As we whittle down the list of hikes that we’ve yet to do within three hours of Salem we are beginning to work in more repeats. Aside from scenic beauty, one of the reasons we’ve marked hikes for revisits is a lack of views from viewpoints due to foggy/cloudy conditions. That was the case with the Adams Mountain Way Loop which we initially hiked on 4/23/2016 (post). On that outing we had stopped first at the nearby Parker Creek Falls before tackling the challenging loop. For this outing we chose a different nearby waterfall, Wildood Falls, to visit before hiking the loop.
Located on the Row River Wildwood Falls is a popular swimming hole that doesn’t involve a hike. There are Lane County parks on both sides of the river Lasells D County Park on the south side and Wildwood Falls on the north (Lane County Parking Pass required). We decided to visit from Wildwood Falls Park.
Small parking area at Wildwood Falls Park.
Reminder that outdoor recreation is not without risk.
There is a little poison oak (see lower left) along the path to the falls.
Exposed rock above the falls.
Row River above the falls.
Row River below the falls.
Pool in the rocks.
Camas
Monkeyflower
Iris
We followed a short path along the river to a viewpoint before returning to the car along the road.
The falls were scenic, but we were happy we visited early in the morning before the area got busy. There was an unfortunate amount of litter around which gave an indication of the type of crowd the swimming hole attracts.
From Wildwood Park it was a 20-minute drive to Lund Park Campground
Lund Park Campground Entrance
The loop requires a 1.2-mile walk along Brice Creek Road which can be done at the beginning or end of the hike depending on the direction you chose to hike. We tend to prefer doing road walks sooner rather than later for two reasons. First road walks tend to be less exciting than the trails. The other reason is that our early start times typically mean that there is less vehicle traffic than there would be later in the day.
In this case there was a third reason to start with the road walk and do the loop counterclockwise, the climb was less steep going up the Crawfish Trail than it would be going up the Adams Mountain Trail. Of course that meant a steeper descent, so if going downhill is hard on your knees you might choose the steeper clockwise climb.
From Lund Park Campground we headed back along Brice Creek Road the way we’d driven in past the signed Merten Flume until we reached the signed Crawfish Trail (both on our left). As road walks go this one was pretty. There were quite a few flowers along the road and numerous views of Brice Creek (post).
Valerian
Spotted coralroot with an inside-out-flower in the background.
Brice Creek
Larkspur
Columbine above Brice Creek
Largeleaf avens along Hobo Creek
Merten Flume Trail sign near Hobo Creek.
Anemones
Fairy lanterns.
Hiker symbol for the Crawfish Trail.
We turned uphill on the Crawfish Trail and began a 5.2-mile climb to the Knott Trail.
We’ve found that the Forest Service seems to sometimes round milage shown on trail signs.
Be aware that the trail is used by mountain bikers as a downhill shuttle ride so there is the possibility of having a bike barreling downhill. While there was plenty of evidence of bikes on the trail we didn’t encounter any other trail users all day. The trail crosses several forest roads, but it is well signed and easy to follow.
Trail snail
Iris
Salal
One of the corners that shows you this is a mountain bike trail.
Pacific coralroot
Rhododendron
Trail crossing a forest road.
Crossing an abandoned road.
The Crawfish Trail climbed steadily, never too steeply, but it rarely leveled out.
Abandoned car along another abandoned road, so disappointing.
Forest Road 2258
Trail continuing on the far side of FR 2258
Candysticks emerging from the forest floor.
Doing the math here gives a trail length of 5.25 miles which agrees with what our GPS units showed.
A second crossing of FR 2258.
Beyond the second crossing of FR 2258 the trail showed substantially less wear from mountain bikes.
Trillium
Trail slug
Trail bird (maybe a russet backed Swainson’s thrush?)
Beargrass that is going to bloom soon.
This was the first downed tree we’d come across, more evidence that this portion sees less bikers.
A rare level stretch as the trail passed over a wide saddle.
A second obstacle.
Violet
Adams Mountain from the other side of the saddle. The loop and in fact the Adams Mountain Way Trail do not actually go to the summit of Adams Mountain.
Red-flowering currant
Vine maple blossoms.
We took a break in this rocky section of trail which was the only place we could find where the mosquitoes weren’t too plentiful. The lower portion of the trail had been fine but as we climbed the mosquitoes became more plentiful. While we were taking our break we heard the distinctive “meep” of a pika “meep”, but we weren’t able to spot any.
After resting we continued the climb, quickly arriving at a crossing of Forest Road 2234.
Trail sign just before FR 2234.
The trail continuing on the other side of FR 2234.
This section of the Crawfish Trail showed virtually no sign of bike usage.
Sourgrass
Small bridge over the dry bed of Crawfish Creek.
Second small footbridge over Crawfish Creek which had a little water flowing now.
We believe this is what is left of the Crawfish Shelter.
Vanilla leaf and bleeding heart.
The trail climbed steeply out of the creek drainage to a saddle to the Knott Trail junction. We were a little suprised at the extent of visible fire damage up on the ridge.
I had known that the 2024 Lane 1 Fires, which consisted of the Clark 900, Puddin, Adam Mountain, Mineral, Quartz, and Jack Saddle fires that merged and were combined as the Adam Mountain Fire along with Lane 1, had reached small portions of the Knott Trail. What I didn’t know was that the ridge the Knott Trail follows had been used to create a fire break.
Looking up the hillside to the left at the saddle. This was the direction we needed to go.
Looking right from the saddle. The Knott Trail heads up the ridge in this direction to pass over Adams Mountain before ending at FR 2234.
This was the sign at the trail junction at the saddle in 2016. There was no signage at all now.
We attempted take another break at this saddle and gather our bearings, but the mosquitoes were fierce here for some reason, so we simply began trudging straight up the fire break.
Fairview Peak and Bohemia Mountain (post).
What the hillside looked like in 2016 (sans view).
Lookout tower on Fairview Peak.
Snowy peaks in the Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness to the SE.
It was sad to see the fire break on the one hand, but it had been successful as the forest on the other side was spared.
Looking across the saddle at Adams Mountain and the fire break.
Mount June (post) to the north.
Checkerspot
We were able to take a bit of a break at the highpoint of the trail (just over 4900′). We couldn’t tell if any of the former trail tread remained. The trail had switchbacked up and down the hillside on either side prior to the fire. We decided to just head straight down the fire break.
The very top of Diamond Peak.
Evidence of the effectiveness of the fire break.
Elephant Peak in the center with North Fairview Mountain, and Fairview Peaks to the right.
Flagging for the Knott Trail. The trail heading into the unburned trees here was obvious, but it hadn’t been so higher up. From here the fire break followed the old trail alignment for a short distance.
This road was not here in 2016 but was instead part of the Knott Trail. The trail (now road) heads toward spur off FR 2234 which they must have used to create this extension to bring in the equipment in to build the fire break.
The fire break continuing straight downhill from the road extension.
We opted to continue down the fire break instead of following the former trail alignment.
The Knott Trail emerging from the forest to cross the fire break. Had we followed the new road extension this is where we theoretically would have come out.
The Knott Trail on the other side of the fire break entering burned forest.
After a descent of a little over 3/4 of a mile we arrived at another saddle where we began looking for the Adams Mountain Way Trail junction
Here again the trail signs were gone, but there was some orange flagging on a pile of slash marking the location of the Adams Mountain Way Trail.
The tread was faint on the far side of the slash, and there had been no apparent effort to clear a path to it. We scrambled over the debris and picked up the trail.
The Adams Mountain Way Trail.
Looking back toward the fire break.
The tread quickly improved and for 3/4 of a mile we followed a ridge up and down and then it grew increasingly steep, eventually reaching a junction with the Marten Flume Trail after 3.3-miles.
The trail climbed briefly to pass through this small beargrass meadow along the ridge. It didn’t appear any would be blooming this year.
Elephant Mountain peaking up from behind a ridge.
Rhododendron
One of only a handful of lupine we saw. This was the closest to blooming of any of them.
Beargrass with some blossoms and an insect.
We paused at this unsigned trail on the left. It appears to be a use trail down to nearby FR 2258 based on maps.
This was the first time we’ve run across a white rhododendron in the wild.
Starflower
Northwestern twayblade
Abandoned road crossing.
By this point this snail may have been moving faster than we were.
Vanilla leaf
Still a long way down.
Oregon grape
This was the second “use road” sign we’d seen which seemed misleading. We usually see wording along the lines of “trail crosses road”.
Narrow section of the ridge.
Marten Flume Trail junction.
For some reason I completely forgot that we’d used the Marten Flume Trail to get back to Brice Creek Road in 2016 so instead of simply continuing down the Adams Mountain Way Trail I turned onto the Marten Flume Trail again. (Heather had decided to skip this slightly longer detour regardless of whether or not we’d hiked it before.) This trail was quite overgrown but after a short detour past the correct trail I was able to complete the short loop and wound up arriving at Brice Creek Road just as Heather was arriving at the car. (The car and Lund Park CG is visible from the Marten Flume Trail.
Rough tread on the Marten Flume Trail.
I should have veered right here. The original trail continued further upstream but is now overgrown and covered in downed trees.
It was about here that I realized I should have gone right.
Steep drop down to Hobo Creek.
Hobo Creek crossing.
New trail alignment heading uphill from Hobo Creek.
Steps cut into a downed tree.
Hobo Creek
Popping out onto Brice Creek Road.
Heather’s view of Brice Creek Road from the Adams Mountain Way Trail.
Heather could also see the entrance to the Lund Park Campground when she popped out onto Brice Creek Road.
My loop came to 11.5-miles with 3200+ of elevation gain. Heather saved three or four tenths of a mile by skipping the Marten Flume Trail.
Dotted line is the current loop. Green is our track from 2016 and red is a part of our Brice Creek Hike in 2014.
It was nice to be able to re-hike this loop and get the views we missed on our first visit, and it was interesting to see the fire break up close. This is a challenging hike that lacks any big wow moments other than “Wow this is steep!”, but the forest is nice and the trails, at least on both our visits, aren’t busy. If nothing else, it offers a good early season training hike. Happy Trails!
The Tygh Creek Trail across FR 27 from the Tygh Creek Trailhead.
The only two trees down that needed to be climbed under/over.
Tygh Creek
Distance + low light + moving animal = blurry photo.
The skunk had been at the far end of this section of trail which was lined with lupine.
The little stinker had a pretty cute face.
The trail is to the right in this photo.
Paintbrush, balsamroot, and a strawberry blossom.
Ball Point
Rough eyelashweed
When a trail looks steep in a photo that tells you something.
More paintbrush and balsamroot.
Townsend’s solitaire
Buckwheat
My goal, the turn around point, was up on the crest of that ridge ahead.
Lupine, balsamroot, and a death camas.
Dogwood tree among the ponderosa pines.
Mahala mat
Getting close to the ridge and still steep.
The trail got less steep near the ridge.
Gordon Butte to the right. Broken Top, the Three Sisters, and Mt. Jefferson would also have been visible if not for the clouds.
Level trail on the ridge!
Looking ahead at the trees atop the “small” ridge.
Sandwort
Oregon sunshine
Wildflowers on the “small” ridge.
Almost to the crest.
The clouds here are hiding Mt. Hood which should be visible behind the ridge. What is visible is Flag Point (
Looking toward Mt. Jefferson.
Parts of Mt. Jefferson peeking out through the clouds.
I’d seen a couple whitestem frasera going up but coming down I realized just how many there actually were, although none of the plants were quite blooming yet.
Groundsel
Broken Top and some of the Three Sisters were visible on the way down.
Tam McArthur Rim (
I missed this whole patch of silvercrown earlier.
Pine Hollow Reservoir and Central Oregon.
Elkhorn clarkia aka ragged robin.
Threadleaf phacelia
Paintbrush with Ball Point in the background.
Vetch
Penstemon
Bastard toadflax
Back in the forest near Tygh Creek.
Tygh Creek
Squirrel
Starflower
Coral fungus
The trailhead in sight.
The Tygh Creek track along with a portion of Saturday’s hike on the School Canyon Trail at the bottom.
Phacelia
Fleabane
Thistle
Madia
Fiddleneck and lupine
The first of several deer we spotted during the day.
The distinctive cliffs behind the lupine are across the river from the parking area so we were almost always able to tell where we had parked.
This jeep track would veer to the left to pass between the smaller hills and cliffs ahead.
Western meadowlarks could be heard throughout the hike.
The view south.
Desert yellow fleabane
The view west.
Mt. Hood peaking over the canyon rim to the NW.
Mt. Hood
Butterfly on yarrow
Grasses and wildflowers added color to the landscape.
The route became very faint at times.
Balsamroot
Looking back at the route so far.
View from the trail after passing between the hills and cliffs.
An old fence.
Mt. Hood and Lookout Mountain (
Buckwheat
Rough eyelashweed
Paintbrush
Another stretch of faint tread.
It was often easier to see the road ahead than below our feet.
Balsamroot and lupine
Grand collomia and lupine.
Spreading dogbane
Digging in.
Small water trough (empty).
View from the water trough.
Haven’t identified this bird yet.
Looking back at the route again.
Mt. Hood again.
Ochre ringlet. There were hundreds of butterflies.
Looking at the climb ahead. At this point most of the rest of the hike would be in direct sunlight, and it was already getting warm.
Buck
Buck number two.
We had to get pretty high up before we could see Washington’s Mt. Adams and even once it was in view the lighting made it hard to make out.
Mt. Adams
The newer barbed wire fence at the public land boundary. This is around 3.5-miles from the parking area.
Hawksbeard
The fence went up and down steeply so that meant we got to as well.
Crow
Fritillary
Cattle trail
Western kingbirds
A milkvetch
Another butterfly on balsamroot.
Stag Point is the high triangular point along the plateau in the foreground.
Zoom in on Stag Point. (The lone post on top gives it away.)
First and only brief view of the top of Mt. Jefferson.
Mt. Jefferson
The newer fence turned left at the corner.
Onion
This rocky gully was a little tricky to cross.
Checkerspot
Old stone structure along the fence.
Western meadowlark
Lark sparrow
Probably cattle bones.
Checkerspot on fiddleneck.
Balsamroot and Mt. Hood from the road.
Phlox
Indra swallowtail
Checkerspot
Another checkerspot
A blue or copper of some sort.
Oregon sunshine
Skipper
Colorful rocks
Looking back up along the switchback section.
Gate along the road at the end of the switchbacks.
Allumroot
Cusick’s sunflowers and desert yellow fleabane.
Cusick’s sunflowers
Looking back up the road toward the snake.
The still coiled snake to the right of the track.
The fainter jeep track split off here to the right. It’s really hard to see it in the photo but was a little more obvious in person.
The goal was to aim for the knoll ahead then find two junipers that were relatively close together and descend between them.
Looking back up from the jeep track.
The view upriver with a private house.
Going between the two junipers.
Looking back up at the two junipers.
It’s a checkerboard of public and private land along the road. While this portion of the road is open to hikers, public fishing along the riverbank is limited to the public land portions. No trespassing signs line the road in the private sections.
Heather spotted this rattlesnake off the side of the road. We couldn’t tell if it was still alive and didn’t really want to find out.
One of the few bits of shade along the road walk.
Probably some sort of flycatcher.
There were a lot of osprey along the river.
There were also quite a few Bullock’s orioles.
Mock orange along the river.
Mallard
Bindweed
Another unknown bird and an angler in the river.
Cliff swallow
Dove
More osprey
Portland Deschutes Club Gatekeepers House
Geese
Common merganser
Yarrow covered hillside.
Rock formations above the road.
The distinctive cliffs on the opposite side of the river from the parking area.
Arriving back at the parking area.
Yellow is our track from 2023.
We headed off through the trees here.
Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte (
Gordon Butte in the foreground.
Balsamroot and oak trees.
Buckwheat and balsamroot
Whitestem frasera with Mt. Jefferson in the background.
Rough eyelashweed
Paintbrush
We picked up a faint path, not sure if it was a game or use trail.
Lupine and ponderosa pines.
The trailhead is on the opposite side of FR 2710 from the trail.
Sign at the start of the Little Badger Trail.
Badger Creek Wilderness sign next to Little Badger Creek.
Groundsel
Woodland stars
Little Badger Creek
Fairy slipper
American vetch
Bastard toadflax
Duskywing on sagebrush false dandelion.
Balsamroot
Bee coming in for a landing on phacelia.
Sticky cinquefoil
Western wood-pewee
Madia
Brown elfin (and another pollinator) on Oregon sunshine.
Starflower
Mahala mat along the trail.
Duskywing on blue-eyed Mary
Largeleaf sandwort along the trail.
Skunk cabbage
Red-flowering currant
Duskywing on arnica
Silvercrown
Oregon grape
Last of the trillium.
Plumed solomonseal
What’s left of the cabin.
Little Badger Creek at the cabin site.
Anemone
There was a short climb before reaching the spur trail.
Spur trail to the mine.
The old mine. We did not go in as wildlife do sometimes use it for shelter.
Ballhead waterleaf near the mine.
Western tanager
A stand of oaks ahead.
Balsamroot along the trail.
Paintbrush
Buckwheat
Juniper trees
Threadleaf phacelia
Signpost ahead for the trail junction.
Wildflowers along the trail.
The spur trail on the left to the Helispot.
Penstemon
Pine Hollow Reservoir in Central Oregon.
Woodland star
This was the most significant obstacle we had to navigate on the entire loop.
Yarrow
A dogwood on top of the rocks and penstemon below.
First view of Ball Point.
Penstemon
From the ridge we could faintly make out Broken Top and the Three Sisters.
The Three Sisters on the right and Broken Top with Tam McArthur Rim (
Pen Point across the Tygh Creek Valley.
Passing through the 2009 Ball Point Fire scar.
Pen Point toward the center and the taller Hootnanny Point to the right.
Death camas
View east as we came around Ball Point.
Desert yellow fleabane.
Prairie smoke aka Old Man’s Whiskers
Heather coming down the ridge.
I think this is a western racer.
Looking up at the ridge.
A clarkia
Lewis’ woodpecker
Lizard
On last view of Mt. Jefferson
Ball Point
Butterfly on whitestem frasera
Signs at the trailhead.
Orange is the road + cross country portion.
This trail is part of the 
Damaged footbridge over Morganroth Creek at the 0.2-mile mark.
The Wetland Loop Trail split off just beyond Morganroth Creek. I stayed right and planned on returning via the loop.
This was a muddy trail which isn’t surprising for an area that receives 120″ of rain (3 meters) on average annually.
Youth-on-Age
Approaching the Bogachiel River.
Bogachiel River
The other end of the Wetland Loop was approximately a half mile from the Olympic National Park boundary.
Kahkwa Creek. The log down in the distance was crossable but I opted to ford the creek on my first pass.
Ford at Kahkwa Creek.
Signs at the park boundary. The trail name changes here to the Bogachiel River Trail.
Wilderness permits for back country camping. At this point I was not only in the park but also the 
The dry creek where I turned around.
The log crossing over Kahkwa Creek.
The Wetland Loop Trail junction was near the Kahkwa Creek crossing.
The Wetland Loop began along Kahkwa Creek.
Skunk cabbage
The Wetland Loop traversed up and down along a hillside above some wetlands.
Scouler’s corydalis
Wetlands below the loop trail.
Completing the loop.
Fairy lanterns
Notice regarding the petroglyphs on Wedding Rocks. By the time we were on the beach we’d completely forgot to look for these. We did run into another hiker who had seen them on a prior trip, but he couldn’t remember where. He thought they were located at some rocks near where we’d run into him, so we searched those rocks for several minutes with no luck. As it turns out he was mistaken as to where Wedding Rocks was, it is located on the first rocky headland nearest Cape Alava at the northern end of the triangle hike. We were much closer to the southern end.
Ozette River leaving Ozette Lake.
Bunchberry
Slug on a skunk cabbage leaf.
Skunk cabbage
Bog laurel along the trail.
Closer look at the bog laurel blossoms.
Squirrel
First view of the ocean.
Beach bunny
Ozette Island. The signpost is used to identify inland trails that bypass the beach.
Bodelteh Islands
Heading south along the beach.
We had heard sea lions somewhere in the direction of Ozette Island as we were approaching the beach.
There is a seal in the foreground and a couple of sea lions on the rocks beyond.
Seals lounging on the rocks.
One of several campsites along the beach.
Approaching Wedding Rocks. There is a bypass sign ahead if you look closely. At higher tides it is not possible to go around the rocks along the beach.
A couple of crabs taking a defensive position as we were passing by.
Wedding Rocks
On the other side of the Wedding Rocks. As I mentioned before this is where the petroglyphs are, but we’d already forgotten to be looking for them. In Heather’s defense she had started to come down with a cold the previous day and was not feeling 100%. I however had no excuse.
Looking back at the Wedding Rocks.
Robin
Bald eagle
Whimbrel
Hole in a sea stack.
Seals and cormorants
The second rocky headland where there was an inland bypass route. On the far side is where we ran into the hiker who thought these were the Wedding Rocks where he’d seen the petroglyphs before.
Path through the rocks. It made sense to us that this would be where the petroglyphs were given there were several passages between the rocks here.
Coming out the other side.
Looking back at the rocks that weren’t the Wedding Rocks.
Sandpoint ahead.
Semipalmated plover
View south
One of the groups of backpackers heading north from Sand Point.
Chickweed on the headland.
Evergreen huckleberry blossoms.
Bench along the trail.
Groundcone. Heather had a sharp eye to pick this up on the forest floor.
There were a couple of missing sections of boardwalk along this side of the triangle.
Ozette Lake
James and Little James Islands
The beach was mostly small pebbles to start. Our steps often sunk more than expecting requiring more effort than we’d have guessed. We spent quite a bit of time trying to find the most solid ground.
Our footsteps on the beach.
Stump in the sand.
Ellen Creek. The creek flowed under the beach and emerged shortly before the ocean.
Seagull
Bald eagle
Looking back through the arch.
This racoon was searching the tide pools for breakfast.
Looking back toward Hole-in-the-Wall.
Many of the dark spots on these rocks are the small crabs.
Does anyone know what this is?
Oyster catcher
Cormorants
Cape Johnson in the distance.
Paintbrush
Unnamed creek not quite making it to the ocean above ground.
Cape Johnson
I turned around at the slide ahead.
Hermit crab shells
A good example of the challenging terrain.
Seagull, oyster catchers, and a cormorant.
Paintbrush on the cliffs above the beach.
Hole-in-the-Wall and James Island back in view.
Not a great picture due to the extreme zoom and low lighting. After looking closer at this photo I began thinking it was just a rock in the surf. Then I looked at the next photo and what would be the foot and the head were in different positions.
Possible sea otter.
The area around Hole-in-the-Wall was a lot busier on the way back.
Driftwood on the beach.
Heather spotted this little starfish while exploring the tide pools near the arch.
Heather also spotted this which we believe is a velella velella.
Starfish and anemones
Bald eagels
On the jetty looking at James Island.
La Push across the river.
Sea lion in the river.
Heading back to the trailhead along the jetty.
The jetty is actually part of the Quileute Indian Reservation.
Map of the area trails at the trailhead.
Anyone know why the spelling on the sign is different?
Violets
Bridge over an unnamed creek.
Trillium
Coltsfoot
Fairy bells
Depending on the volume of water there are up to four channels which was the situation on this day.
Heather on the bridge above the falls.
Storm King Ranger Station
Forget-me-nots (non-native) along the trail.
Lake Crescent
Storm King Trail to the left.
Marymere Falls Trail junction with the Barnes Creek Trail.
Footbridge over Barnes Creek.
Barnes Creek
Trillium
Footbridge over Falls Creek almost immediately after crossing Barnes Creek.
Falls Creek
Start of the clockwise loop.
Marymere Falls
The trail climbing up from the first viewpoint.
Marymere Falls from the second viewpoint.
Final viewpoint before the loop curved away from the falls and descended back to its start.
The footbridges over the two creeks.
Unnamed fall on Falls Creek from the footbridge.
It was now almost 9am so there were a few cars parked here already.
Various poems were located along the first mile of the trail.
This trail is open to a variety of users.
Haiku
A second haiku.
Common whipplea
Starflower
Valerian
Clear water in Lake Crescent.
Paintbrush
Something in the pea family.
Nearing Devil’s Punchbowl.
Devil’s Punchbowl
There was a fair amount of poison oak along the trail to Devil’s Punchbowl.
Madrones
Honeysuckle
Common cryptantha
Rejoining the railroad trail on the far side of the tunnel.
Butterfly
Another type of trail user.
View west.
View east.
Big deervetch
Fairy slippers
Chipmunk
Woodpecker
Lake Crescent Lodge on the far side of the lake.
Squirrel
Wallflower
The second tunnel.
Thimbleberry
White crowned sparrow
Going through the tunnel.
I went a little further around this bend while Heather took a seat on a log after exiting the tunnel.
Paintbrush
View across the lake toward the Barnes Creek Valley.
I believe the snowiest peak is Lizard Head Peak.
Saxifrage
Chickweed
Swallow
Oregon sunshine
Lupine
Stonecrop
Variable-leaf collomia
This was a longer tunnel and had little light near the middle.
Descending to the trailhead.
The lake from the picnic table.
Common loon
These mallards came flying in then waddled up to see if they could scrounge something from us, but we explained that we do not feed the wildlife (
Stellar’s jay
Trying to find the route to the lodge.
Mushroom
The lodge is just on the other side.
Interpretive signs explaining the creation of Lake Crescent by glaciers.
This trail had good signage unlike the area near Bovee’s Meadow.
Chair near the lodge.
Lake Crescent Lodge.
Hall of Mosses pointer.
Spring fed Taft Creek.
Start of the one-way loop.
Interpretive sign along the loop.
Looking up from the interpretive sign.
Maple Grove
Nursery log
Fallen sign for the Spruce Nature Trail.
This was another interpretive loop.
Hoh River from the trail.
This huge root ball was hosting its own mini forest.
Taft Creek
The trail extends all the way up to Glacier Meadows below Mt. Olympus.
Violet
Fungi
Another type of violet.
Hoh River
Bunchberry and strawberry bramble
Slug
Trillium
Squirrel
One of the “ups”.
Star flower
Hoh River
Mineral Creek
Scouler’s corydalis along Mineral Creek.
Mineral Creek Falls
Unnamed creek a short distance beyond Mineral Creek.
Waterfall on the unnamed creek.
Sign for the spur trail to Mount Tom Creek Camp.
Wren
Vanilla leaf
Water droplet on a vanilla leaf.
More violets
Salmonberry along the trail.
Big leaf maple canopy.
There were a few obstacles such as this closer to 5 Mile Island.
Cougar Creek crossing.
Marker at the spur trail for 5 Mile Island Camp.
Hoh River at 5 Mile Island Camp.
View upriver from the same spot.
Privy at 5 Mile Island Camp.
Crow
Cat Peak, Mount Carrie, and Ruth Peak partly under clouds.
Cat Peak
We saw a lot of robins, on this hike and the over the next four days.
Slug
Candy flower
Almost back to the trailhead.
There were a couple of downed trees and at least one spot where part of the tread had given way on the hillside. A bigger issue was the broken glass and other garbage left by mouth breathers that was littered about.
It was just over a third of a mile to the falls.
Beaver Creek below the falls.
Trail snail
Fringecup
Starflower
Fairy lanterns
Scouler’s corydalis
Bleeding heart
False lily of the valley
Highway 30 crossing.
Sign along the section of trail between the highway and the fish hatchery.
Trail pointer on the shelter at the fish hatchery.
Youth-on-age
Numbering on a tree for the interpretive trails.
Bigfoot off the Gnat Creek Trail.
Trillium
Huckleberry blossoms and a downed tree along the Gnat Creek Trail.
Scouler’s corydalis along the trail.
The start of the short loop.
One of two benches along the loop.
Gnat Creek from the bench.
The backside of the loop was a little overgrown.
Star-flowered Solomonseal
We mostly stayed right at junctions to keep along the creek.
Barrier Falls
Unnamed waterfall near the hatchery trailhead.
wanderingyuncks 