A sunny Easter weekend provided us an opportunity to visit three trails in the Corvallis area. The first two were new to us while the third, the Mulkey Ridge Trail, filled in a gap between two of our previous hikes in the area.
Our first stop for the day was at the Jackson-Frazier Wetland just to the NE of town.
A short, paved path leads to a 3/4-mile boardwalk that loops through the wetland.
A footbridge along the paved path crosses Frazier Creek.
Kiosk at the start of the Bob Frenkel Boardwalk.
A fairly rainy week had left the wetland wet, but not flooded. By the sounds, birds were everywhere although we only managed to spot a small fraction of them as we made our way around the boardwalk.
The start of the loop. We went counterclockwise.
Northern flicker
We listened to this sparrow sing for a bit. It was putting on quite the performance.
One of a couple viewing platforms off the main boardwalk.
Blackbird
Robin in the morning sunlight.
Sparrow
Hummingbird
Easter rabbit?
While short (0.9 miles) this was a really nice walk, and there is something about hearing birds that is uplifting.
From this wetland we drove through Corvallis and parked at Mary’s River Natural Area (If you are using Google Maps you want Mary’s River Natural Park not “Area”.
Kiosk at the trailhead.
Mary’s River Natural Area is another wetland with a short, paved path leading to a boardwalk although here there is no loop.
Interpretive sign along the path.
Buttercups and a bog saxifrage
The start of the boardwalk.
Three California scrub-jays
One of the scrub-jays up close.
We walked a short distance from the end of the boardwalk to visit Mary’s River.
Swollen Mary’s River. It did appear that it might be possible to make this a loop in the dry season by following a grassy track, but it was too wet and muddy to even attempt that today.
We returned the way we’d come stopping a couple of times to watch birds flitting between the trees.
Mary’s Peak (post) from the boardwalk.
Black-capped chickadee
Anna’s hummingbird
This was another 0.9-mile hike, and while not as interesting as the Jackson-Frazier Wetland it was a pleasant walk with a fair number of bird sightings.
Since these new to us hikes totaled less than two miles, we wanted something longer as we continue to build our base back up for longer hikes later this year. This gave us the perfect excuse to revisit part of two previous hikes, Bald Hill (post) and Fitton Green (post). We’d visited the Fitton Green Natural Area just over a year ago and on that hike noted that the Mulkey Ridge Trail made it possible to connect that area with the Bald Hill Natuarl Area which we had visited in October of 2016.
Just as we’d done in 2016 we parked at the Oak Creek Trailhead which is West of town.
Kiosk just on the other side of Oak Creek from the trailhead parking lot.
At the first kiosk we turned right along Oak Creek to a second kiosk at the boundary for the Bald Hill Farm Conservation Area.
This is the 3.7-mile long Mulkey Ridge Trail which we followed along Oak Creek to a fence where we turned left along a gravel road. The road jogged right heading uphill past a large barn.
Bald Hill from the trail.
Mary’s Peak
The barn across the gravel road.
Our fist camas sighting of the year. The only one in bloom that we’d see all day.
A half mile from the trailhead we stayed straight at a junction to continue on the Mulkey Ridge Trail.
We’d turned left here on our 2016 Bald Hill hike.
The trail continued for approximately another 0.4-miles before briefly joining it at a farm road with a sign pointing downhill to a farmhouse, barn, and shops.
Crossing the farmhouse road to join the gravel road.
We followed the gravel road past a private residence after which the road turned into a trail again.
As the trail entered woods where we began seeing a variety of Spring wildflowers.
The first of many fawn lilies we’d see.
Giant white wakerobin
Toothwort
More fawn lilies
Bleeding heart
At the 1.2-mile mark we came to a map board at a “Y” junction. We had a couple of choices to make here. Sullivan added Fitton Green as a featured hike in his “100 Hikes Oregon Coast” 1st edition, describing an 8.2-mile out-and-back starting at the Oak Creek Trailhead while the Oregonhikers.com field guide describes a 6.9-mile lollipop loop beginning from the same TH. While the lollipop is shorter it involves nearly a mile and a half of road walking. Our first choice was easy, we prefer loops when possible, even if they involve some road walking. The second decision to make was did we want to do the road walk now or wait until we were heading back. While the Oregonhikers entry saves the road walk for the return we opted to do it now, primarily because road walking tends to be harder on the feet and we didn’t want to wait until they were even more tired to put them through that.
We veered uphill to the right at the junction and in 0.2-miles arrived at gravel Wynoochee Drive.
Trail pointer at Wynoochee Drive.
We turned left onto the road which climbed gradually for just over three quarters of a mile to paved Panorama Drive.
We spotted several deer in the grass at the intersection with Skipanon Drive.
I count six in this photo.
In addition to the deer we saw a large number of Stellar’s jays along Wynoochee Drive.
While most of the jays wouldn’t sit still in the open long enough for a decent photo this one at least cooperated.
Sign for the Fitton Green Natural Area at the intersection with Panorama Drive.
We followed the pointer for Fitton Green to the left and did some more climbing as Panorma Drive took us past several homes before descending to the Panorama Drive Trailhead three quarters of a mile from the intersection.
The road turned to gravel shortly before arriving at the trailhead.
Gate at the trailhead.
We hiked past the gate and in a tenth of a mile came to the Allen Throop Loop which had been part of our 2023 hike here.
We turned left onto the loop and climbed to a viewpoint of Mary’s Peak.
Mary’s Peak still sporting a decent amount of snow.
We followed the Allen Throop Loop as it wound down the open hillside for 0.7-miles to a junction with the Mulkey Ridge Trail.
Looking SE towards Corvallis
Looking West towards the Coast Range.
Common lomatium
We were hoping it was clear enough to see the Cascade Volcanoes, but the Three Sisters were hidden by clouds. We were however able to see the top of Mt. Jefferson.
The Mulkey Ridge Trail below to the left arriving at the Allen Throop Loop.
We turned left onto the Mulkey Ridge Trail and began to make our way back to the trailhead.
There were a fair number of flowers blooming along the trail.
Strawberry
Redstem storksbill
Wild iris
More fawn lilies
Candy flower
Purple deadnettle
Pacific hound’s tongue
Colorful turkey tails
The trail splits briefly along a ridge marking what used to be the end of trail from the Oak Creek Trailhead.
Dark-eyed junco
There were a pair of acorn woodpeckers in this area that we stopped to watch.
This tree was full of holes that the woodpeckers use to store their acorns in.
One of several benches along the trail.
Oregon grape
Trillium
The Mulkey Ridge Trail descending to Mulkey Creek. (Note the footbridge in the lower right-hand corner.)
Footbridge over Mulkey Creek.
Approximately 2.5-miles from the Allen Throop Loop we arrived back at the spur trail we’d followed up to Wynoochee Drive.
Toothwort
We retraced our steps back 1.2-miles to the Oak Creek Trailhead where we were happy to find our backup GPS unit was still sitting on top of our car where we’d accidently left it.
Western buttercups along the trail on our way back.
The GPS we did remember to take with us indicated this was a 7.4-mile hike, a half mile longer than the Oregonhikers field guide. I can’t account for the difference but given the elapsed time 7.4-miles seems reasonable. The hike included a little over 1150′ of elevation gain as well. Overall this was a great hike with a good variety of scenery, nice views, and some wildlife. The network of trails also makes both shorter and much longer hikes possible. Happy Trails!
wanderingyuncks 