signboards along this segment.

The trail ascended gradually through the forest to a “Y” just below the Nehalem Divide Trailhead.
While the Sun was out the trail remained mostly shaded and therefore cold. We both would have benefited from some slightly warmer layers.

Hair ice

More hair ice

Another interpretive sign ahead.

MP 13

The Nehalem Divide TH on the left and the Crown Z Trail continuing on the right.

I believe that is Silver Star Mountain (post) in the distance.

On our way back we kept our eyes open for a use trail that reportedly led down to the eastern end of the abandoned Nehalem Divide Railroad Tunnel. We had visited the west portal in 2022 and thought it might be fun to see the other end. The OregonHikers Field Guide mentioned a red paint dot on a tree 30 yards from a green trail marker, but we didn’t see any such markers in the area where the use trail might be or any red dot on the west side of the trail. There was a red “A” and other markings on a tree along with an apparent use trail that may have been what we were looking for, but after a quick look at the terrain we opted not to go exploring.

We continued back to the trailhead passing roughly a dozen other users, mostly cyclists, before reaching our car.

North Scappoose Creek winding past a private home.

The Ruley Trailhead ahead.

Our hike today came to 9.2-miles with a little under 700′ of elevation gain.

The Crown Z may not be the most exciting trail out there, but it offers plenty of distance opportunities and some easy, peaceful hiking. The interpretive signs providing history and insight to the area are a plus and so is the fact that the trail is accessible year around. We plan on eventually hiking the entire trail which we should be able to do in three more segments. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Crown Z Trail – Ruley TH to Nehalem Divide

Tags Crown Z Linear Trail, Crown Z Trail, Crown Zellerbach Trail, CZ Trail, hiking, Nehalem Divide Trailhead, North Scappoose Creek, Oregon, Ruley Trailhead

Hiking

2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 2 – Featherless Friends

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 23, 2025
No Comments on 2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 2 – Featherless Friends

This is part 2 of our 2024 wildlife phots. Please click here for our feathered friends gallery. As with all our wildflower and wildlife posts any corrections or additions to our attempts at identifying what we’ve photographed are greatly appreciated. One other note, while we really enjoy taking pictures as a way to record what we see on our hikes, we are by no means photographers. We use our phones and a point and shoot camera on the auto setting, so the pictures are far from professional, but we hope you enjoy them. Finally, we do practice Leave No Trace Principles including Principle 6: Respect Wildlife which means observing from a distance, never feeding, and respecting any area wildlife closures. We urge others to do the same and recreate responsibly.

It was a pretty good year for wildlife. While we spotted several species of birds that were new to us this year, we didn’t add any new mammals, reptiles, or amphibians to those we’d seen in previous years. Below are photos representing many of the different critters that we saw, including a number of insects on flowers that we only realized were there after viewing the photos.
Starfish, anemones, and mussels – 5/11/24 Crescent Beach, OR

Crab – 5/11/24 Crescent Beach, OR

Trout – 7/13/24 Joyce Lake, OR

Fish – 10/7/24 Salmon River, OR

Frog – 9/13/24 Sprague Lake (Mt. Jefferson Wilderness), OR

Tree frog – 5/26/24 Madison Butte Trail, OR

Toad – 8/31/24 Deep Lake (Sky Lakes Wilderness), OR

Western toad – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Rough-skinned newt – 1/27/24 Corvallis to Coast Trail, OR

Sagebrush lizard – 6/19/24 Deception Butte, OR

Western fence lizard – 5/25/24 Barnes Butte Recreation Area, Prineville, OR

Snake – 6/8/24 Tillamook State Forest, OR

Snake – 7/4/24 Horsepasture Mountain Trail, OR

Not sure if this is a vole or a pocket gopher? – 6/8/24 Tillamook State Forest, OR

Townsend’s chipmunk – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Least chipmunk – 8/20/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Golden-mantled ground squirrel – 8/20/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Columbian ground squirrels – 8/18/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

California ground squirrel – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Red squirrel – 9/9/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Douglas squirrel – 2/3/24 Forest Park, Portland, OR

Yellow-bellied marmot – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Leaning toward muskrat but it could be a nutria. – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

This one is for sure a nutria (invasive). – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, OR

Pika – 7/24/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Cottontail – 9/8/24 National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Baker City, OR

Rabbit – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, OR

Roosevelt elk – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Black-tailed deer – 3/30/24 Corvallis, OR

Black-tailed deer – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Mule deer – 8/22/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Mountain goat – 8/19/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness

Coyote – 10/5/24 Mt. Hood Wilderness, OR

Black bear – 8/22/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Cows – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Slugs – 4/13/24 Wind Mountain Trail, WA

Snail – 6/19/24 Buckhead Nature Trail, Westfir, OR

Beetle – 6/8/24 Tillamook State Forest, OR

Beetle – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Beetles – 7/22/24 Hurricane Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Cricket – 9/9/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Cicada – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Crane flies – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path Eugene, OR

Dragon fly – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

Dragonfly – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Dragonfly – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Flying ants – 7/13/24 Nasty Rock, OR

A pollinator – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Seet bee – 8/18/24 Cliff Creek Trail, OR

Bees – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Bumble bee – 8/19/24 Pine Creek Trail, OR

Spider – 4/13/24 Sams-Walker Day Use Area

Find the crab spider (hint: one of the white blooms). – 7/4/24 Olallie Trail, OR

Spider hunting a moth. – 7/22/24 – Hurricane Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Millipede – 6/19/24 Deception Butte, OR

Caterpillar – 6/22/24 Big Huckleberry Mountain, OR

Caterpillars – Pine Lakes Trail, OR

Woolly bear caterpillar – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Crescent butterfly and another pollinaotr – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail, OR

Skipper and flies – 5/25/24 Barnes Butte Recreation Area, Prineville, OR

Arctic skipper – 6/1/24 Cook Hill, WA

Northern cloudywing – 6/19/24 Deception Butte, OR

Persius duskywing (Erynnis persius) – 7/4/24 Horsepasture Mountain, OR

Possibly a Pacuvius duskywing – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Western meadow fritillary – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Fritillary – 7/13/24 Nasty Rock, OR

Fritillary – 8/22/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Myllita crescent (female) – 7/22/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Myllita crescent (male) – 7/24/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Field crescent – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Edith’s checkerspot – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Snowberry checkerspot (male) – 7/13/24 Nasty Rock, OR

Snowberry checkerspot (female) – 7/13/24 Nasty Rock, OR

Green comma – 8/20/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Hoary comma – 7/23/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Painted lady – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

California tortoiseshell – 7/23/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Milbert’s tortoiseshell – 5/26/24 Madison Butte, OR

Common woodnymph – 7/22/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Great arctic – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Monarch butterfly – 7/24/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Orange tip – 5/26/24 Madison Butte, OR

Pine white – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Becker’s white – 8/18/24 Cliff Creek Trail, OR

Clodius parnassian – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Margined white? – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail, OR

Not sure which sulphur this is – 7/22/24 Hurricane Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Also unsure which sulphur this is – 8/20/24 Chimney-Wood Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Ochre ringlet – 5/25/24 Barnes Butte Recreation Area, Prineville, OR

Cedar hairstreak – 5/25/24 Barnes Butte Recreation Area, Prineville, OR

Oregon swallowtail – 5/26/24 Madison Butte, OR

Western tiger swallowtail – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail, OR

I rarely ever attempt a guess at the gossamer wings.
6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

8/18/24 Cliff Creek Trail, OR

7/22/24 Hurricane Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

7/24/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

8/20/24 Chimney-Wood Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail, OR

Echo azure? – 4/13/24 Beacon Rock State Park, WA

Moth – 06/08/24 Tillamook State Forest, OR

Moth – 6/29/24 Grasshopper Mountain, OR

Moth – 7/21/24 Hat Point, OR

Eight-spotted forester moth – 7/4/24 Olallie Trail, OR

Police car moths – 7/24/24 Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Hiking

2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 1 – Feathered Friends

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 22, 2025
3 Comments on 2024 Wildlife Gallery Part 1 – Feathered Friends

A couple of my favorite posts to put together every year is our wildlife galleries. Seeing animals on our hikes is always a highlight. (Maybe not rattlesnakes, but in 15 years of hiking we’ve still only seen one on trail.) A couple of years back we spilt our gallery post into two, feathered and featherless. This helps keep the number of pictures to a more reasonable number. While we do our best at identification, we are not experts’ Any corrections or further identification of species are appreciated.

A couple of other notes, while we really enjoy taking pictures as a way to record what we see on our hikes, we are by no means photographers. We use our phones and a point and shoot camera on the auto setting, so the pictures are far from professional, but we hope you enjoy them. We also practice Leave No Trace Principles including Principle 6: Respect Wildlife which means observing from a distance, never feeding, and respecting any area wildlife closures.

Acorn woodpecker – 3/30/24 Mulkey Ridge Trail, Corvallis, OR

Lewis’s woodpecker – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Northern flicker – 6/19/24 Deception Butte, OR

Black-backed woodpecker? – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Hairy? woodpecker (I have a hard time with Hairy vs Downy woodpeckers) – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

Anna’s hummingbird – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Rufous hummingbird – 8/3/24 Crater Lake National Park, OR

American goldfinch – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

American robin – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

American dippers (ouzels) – 5/12/24 Lee Wooden Fishhawk Falls County Park, Clatsop County, OR

Black-headed grosbeak – 6/8/24 Cedar Butte (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Bullock’s oriole (top of photo) – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

LOL! This is the best photo of a varied thrush I could get this year. 2/3/24 Forest Park, Portland, OR

Hermit thrush – 6/15/24 O’Leary Mountain Trail (Willamette National Forest), OR

Chickadee – 9/9/24 Hidden Lake Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Dark-eyed junco – 3/30/24 Mulkey Ridge Trail, Corvallis, OR

Common yellowthroat – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Dusky flycatcher – 8/19/24 Pine Lakes Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Hammond’s flycatcher – 8/22/24 East Fork Wallowa River Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Ash-throated flycatcher – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Lazuli bunting – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Mountain bluebirds – 8/18/24 Cliff Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Western bluebirds – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Cedar waxwing – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

California jay – 3/30/24 Mary’s River Natural Park, Corvallis, OR

Canada jay – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

Stellar’s jay – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Crow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Raven – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Sage thrasher (new sighting for us) – 9/8/24 National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, OR

Western meadowlark – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Western tanager – 7/24/24 Tenderfoot Wagon Road Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Pine siskins – 8/20/24 Chimney-Wood Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Ruby-crowned kinglet – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Spotted towhee – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Townsend solitaire – 9/13/24 Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

Yellow-rumped warbler – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Orange-crowned warbler – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Wilson’s warbler – 6/8/24 Kilchis Forest Road (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Purple martins – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Tree swallows – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Barn swallows – 5/11/24 Fort Stevens State Park, OR

European starling – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Brewer’s blackbird – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Yellow-headed blackbird – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Red-winged blackbird – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Bushtit – 7/6/24 Independence River Front Park, Independence, OR

Brown creeper – 6/19/24 Deception Butte Trail, OR

White-breasted nuthatch – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Red-breasted nuthatch – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Pacific wren – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Marsh wren – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Rock wren – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Golden-crowned sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Savanah sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Song sparrow – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Chipping sparrow – 4/13/24 Sams-Walker Day Use Area, WA

White-crowned sparrow – 4/13/24 Sams-Walker Day Use Area, WA

House finch – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Cassin’s finch – 8/4/24 Crater Lake National Park, OR

Cassin’s vireo – 8/21/24 Maxwell Lake Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

American kestral – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Peregrine falcon – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Copper’s hawk – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Red-tailed hawk – 5/25/24 Willow Creek Trail, Madras, OR

Northern harrier – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Osprey – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Bald eagles – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Turkey vulture – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Dusky grouse – 7/23/24 McCully Creek Trail (Eagle Cap Wilderness), OR

Sooty grouse – 8/31/24 Sky Lakes Wilderness, OR

Ruffed grouse – 11/28/24 Silver Falls State Park, OR

California quail – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Dove – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Pigeons – 9/8/24 National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, OR

Band-tailed pigeons – 6/8/24 Kilchis Forest Road (Tillamook State Forest), OR

Pigeon guillemont – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Oyster catcher – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Whimbrel – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Seagull – 5/11/24 Ecola State Park, OR

Spotted sandpiper – 7/24/24 Bonny Lakes (Eagle Cap Wilderness, OR

Wilson’s phalarope (another first for us) – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Double-crested cormorant – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

American bittern – 5/28/24 Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Great egret, female mallard, and great blue heron – 10/10/24 William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Mallard drake – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Ruddy ducks – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Northern shoveler – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Buffleheads – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Green-winged teal – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Northern pintail and American wigeons – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Canvasbacks (first time sighting for us) – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Common merganser drake – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Hooded mergansers – 3/16/24 Middle Fork Path, Eugene, OR

Cinnamon teal – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Lesser scaups – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Greater scaup – 5/11/24 Skippanon River, Warrenton, OR

Ring-necked duck – 5/26/24 Bull Prairie Lake (Umatilla National Forest), OR

Gadwalls – 5/27/24 Crooked River Wetlands, Prineville, OR

Barrow’s goldeneye – 9/11/24 Pyramid Lake (Mt. Hood National Forest), OR

American coot – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Pie-billed grebe – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Eared grebe – 5/26/24 Bull Prairie Lake (Umatilla National Forest), OR

Horned grebe – 2/10/24 Wapato Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Canada geese – 4/20/24 Jackson Bottom Wetlands, Hillsboro, OR

Cackling geese – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR

Tundra swans (first sighting for us) – 2/24/24 Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, OR