Tag: Deschutes River

Lower Deschutes River – 01/31/2026

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date February 2, 2026
1 Comment on Lower Deschutes River – 01/31/2026

Our unusually warm and alarming dry winter continued through the end of January which has resulted an extremely low snowpack. While that doesn’t bode well for summer it provided plenty of dry hiking opportunities during the month, another of which I took advantage of before flipping the calendar to February. It was another solo outing so picked an area Heather had been to previously, the Lower Deschutes River, and planned a slightly different route than we’d done on our visit in 2018 (post).

I made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Salem to the Deschutes River State Recreation Area and parked in the overnight parking lot currently shown on Google Maps as the Old RailBed Trail Parking. There is a slightly closer trailhead which we parked at on our previous visit, but that section of the park was not yet open for the season. I had arrived just before sunrise and had expected mostly cloudy conditions. The forecast showed the sky cover gradually decreasing to 60% around 10:30am then starting to increase again. I had not anticipated how low that cloud cover would be. It wasn’t quite fog but it was about as close as you can come.

The overnight parking lot.

Old stagecoach at the parking lot.

My plan was to follow the Deschutes River for close to three hours then turn around and possibly hike the Ferry Springs Loop on my way back as we’d done in 2018. That detour would depend on the clouds though. I wasn’t willing to climb 500′ just to wind up in fog with no views. Plan B would be to return along the river unless I was seeing any ticks in which case I’d stick to the railroad grade as much as possible.

I set off on the Deschutes River Trail which is an old railroad grade.

The first mile from where I’d parked was new trail for me. Due to the low clouds the views were limited but the river was visible at least.

After a mile I came to a signed trail junction with pointers for the Blackberry and Riverview Trails.

These were new signs since my last visit, and they had also renamed the trails. The Blackberry Trail was named the River Trail in 2018 and the Riverview Trail was the Middle Trail. That’s neither here nor there though since I was sticking to the Deschutes River Trail (which was simply the “Bicycle Trail” in 2018). A tenth of a mile from this junction I passed a junction with the Ferry Springs Trail on the left.

The dirt Riverview Trail on the hillside below.

The northern end of the Ferry Springs Trail.

I continued on the Deschutes River Trail for another for another 1.1-miles to the junction with the southern end of the Riverview Trail. This was another new section for me.

A junco peeking out through some branches.

Caterpillars

Is that a break in the clouds?

Western meadowlark

Still a little early for flowers but I did spot these phlox about to bloom.

The Riverview Trail is just beyond the large signboard announcing the Lower Deschutes River Wildlife Area.

Just beyond the Riverview Trail junction I came to the southern Ferry Springs Trail junction.

The next 1.4-miles on the Deschutes River Trail to Gordon Canyon was a repeat of 2018.

This probably qualifies as fog.

American kestral

Some blue in the sky above the canyon.

Starting to descend into Gordon Canyon.

Gordon Creek

In 2018 we’d turned off the Deschutes River Trail here and visited Colorado Camp 0.2-miles downriver before heading back on the River Trail (aka the Blackberry Trail). This time I continued on going heading deeper in the canyon.

Colorado Camp is down the road on the right.

Looking back toward Gordon Canyon and some blue sky.

Shortly after climbing out of the canyon the trail passes the Gordon Cliffs below Gordon Butte.

Coming up on the Gordon Cliffs.

The cliffs have some interesting basalt formations.

Folds

Rock pigeon

Townsend’s solitaire

The “Eye”.

Mile four.

Magpie showing off its tail.

Cormorant

Common goldeneyes and a common merganser.

By mile five there was quite a bit more blue sky.

A sandy beach along the Deschutes River.

Mallards

Looking up toward Gordon Butte.

At mile six a train passed by on the far side of the river, one of several on the day.

It was a quarter to ten when I passed Mile 6 and given that I was likely moving at a little over 2.5mph I decided to make Mile 7 my turn around point. I did not account for there not being a post at Mile 7 so after another 30 minutes of hiking I turned around.

Mallards and common goldeneyes

I was spending a lot of time scanning the hillsides for bighorn sheep.

Seagull with a fish.

More common goldeneyes.

Passing the former site of Free Bridge. An 1887 bridge built by Wasco County allowing for a free crossing of the river. The bridge was upgraded in 1905 and apparently blown up in 1914 by someone opposed to it, possibly someone(s) who operated a competing toll bridge.

The remains of Free Bridge.

Four cormorants standing on rocks and two common mergansers.

My turn around spot. This was about 10.5-miles from where Heather and I had turned around on our Macks Canyon hike along the river in 2018 (post).

I had gone four tenths of a mile beyond the 7-mile mark. I was happy to be heading away from the sun as I headed back which made the views better.

Passing the Free Bridge site again.

I had started to think it wasn’t going to be my day for spotting bighorn sheep but then I spotted something a little off top of a cliff up the hillside.

Can you spot it?

She had spotted me.

We watched each other for quite a while before she decided I was no threat and went back to grazing.

That was the only sheep I saw but given how seldom we are even hiking in bighorn sheep habitat, it was more than enough. After she went back to eating, I continued my hike.

Another access road down to an outhouse and camps.

Great blue heron

When I got back to the Gordon Cliffs, I found the clouds/fog again.

Gordon Canyon

At Gordon Canyon I turned off the Deschutes River Trail and onto the unsigned Blackberry Trail.

As I made my way along the grassy track I occasionally checked to make sure, I wasn’t picking up any ticks which can be an issue here in both winter and spring. I saw a lot of birds but no ticks.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Geese and common goldeneyes.

I took a spur trail back up to the Deschutes River Trail before reaching the southern end of the Ferry Springs Trail to give myself that option if the cloud cover wasn’t too much.

Rock wren

Ferry Springs Trail on the right with the Riverview Trail ahead on the left.

Looking up the Ferry Springs Trail gave me no confidence that I would get any views along that trail, so I went with Plan B and turned onto the Riverview Trail.

Nope

The Riverview starts at a rock arch and heads uphill to the right of it nearly parallel to the Deschutes River Trail.

Looking down at the junction from the Riverview Trail.

After 0.4-miles on the Riverview Trail I came to a junction with a pointer for the Blackberry Trail. I had the choice of sticking to the Riverview Trail or dropping down to the Blackberry Trail. Both would lead me to the Lower Deschutes Trailhead. I decided I’d rather be closer to the river, so I dropped down.

I turned right on the Blackberry Trail and followed it 1.4-miles to Lower Deschutes Trailhead.

Song sparrow

Blackberry bushes along the Blackberry Trail.

The empty Lower Deschutes Trailhead at the end of the dog area.

From the Lower Deschutes Trailhead I walked up the park entrance road 0.4-miles to the Old Railbed Trailhead.

Geese

Oregon Trail information.

My hike came in at 14.8-miles with approximately 400′ of cumulative elevation gain.

Despite the cloudy conditions this was a nice hike. The trails were not busy and there was a good amount of wildlife. The highlight was seeing a bighorn sheep on a hike for the first time since 2019. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lower Deschutes River

Tags Bighorn sheep, Blackberry Trail, Colorado Camp, Deschutes River, Deschutes River State Recreation Area, Ferry Springs Trail, Free Bridge, Gordon Butte, hiking, Lower Deschutes River, Oregon, Riverview Trail

Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Criterion Tract – 05/25/2025

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 28, 2025
1 Comment on Criterion Tract – 05/25/2025

After spending the night in The Dalles, OR we got another early start and drove south on Highway 97 to Maupin, OR. On the south side of the Deschutes River near the southern end of town we turned right (west) at a signboard for the “Deschutes River Rec. Area” and followed this narrow road 3.9-miles to a small parking area at a locked gate.

The road beyond the gate passes through private property but the BLM has an easement that allows hiking (and wheelchairs) along the next 4.5-miles of the road.

We had hiked in the BLM’s “Criterion Tract” in 2023 (post) as part of our goal to hike at least part of 500 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s guidebook series (post). That hike was one of the “part of” hikes where we started at an alternate location and took a different route to the hikes main goal. In this case that was Stag Point, a viewpoint above the Deschutes River. We had started from Highway 197 above Stag Point for that hike while the hike described in Sullivan’s “100 Hikes Easter Oregon” began at the locked gate. He describes an out-and-back hike from the road to Stag Point, but various trip reports in the Oregon Hikers Forums showed loop options using the road easement as a return route. A good map, GPS and route-finding skills are important here since there are no official trails, just a collection of old jeep tracks and game/cattle trails.

From the parking area we headed uphill past a rusty gate and picked up a clear path.

Phacelia

Fleabane

Thistle

Madia

There was a lot of really nice lupine along this lower portion of the hike.

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 (post).

Buckwheat

As we continued to follow the jeep track views of the Deschutes began to open up.

Rough eyelashweed

Paintbrush

A short detour to the cliff edges just over 2-miles from the rusty gate led to a nice view.

We continued to follow the jeep track beyond the viewpoint as it veered away from the river to hug the hillside.
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.

Approximately 0.4-miles beyond the water trough the jeep road turned more steeply uphill climbing to a newer barbed wire fence and the BLM boundary.

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

After taking a warm break at the fence, we turned right (south) along the fence line. The jeep track had gone through the fence onto the private land, so we were now relegated to following cattle/game trails.
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

After approximately 0.8-miles along this newer fence we came to a corner where an old rusty fence continued straight.
The newer fence turned left at the corner.

We began following the rusty fence line which Sullivan said came to an old road in another 0.4-miles.
Onion

This rocky gully was a little tricky to cross.

Checkerspot

Old stone structure along the fence.

Western meadowlark

Lark sparrow

After following the rust fence for maybe 0.2 of a mile we decided we could cut a little distance off our hike by heading diagonally cross country toward Stag Point since we could see it from where we were.

Probably cattle bones.

Checkerspot on fiddleneck.

We came upon the road after 0.3-miles of following cattle trails.

Balsamroot and Mt. Hood from the road.

We turned right onto the road and headed downhill. At this point we discussed if we really wanted to head cross country to Stag Point. Since we had climbed up to it on our previous trip, and the hike today had already provided extensive views we opted to skip Stag Point and just continue our loop on the road.

Phlox

Indra swallowtail

Checkerspot

Another checkerspot

A blue or copper of some sort.

The old road made a series of switchbacks below a stock pond gaining views again of the Deschutes River.

Oregon sunshine

Skipper

Colorful rocks

Looking back up along the switchback section.

Gate along the road at the end of the switchbacks.

Beyond the gate the road straightened as it descended below some cliffs.

Allumroot

Cusick’s sunflowers and desert yellow fleabane.

Cusick’s sunflowers

As we descended the road we were alerted to the presence of a western rattlesnake when it loudly hissed and shook its rattle.

Unbelievably this was only the second rattlesnake that we’ve encountered while hiking. It gave us a jump scare but stayed in its defensive position and kept an eye on us while we left the road to give it a wide berth before hoping back onto the tack.
Looking back up the road toward the snake.

The still coiled snake to the right of the track.

After that bit of excitement we continued down the road a short distance before arriving at an even fainter jeep track heading steeply downhill.
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.

It is necessary to use this jeep track for the loop due to the other road entering the private landholdings just a little further on. The jeep track stays on public lands which extend all the way across the river here making it the only area where one can legally descend down to the access road.
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.

From the knoll the tops of the two junipers were visible.

Going between the two junipers.

The hillside was steep so we carefully picked our way down through the bunchgrass, eventually picking up a faint path that led us down to the road.

Looking back up at the two junipers.

We turned right on the road for a 4-mile road walk back to the gate at the parking area. It was flat which was welcome, but it was late enough in the morning that there was virtually no shade being cast from the canyon walls. It was in the low to mid 80s so we were feeling the heat. As road walks go it wasn’t bad aside from the heat with lots of views of the river along with a number of bird sightings. There were a few cars and closer to the parking area we encountered a number of anglers. Before reaching the road the only people we’d seen was a group of four people coming up the rattlesnake road, presumably from the private land at the end of that road which is owned by the Portland Deschutes Club.
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

Visitors hiking in along the road must check in and then sign out at the Gatekeepers House but since we didn’t come up the road we hadn’t checked in so we couldn’t check out. Heather did use the shade along the road here for a break from the Sun though.

From the Gatekeepers House we had 2.5 more road miles left and we wound up using just about every bit of water, including the extra water we’d brought with us, to get back to the car.

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.

The loop came to 11.8-miles with approximately 2100′ of elevation gain.
Yellow is our track from 2023.

This was a beautiful albeit challenging hike made even more difficult by the warm temperature. That being said it was enjoyable. There are other possible loop options and routes in the BLM land here if you’re comfortable with route finding and not afraid of some challenging terrain. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Criterion Tract

Tags BLM Access Road, Bullock's Oriole, Criterion Tract, Deschutes River, hiking, Oregon, Rattlesnake, wildflowers

Bend/Redmond Blue Mountains - North Blue Mountains - South Central Oregon Fort Rock Hells Canyon Hiking John Day Klamath Falls Lakeview Newberry Crater Ochoco Mountains SE Oregon Steens Mountain Wallowas

Eastern Oregon

Back in 2016 we set a goal for ourselves to hike all 500 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes…” series of guidebooks post. In 2020 we completed the first of these books covering the Central Oregon Cascades (post). We followed that up by completing a pair of books in 2021 starting with Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast and Coast Range” 3rd edition (post) followed up by “100 HIkes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” 4th edition (post). Southern Oregon & Northern California was completed in 2023 leaving us with Eastern Oregon.

In 2023 we pivoted from the 3rd edition of Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” to his renamed 2022 1st edition “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” book. This was to avoid needing to make the tedious drive on horrible roads to Dug Bar in Hells Canyon which had been replaced as a featured hike in the newer edition.

The criteria for checking a hike off our list is to hike a portion of Sullivan’s described hike or, at least visit the main attraction(s) he identifies for the hike. For 67 of the hikes we completed the books described route. For the other 33 hikes various factors contributed to us not completing every option of each featured hike. For some we started at a different trailhead, others had portions of trail(s) closed when we visited, and several had additional options that we did not do.

Of the five regions Sullivan breaks his guidebooks into, the Eastern Oregon region is the largest and most diverse. The area covered in this book includes hikes in Oregon east of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon and from Klamath Falls (western most hike) east to the Idaho border. There is however one hike in Washington west of the Deschutes across the Columbia River from The Dalles, OR. It also includes one short option in Idaho (eastern most), one featured hike in California (southern most) making it his only book with hikes in more than two different States. The northern most hike is not the one in Washington. That honor belongs to the Wenaha River near Troy in NE Oregon.

The hikes involved several wilderness areas: Oregon Badlands, Mill Creek, Spring Basin, Strawberry Mountain, North Fork John Day, North Fork Umatilla, Wenaha-Tucannon, Eagle Cap, Hells Canyon, Monument Rock, and Steens Mountain. Missing from this list are the Black Canyon (post) and Gearhart Mountain (post) wilderness areas which had featured hikes in earlier versions of Sullivan’s book that we’d completed, but were removed in the 2022 edition due to wildfire damage.

In addition to the 11 designated wilderness areas there were hikes in two National Monuments, the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon and the Lava Beds National Monument in California, and one National Volcanic Monument, the Newberry National Volcanic Monument.

Following is a list of the 100 featured hikes and the dates we visited.

#1 Cottonwood Canyon – Hiked 5/27/2017

#2 Columbia Hills – Hiked 4/4/2015 & 4/17/2021

#3 Lower Deschutes River – Hiked 6/9/2018

#4 Macks Canyon – Hiked 5/26/2018

#5 Criterion Tract – Hiked 05/28/2023

#6 Trout Creek – Hiked 10/12/2013

#7 Willow Creek at Madras – Hiked 5/27/2024

#8 Cove Palisades – Hiked 6/16/2018

#9 Gray Butte – Hiked 6/13/2015

#10 Oregon Badlands – Hiked 5/15/2016 & 12/24/2016

#11 Pine Mountain – Hiked 7/30/2012

#12 Paulina Falls – Hiked 8/9/2011 & 9/16/2017

#13 Paulina Lake – Hiked 8/9/2011 & 9/16/2017

#14 Obsidian Flow – Hiked 8/9/2011

#15 Crooked River Wetlands – Hiked 5/29/2024

#16 Chimney Rock – Hiked 9/22/2017

#17 Steins Pillar – Hiked 5/8/2013

#18 Juniper Hill – Visited* 5/27/2024

#19 Mill Creek – Hiked 7/31/2012

#20 Lookout Mountain – Hiked 6/12/2014

#21 Walton Lake – Hiked 6/17/2017 & 6/18/2021

#22 Spring Basin – Hiked 4/22/2017

#23 John Day Fossil Beds – Hiked 4/30/2016, 4/22/2017 & 9/17/2017
Painted Hills Unit

Clarno Unit

Blue Basin Unit

#24 Sutton Mountain – Hiked 4/30/2016

#25 Spanish Peak – Hiked 7/19/2021 & 7/20/2021

#26 Madison Butte – Hiked 5/28/2024

#27 Wildcat Basin – Hiked 7/24/2018

#28 High Lake – Hiked 7/26/2018

#29 Strawberry Lake – Hiked 7/25/2018

#30 Malheur River – Hiked 6/17/2021

#31 Canyon Mountain – Hiked 7/22/2021

#32 Monument Rock – Hiked 7/21/2021

#33 Bates and Sumpter – Hiked 9/17/2017

#34 Olive Lake – Hiked 9/18/2017

#35 Granite Creek – Hiked 9/21/2017

#36 North Fork John Day River – Hiked 9/19/2017

#37 Mount Ireland – Hiked 7/9/2022

#38 Baldy Lake – Hiked 9/20/2017

#39 Crawfish Lake – Hiked 8/16/2018

#40 Anothony Lake – Hiked 8/16/2018

#41 Elkhorn Crest – Hiked 8/12/2018, 8/13/2018, 8/14/2018, 8/15/2018 & 08/16/2018

#42 Twin Lakes – Hiked 8/13/2018

#43 North Fork Umatilla River – Hiked 6/14/2021

#44 Jubilee Lake – Hiked 9/12/2021

#45 Wenaha River – Hiked 5/25/2019

#46 Zumwalt Prairie – Hiked 5/26/2019

#47 Buckhorn Lookout – Hiked 6/15/2023

#48 Eureka Bar – Hiked 6/14/2023

#49 Hat Point – Hiked 7/21/2024

#50 Freezeout Saddle – Hiked 5/24/2019

#51 Hells Canyon Dam – Hiked 6/16/2023

#52 Hells Canyon Reservoir – Hiked 6/16/2023

#53 Imnaha Falls – Hiked 6/12/2023

#54 Bonny Lakes – Hiked 7/24/2024

#55 McCully Basin – Hiked 7/23/2024

#56 Mount Howard – Hiked 7/26/2024

#57 Aneroid Lake – Hiked 8/22/2024

#58 Wallowa Lake – Hiked 5/23/2019
B.C. Falls

#59 Ice Lake – Hiked 7/31/2016

#60 Horseshoe Lake – Hiked 8/3/2016 & 8/04/2016

#61 Hurricane Creek – Hiked 7/22/2024

#62 Eagle Cap – Hiked 8/3/2016

#63 Minam Lake – Hiked 7/25/2024

#64 Maxwell Lake – Hiked 8/21/2024

#65 Chimney Lake – Hiked 8/20/2024

#66 Wallowa Homeland – Hiked 7/14/2022

#67 Bear Creek – Hiked 7/14/2022

#68 Rock Springs – Hiked 7/11/2022

#69 Moss Springs – Hiked 7/13/2022

#70 Catherine Creek Meadows – Hiked 7/10/2022

#71 Burger Pass – Hiked 7/12/2022

#72 Tombstone Lake – Hiked 8/16/2023 & 8/17/2023

#73 Eagle Lake – Hiked 8/13/2023

#74 Bear Lake – Hiked 8/14/2023

#75 Hidden Lake – Hiked 9/9/2024

#76 Summit Point Lookout – Hiked 8/18/2024

#77 Pine Lakes – Hiked 8/19/2024

#78 Fort Rock – Hiked 6/14/2014 & 5/28/2017

#79 Fort Rock Valley – Hiked 5/28/2017

#80 Hager Mountain – Hiked 7/30/2013 & 6/14/2014

#81 Summer Lake – Hiked 7/24/2020

#82 Winter Ridge – Hiked 7/19/2020

#83 OC&E Railroad – Hiked 10/5/2018

#84 Klamath Falls – Hiked 10/20/2018

#85 Modoc Lava Beds – Hiked 10/6/2018

#86 DeGarmo Canyon – Hiked 7/22/2020

#87 Hart Mountain Hot Springs – Hiked 7/21/2020

#88 Petroglyph Lake – Hiked 7/22/2020

#89 Steens Summit – Hiked 8/18/2021

#90 Little Blitzen River – Hiked 8/19/2021

#91 Big Indian Gorge – Hiked 8/17/2021

#92 Threemile Canyon – Hiked 9/3/2023

#93 Pike Creek – Hiked 6/14/2018

#94 Big Sand Gap – Hiked 6/14/2018

#95 Borax Hot Springs – Hiked 6/14/2018

#96 Pueblo Mountains – Hiked 8/20/2021

#97 Leslie Gulch – Hiked 6/11/2018

#98 Coffeepot Crater – Hiked 6/11/2018

#99 Chalk Basin – Hiked 6/13/2018

#100 Three Forks – Hiked 6/12/2018

*The Juniper Hills Preserve is owned by the Nature Conservancy and had been closed to public entry in 2023, so we were unable to hike the trails. We parked and walked to the gates to take photos. If they ever reopen it to the public we will go back.

Completing our featured hike goals provided a sense of relief. While we thoroughly enjoyed all of the hikes, and the Wallowa Mountains became our favorite destination in Oregon, we had begun to put pressure on ourselves to finish. That pressure had begun following the September 2020 wildfires that ravaged parts of the Central Cascades and left many trails closed for years. We had just finished the featured hikes in that area earlier that year and realized how close we’d come to having to put our goal on hold. In the grand scheme of things reaching 500 featured hikes is irrelevant but having worked on it for several years it was something we didn’t want to abandon. We will gig deeper into that in a later post covering finishing the 500, but it’s nice to have the urgency to get to specific places removed.

Setting the goal did provide us with an excuse to visit parts of Oregon that we’d never seen before. While we were checking off the 100 featured hikes we stopped at over three dozen additional spots including eight previously featured hikes. There are still numerous trails left for us to explore so we will almost certainly be heading back to Eastern Oregon from time to time to see new sights and possibly revisit some familiar ones. Happy Trails!

Tags Alvord Desert, Blue Mountains, Boulder Creek Wilderness, California, Deschutes River, eagle cap wilderness, Eastern Oregon, Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, Hells Canyon Wilderness, hiking, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, John Day river, Lava Beds National Monument, Malheur National Forest, Malheur River, Mill Creek Wilderness, Monument Rock Wilderness, Newberry Caldera, Newberry Crater, Newberry National Volcanic Monument, North Fork John Day Wilderness, North Fork Umatilla Wilderness, Ochoco Mountains, ochoco national forest, Oregon, oregon badlands wilderness, Pueblo Mountains, Spring Basin Wilderness, Steens Mountain Wilderness, Strawberry Mountains, Wallowa Mountains, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, William L Sullivan

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Riley Ranch Nature Preserve to Tumalo State Park – 05/29/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 2, 2023
1 Comment on Riley Ranch Nature Preserve to Tumalo State Park – 05/29/2023

On our way home from Bend we wanted to get one more hike in and had decided on exploring the Riley Ranch Nature Reserve. There are a little under 3 miles of trail at the Reserve, but a trail along the Deschutes River connects the Reserve with Tumalo State Park making a longer hike possible.

We chose to start at the Reserve trailhead primarily due to Tumalo State Park being a fee park. The Reserve is open sunrise to sunset so we arrived early (5:20am) to try and get a jump on the crowds and our drive home.

Mt. Bachelor (post) in the morning.

We stopped at the trailhead signboard to finalize our route for the day.

We planned to stay right on Juniper and Sage Flat Loops and take the Robin’s Run down to the Canyon Loop. For the Canyon Loop we decided to go left first to hike along the Deschutes River to the Tumalo State Park Day Use Area. On our way back we would complete the Canyon Loop and stay right on the Sage Flat and Juniper Loops.
The start of the Juniper Loop.

Similar to the Metro Parks we’ve recently visited there were small maps on the trail pointers here.

Middle and North Sister

We spotted our first deer of the day amid the sagebrush in the distance.

Blurry shot of the deer.

We detoured 40 yards to the Ben Newkirk Mountain Overlook where we saw a rabbit and some mountains.

Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters.

Rabbit

Mt. Bachelor and Tumalo Mountain (post)

Ball Butte

Broken Top (post)

South Sister (post)

Middle and North Sister

After checking out the overlook we continued on the Juniper Loop and spotted a second rabbit

We passed by the shared Juniper/Sage Flat Trail and continued on the Sage Flat Loop.

Sageflat Loop

We turned right on the dirt Robin’s Run Trail which led fairly steeply downhill to the Canyon Loop.

Threadleaf phacelia

Turning left on the Canyon Loop quickly brought us to the Deschutes River.
Balsamroot along the Deschutes.

The trail follows the river with occasional “official” river access points marked by posts.

After 0.4 miles on the Canyon Loop we came to an unmarked spur trail that led to the top of a rock outcrop with a bench.

Robin

Longhorn plectritis

Blackheaded grosbeak

Heather waited below while I climbed the outcrop.

The bench on top.

The top of the outcrop.

As I headed back down to Heather I encountered a deer about 30 yards from her that she hadn’t seen.

We continued along the river looking for wildlife and wildflowers.

Western stoneseed

Larkspur

I spotted something head into the river from the grass on the near bank here.

I spotted the grass moving before the animal below which turned out to be a beaver.

Beaver in the Deschutes River.

We stayed straight when the Canyon Loop turned inland. There are two cabin ruins in this area, one just a bit further along the loop and the other was just ahead on the trail along the river.
We followed the pointer for Tumalo State Park.

Cabin ruins

It was nearly 2 miles from the cabin ruins to the day use area at Tumalo State Park.

Western wallflower

Lupine

Another river access point.

Rockcress, possibly sicklepod.

The northern boundary of the Riley Ranch Nature Reserve.

Threadleaf phacelia

Tumalo Creek (post) flowing into the Deschutes River.

While we were admiring Tumalo Creek we spotted a bird high up in a snag on the far side of the river.

It turned out to be a Lewis’s woodpecker, one of the prettiest woodpeckers in Oregon.

Crossing into Tumalo State Park.

One of the neatest features along the trail was a long footbridge crossing over some boulders along the river.

Magpie

Paintbrush

Mallards

Penstemon

A quarter of a mile from the day use area we crossed a road leading to a private bridge crossing the river.

Remains of another bridge in the river.

Tumalo State Park Day Use Area

It was fun to see the day use area. In my school days some friends and I occasionally camped in the park and spent time fishing and swimming in the river.

Deschutes River at the day use area.

After reminiscing at the day use area we headed back. We kept our eyes out for more wildlife and were rewarded with a few more species of birds.
Kingfisher on the bridge remains. (A bit blurry due to being a long way off.)

A swallow and a pygmy nuthatch.

Pygmy nuthatch

We turned left onto the Canyon Loop and immediately arrived at the other cabin ruins.

Bench along the Canyon Loop.

Northern flicker

As we neared the junction with Robin’s Run we could hear a large group of trail runners making their way down.
We were distracted enough by the runners that we failed to notice the deer bedded down to the right of the trail. You can see its ears sticking up here.

We waited at the junction for the group to descend and while we were standing there we finally noticed the deer.
There were at least four deer hanging out here.

After the trail runners passed by we climbed back up to the Sage Flat Trail and turned right. After just under 500′ we came to a spur trail to the Canyon Overlook where we made a quick detour.
The Sage Flat Loop Trail.

Spur to the Canyon Overlook.

Death camas

Mt. Bachelor and Tumalo Mountain

Mt. Jefferson

We returned to the Sage Flat Loop and continued passing a few Lewis flax blossoms before arriving at another spur trail to the Sage Flat Overlook.

Lewis flax

Marker for the Sage Flat Overlook.

We skipped this overlook, primarily because I went right when the overlook was to the left but given the time of day we would have been looking directly toward the Sun.
Looking back at where the Sage Flat Overlook was.

Next up was the River Viewpoint which was just off the Sage Flat Loop to the right.

Lizard near the River Viewpoint.

After looking at the river one last time we continued on the Sage Flat Loop which then became the Juniper Loop bringing us back to the trailhead.
The Cascade Mountains

Black Crater (post) and Mt. Washington

Finishing up the Juniper Loop.

Our hike came to 7.3 miles with 350′ of elevation gain.

This was a nice, convenient hike to finish off the weekend. The early start allowed us to be finished before 9:30am which put us ahead of the bulk of holiday traffic. We made it home nice and early giving us plenty of time to catch up with the cats. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Riley Ranch Nature Reserve

Tags Bend, Broken Top, Canyon Loop Trail, Canyon Overlook, deer, Deschutes River, hiking, Juniper Loop Trail, Lewis Woodpecker, Mt. Bachelor, Oregon, Riley Ranch Nature Reserve, River Viewpiont, Robbin's Run Trail, Sage Flat Loop Trail, The Three Sisters, Tumalo Creek, Tumalo State Park

Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Criterion Tract – 05/28/2023

Post author By yunckrunner
Post date June 1, 2023
2 Comments on Criterion Tract – 05/28/2023

Knowing that trails would be busy over the holiday weekend we looked for an option that might provide some solitude and turned to another Matt Reeder hike at BLM managed Criterion Tract (BLM map). Reeder features this hike in his “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook and lists April as the best time to visit. His reasoning is that April to early May is the usually the peak wildflower blooms. With this years blooms running a couple of weeks late we hoped that Memorial Day weekend wouldn’t be too late. I couldn’t find any information other than the map linked above on the BLM website but in addition to Reeder’s entry there is a route featured in the Oregonhikers.org field guide and Sullivan features a route starting along the Deschutes River in his 2022 “100 Hikes Eastern Oregon” guidebook (not the edition we are using for our quest of his featured hikes).

While there are several possible access points we started at the Criterion North Trailhead.

Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from the trailhead which is the high point of the hike.

Mt. Hood

The “trails” here consist of old jeep tracks that are closed to motorized use (other than BLM administrators) and not maintained so some have become faint. We passed through a green gate and onto what the Oregonhikers.org map shows as Criterion Crest Road.
Cattle sometimes graze in the area and the combination of their hooves with the unmaintained roads makes for some pretty rough surfaces.

Reeder has you follow this road for nearly four miles before turning downhill through a gate at a faint 4-way junction. He doesn’t mention any other markers along the way but the road passes under a set of power lines, followed by another gate, then the power lines again, a third gate, and passes an abandoned trailer before reaching the 4-way junction. Mountain views stretched from Mt. Bachelor to the South to Mt. Adams in Washington to the North. We saw plenty of wildflowers and a lot of birds as well as deer and elk sign, but we didn’t see any hooved mammals (including cows thankfully).

Rough-eyelashweed. There was a lot of this blooming along the road.

A couple of lomatiums.

Howell’s milkvetch

Idaho milkvetch

Western meadowlark

A buckwheat

Carey’s balsamroot

Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top and the Three Sisters

Lupine

Bumble bee on Howell’s milkvetch

Lark sparrow

We spent a lot of time heading toward Mt. Hood.

Sparrow?

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood

We were a little too late for the large-head clover.

Western meadowlark giving a performance.

The third gate with Mt. Hood in the distance.

Yarrow

Phlox

The Deschutes River winding through the valley below.

Rough eyelashweed and lupine with Mt. Hood behind.

Caterpillar

Lupine with Mt. Jefferson in the background.

Horned lark

Mt. Jefferson behind the abandoned trailer.

Mt. Jefferson was hidden at times but this gap in the hills provided a nice view.

Oregon sunshine

Skipper

Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte (post) behind the lupine.

A small watering hole.

Leaning toward an Acmon blue but not sure.

Another in the Lycaenidae family.

Large marble on a fiddleneck.

The fourth gate at the 4-way junction.

Mourning dove

We took a short break by the gate before passing through. As we descended on the jeep track we came to a split where the clearer track curved to the left while a faint track headed straight downhill through a field of balsamroot. Reeder’s map showed his route was along the fainter track so we stayed straight.
The more “obvious” jeep track curving left.

The fainter track angling slightly right.

We were a couple of weeks late for the peak balsamroot bloom, but there were enough remaining blooms/petals to color the hillside yellow.

Ochre ringlet on rougheyelashweed.

We soon rejoined the other jeep track where we turned right.

The terrain had leveled out and we continued on the track watching for Stag Point, a knoll with a post on top, which was Reeder’s turn around point.
Zerene fritillary

Zerene fritillary on salsify

We thought we spied the post and used the camera to zoom in and confirm.

This was the only knoll with a juniper as well as the post.

Largeflower hawksbeard

Paintbrush

To reach Stag Point we had to go cross country, so we looked for the most gradual looking climb.

Mt. Hood from Stag Point.

The Deschutes River from Stag Point.

The view was good from Stag Point, but we were hoping to see more of the river and decided to do a little more cross country exploring by heading SE along the rim from Stag Point to a promising looking rock outcrop.
Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams from Stag Point.

Looking back over the route we’d come down.

Ladybug and an Oregon swallowtail.

Desert yellow fleabane

Heading out to the rock outcrop.

Mt. Hood and Stag Point from the outcrop.

A better view of the Deschutes.

Mt. Hood beyond the cliffs.

A buckwheat

Satisfied now with the view we took a short break on the outcrop before heading back. We made our way back to the jeep track by angling back toward the rim where we’d descended. Once we’d reached the track we simply followed it back uphill to the gate at the 4-way junction.
Stink bug

Silverleaf phacelia

Back on the jeep track.

Lupine and balsamroot

The cows had really chewed this section of the jeep track up.

The gate ahead.

Horned lark guarding the gate.

After passing through the gate we retraced our route back to the trailhead. Butterflies were now out in force and we spotted a couple of lizards.
Mt. Jefferson and Olallie Butte

Grand collomia

Time for some sun.

A butterfly and fly.

Three butterflies and a fly.

Busy bee

This swallowtail was a little rough around the edges.

Another horned lark on lookout.

Nothing brings fritillary butterflies together like a good pile of scat.

We had been trying to figure out where the Oregonhikers loop had veered off Criterion Road and as we were discussing it on the way back it donned on us that it must follow the powerlines for a short distance. Neither of us had noticed another jeep track leading off around the powerlines but it made sense because there is almost always an access road below lines. Sure enough when we arrived at the power lines there was a jeep track clear as day.
Another option for another time. We were just happy to have solved that mystery.

The Radio Towers on the hill were right next to the trailhead.

The Three Sisters (from this angle it looks like two)

Three butterflies and a beetle on buckwheat.

Another mystery was where did the trail from the South Trailhead (just on the other side of the radio towers) connect. We’d missed the track on the right on our first pass, another question answered.

Lizard with half a tail at the trailhead.

This mountain bluebird was acting odd when we arrived at the gate. It was flying back and forth with something in its mouth. (Mt. Adams is in the background.)

It turned out to be a grasshopper that it was waiting to feed its young who were apparently in a nest in some nearby rocks.

After we passed by we heard the chicks calling and watched it fly into the rocks with their meal.

This turned out to be an excellent choice for the holiday weekend. We only encountered one other person, a trail runner we passed on our way back to the 4-way junction from Stag Point. The late wildflower season played to our advantage and the weather was good. It can get really hot and/or really windy there but on this day a reasonable breeze kept the temperature down without blowing us around. The rough tread was really the only downside to the hike, but that wasn’t too bad overall.

Our hike came in at 10.6 miles with roughly 700′ of elevation gain.

We definitely plan on returning to try Sullivan’s route from below someday and possibly trying to follow the Oregonhikers loop sometime as well. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Criterion Tract

Tags balsamroot, blm, Criterion North Trailhead, Criterion Ranch, Criterion Tract, Deschutes River, hiking, horned lark, lark sparrow, lupine, mountain view, Mt. Hood, Oregon, Stag Point, Western Meadowlark

Hiking Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2021 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 31, 2021
No Comments on The Hikes of 2021 – A Look Back

It’s hard to believe another year has passed but here we are once again looking back on 12 months worth of hikes. While 2021 was an improvement over 2020 in almost every way it still had its share of ups and downs including losing our remaining cat Hazel in June and my Grandmother in October. While the challenge of finding places to hike due to COVID in 2020 were no more, the same couldn’t be said for COVID itself and it seems like it will be around for awhile. Wildfires once again were a large factor in deciding on our destinations, another issue that doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon.

Despite these issues we had some great hikes in 2021. I slipped an extra three hikes in during the month of April to wind up hiking on 58 days for a total of 641.5 miles while Heather got 55 days in and 614.7 miles. Forty of the hikes were entirely new to us while only one, Tumalo Mountain (post), was an complete repeat. We had done that one over after failing to catch the sunrise on our first try and boy was it worth it.

Our first and final hikes of the year were on converted railroads.
Banks-Vernonia State Trail in January. (post)

Row River Trail in December. (post)

Over the course of the year we managed to complete several of our long term hiking goals. A trip to Cottonwood Canyon State Park in May marked our first hike in Gilliam County which is the last of Oregon’s 36 counties that we had not hiked in.
John Day River from the Lost Corral Trail

Trips in June and July took us to the final four of the 46 designated wilderness areas (open to visitors) that we had yet to visit in Oregon. In all we spent twenty-one days hiking in 15 different designated wilderness areas.
Ninemile Ridge in the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness in June. (post)

Devil’s Staircase Wilderness in July. (post)

Black Canyon Wilderness in July. (post)

Monument Rock Wilderness in July. (post)

By the end of July we had also completed our goal of hiking at least part of all 100 featured hikes in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Oregon Coast” guidebook and in August we did the same with his “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington” guidebook.
Ledbetter Point, the last of the hikes from the coast book. (post)

Badger Lake, the last hike from the northwestern book. (post)

Finishing those two books in addition to the central Cascades book we completed last year (post) left just the eastern and southern books. We checked off 14 featured hikes from the eastern book but were unfortunately unable to make any headway on the southern book due to the wildfires and persistent smoke that plagued southern Oregon and northern California for much of the hiking season.

Our northern most hike was at the aforementioned Ledbetter Point while our southern most hike was on the Oregon Redwoods Trail near the California border (post).
Redwoods

The western most hike was, as usual, along the Oregon Coast at Cape Argo State Park. (post)

This marked the first time 3 hikes from the same guidebook marked the furthest in different directions. For obvious reasons the eastern most hike was not from the coast book but from the eastern book. That was our hike on the Wenaha River Trail. (post)

As we have done the last couple of years we plan on putting together 2021 wildlife and wildflower posts but we’ll leave you with a few of our favorite sights throughout the year. For the most part the weather was good but wildfire smoke often impacted views.
Falls Creek – February

Cascade Head from God’s Thumb – March

Columbia River from Mitchell Point – March

Mt. Hood from Sevenmile Hill – March

Dalles Mountain Ranch – April

Mt. Adams from Grayback Mountain – May

Navigating a downed tree along the Pawn Old Growth Trail – May

Rogue River Trail – May

Golden Falls – May

Lenticular cloud over Mt. Hood from Surveyor’s Ridge – May

Whychus Canyon – May

Deschutes River – May

Whychus Creek Overlook – May

Forest on Mary’s Peak – June

North Fork Umatilla River – June

Tower Mountain Lookout – June

Malheur River – June

Meadow on Round Mountain – June

Santiam Lake – July

Three Fingered Jack from Lower Berley Lake (and a butterfly photobomb) – July

The Husband and Three Sisters from Substitute Point – July

Ochoco
Mountain Trail – July

Red Sun through wildfire smoke from the Monument Rock Wilderness – July

Canyon Mountain Trail, Strawberry Mountain Wilderness – July

Aldrich Mountains – July

Mt. Mitchell summit on a rare poor weather day – August

Mt. Bachelor – August

Cottonwood Camp, Big Indian Gorge in the Steens Mountain Wilderness – August

Wildhorse Lake, Steens Mountain Wilderness – August

Evening at the Steens Mountain Resort – August

Little Blitzen Gorge – August

Riddle Ranch – August

Morning in the Pueblo Mountains – August

Oregon Desert Trail, Pueblo Mountains – August

Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake – August

Harmony Falls – August

Loowit Falls – August

Mt. St. Helens from Norway Pass – August

Mt. Hood from the PCT in the Indian Heaven Wilderness – September

Mt. Adams and Soda Peaks Lake, Trapper Creek Wilderness – September

Jubilee Lake – September

Rough Fork Trail, Blue Mountains – September

Heritage Landing Trail, Deschutes River – September

McDonald-Dunn Forest – October

Cascade Mountains from the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness – October

Three Fingered Jack from Round Lake – October

Mt. Hood from the Flag Point Lookout

Mt. Hood from Lookout Mountain – October

Silver Falls State Park – October

Laurel Hill Wagon Chute – October

Barlow Ridge, Mt. Hood Wilderness – October

Fern Ridge Wildlife Area – November

Here’s to an even better 2022. Happy New Year and Happy Trails!

Tags Black Canyon Wilderness, Deschutes River, Devil's Staircase Wilderness, hiking, Monument Rock Wilderness, Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, North Fork Umatilla Wilderness, Oregon, Washington, Wilderness Areas, William L Sullivan

Columbia River Gorge South Hiking Oregon Trip report

Heritage Landing – 09/13/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 16, 2021
No Comments on Heritage Landing – 09/13/2021

After spending two days hiking in the Blue Mountains NE of Pendleton it was time to head home. We typically look for a short hike that can act as a leg stretcher when we are facing long drives to or from a vacation spot. Driving from Pendleton to Salem meant looking for something along I-84 preferably closer to Pendleton than Salem. Looking through our hiking books gave us the perfect answer, Heritage Landing. The hike along the Deschutes River from Heritage Landing is included in Matt Reeder’s “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook (Hike #9). There is also an entry for the hike on Oregonhikers.com as well. Heritage Landing is primarily used by rafters and fishermen but the fishermen and other users have created a series of trails up river at least as far as Rattlesnake Bend.

We parked in a gravel lot on the left side of the road just uphill from the boat ramp and hiked down past a gate.

We followed an old road bed upstream past Moody Rapids. We had hiked the Deschutes River Trail on the other side of the river in 2018 (post)

Sunlight on Haystack Butte in Washington.

Part of Moody Rapids.

Gum weed

The last petals on a blanket flower.

We saw several of these large beetles, all prepared to defend themselves.

Snow buckwheat

Chicory

Seagull

Mergansers

The trail passed by a spring where thick blackberry bushes and other green vegetation hosted a number of small birds (and a few fishermen).

Sparrow

Shortly after passing the spring both Heather and I noticed something that looked out of place down by the water but we both decided it was another fisherman. After a few more steps we realized it was a river otter grooming itself on a small rock or patch of grass. I tried to grab my camera but it somehow knew I wanted a photo and disappeared into the water. The next thing we knew there were three otters swimming with the current and heading downstream but they were close enough to the bank that my camera kept focusing on the grass or limbs between them and us so I still don’t have a decent picutre of an otter. 😦
One blurry otter head and another partial otter on the right.

A bunch of tree branches, oh and an otter in the water.

After the exciting and yet disappointing otter encounter we continued up river. We planned on hiking until either the tread petered out or we reached Rattlesnake Rapids. The tread petered out a little before the rapids but we had a nice view of them from Rattlesnake Bend.

At times there were multiple trails to choose from.

Rattlesnake Bend is up ahead but we stopped here for a bit to watch a heron getting breakfast.

DSCN0861

DSCN0863

A sparrow, possibly a Savannah sparrow.

The trail climbed higher on the hillside for a bit to avoid some thick vegetation below.

Rattlesnake Bend

Railroad tracks above the trail.

Looking back from Rattlesnake Bend near where we turned around.

Rattlesnake Rapids

On our way back we tried to choose the fishing trails closer to the river.

Killdeer

An older channel?

Had to go back up to avoid the vegetation here.

Ground squirrel

Heron flying up river.

Old rock wall along the way.

Typical use trail.

Merganser

Aster

Osprey showing up the fishermen.

Finch

More birds near the spring.

Little yellow birds, maybe warblers?

One of the yellow birds on a blackberry plant.

Moody Rapids

Haystack Butte

A line of mergansers.

This turned out to be an excellent hike with great scenery and plenty of wildlife (and no rattlesnakes). We got in a little over 4 miles round trip. Reeder listed it as a 3.2 mile out and back while Oregonhikers has it at 3.8 miles but a lot depends on where you turn around and how much back and forth you do down to the river.

It hadn’t been the vacation that we’d originally planned but our three days of hiking were beautiful and we were thankful to have been able to enjoy them so much. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Heritage Landing

Tags Deschutes River, great blue heron, Heritage Landing, hiking, Merganser, Oregon, Osprey, Rattlesnake Bend, Rattlesnake Rapids, River Otter

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Wildcat Canyon (Maston Trail System) – 10/11/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 13, 2020
No Comments on Wildcat Canyon (Maston Trail System) – 10/11/2020

A wet weather system arrived with the weekend dropping some much need rain over the wildfires in Oregon and depositing a decent amount of new snow on the Cascades. This was great news and one of the few times that we were more than happy that our original plan was forced to change due to weather. We were going to be in Bend to celebrate the 75th birthday of Heather’s Dad which provided us an opportunity to hike in the rain shadow of the Cascades before heading home Sunday morning. It was a nice celebration and a rare event for all our calendars to align and be together.

Having finished all 100 featured hikes (post) in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Central Oregon Cascades” (4th edition) we turned to his 5th edition of the book and decided to check out Wildcat Canyon (Hike #36). Wildcat Canyon is part of the Bureau of Land Management’s Maston Trail System, a 4,000 acre mixed use network of trails for hikers, bikers, and equestrians. It also happens to be located in my old stomping grounds near Tumalo, OR. The Maston Trailhead (see previous link) is less than 10 driving miles from the my parent’s old house between Bend and Redmond and just over 5 miles from my former elementary school. Way back then the Maston Trail System didn’t exist but I had spent time exploring the Deschutes River Canyon near that area, closer to Eagle Crest Resort, so I was excited to check the trail system out.

We were the second car at the Maston Trailhead that morning.
Sunrise at the Maston Trailhead

Cline Buttes from the Maston Trailhead.

It was a crisp morning with a bit of frost on the ground, the kind of morning that reminded me of a high school job I had moving irrigation pipes at a nearby farm. We set off through the equestrian parking area and passed through an open fence by a trail map.
Equestrain trail at the Maston Trailhead

Maston Trailhead map

This was the Settlement Trail (an equestrian/hiker only trail), named for the settlers who had cleared the land and began constructing farms in the early 1900’s in preparation of the arrival of irrigation water. The water never came and by the 1930’s the farms had been abandoned.
Interpretive sign at the Maston Trailhead telling the story of the settlers.

Old foundations along the Settlement Trail Stone foundation of one of the abandoned buildings along the Settlement Trail.

We followed the Settlement Trail by staying right at junctions for the first 1.5 miles.

Settlement Trail Typical sign at a junction. Not all of the junctions had signs and not all of the signs identified which trail/junction it was so having a copy of the trail system map is a really good idea.

There were a lot of different birds about but most wouldn’t stay still long enough for a picture and those that did perched at the top of junipers distant enough to make identifying them even with a 30x zoom a bit difficult.
Songbird atop a juniper This one may be a sparrow of some sort, it was signing quite a bit.

Bird atop a juniper Possibly another sparrow or a finch or something else.

Bluebird atop a tree Maybe a bluebird?

We took a wrong turn at a junction just over a half mile from the trailhead. We had been expecting to see the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead to our right which our guidebook indicated we should go down to, so when we spotted a signboard along a road less then a tenth of a mile to our right we headed for it. When we got to the little pullout at the road we double checked the map and realized that we had turned right too early so we turned around and returned to the junction. We turned right again and continued on the Settlement Trail another quarter of a mile to the actual Wildcat Canyon Trailhead.
Wildcat Canyon Parking from the Settlement Trail Wildcat Canyon Trailhead off to the right.

We spotted the only non-bird wildlife of the day near this trailhead when a rabbit raced out of the sagebrush and paused briefly on the other side of a juniper.
Out of focus rabbit behind the juniper I managed to snap one photo and of course the camera focused on said juniper instead of the rabbit beyond.

We stayed straight at the trailhead on the Settlement Trail which was now almost directly next to the Rockbar Trail (a mountain bike trail). The Settlement Trail quickly arrived on the basalt cliffs above the Deschutes River Canyon.
Deschutes River and Wildcat Canyon Wildcat Canyon on the right joining the Deschutes River Canyon

The Deschutes River near where the canyons meet.

Grizzly Mountain in the distance beyond the Deschutes River.

The trail turned north along the canyon rim which we followed for half a mile, switching to the Rockbar Trail when the equestrian trail crossed over it.
Deschutes River Another of several viewpoints along the rim.

Some Fall color along the Deschutes River.

Rock dove

Deschutes River Canyon A viewpoint along the Rockbar Trail.

Deschutes River

Deschutes River Looking south up the river canyon.

Deschutes River A calm pool along the Deschutes.

Stellar's jay I could see this one, a Stellar’s jay.

Shortly after the Rockbar Trail turned away from the canyon it crossed a private road.
Coming up to the road.

We followed Sullivan’s instructions and jogged left 100′ picking up the equestrian trail again.
An equestrian continuing on the far side of Necomb Road

We turned uphill on the equestrian trail to a junction with the Headgate Trail, another mountain bike trail, in just 100 yards.

We turned left following this single track through the juniper and sagebrush for approximately 2 miles ignoring side trails along the way.
Headgate Trail

This was Junction 2 (one of the junctions with an identifying sign). We stayed right on the Headgate Trail here.

At a slightly higher elevation than the Settlement Trail the Headgate Trail would have provided a fairly nice view of the Cascades but on this day they were mostly shrouded in clouds although we could see fresh snow on Tam McArthur Rim (post) and on the lowest portion of the South and North Sisters.
View from the Headgate Trail Tam McArthur Rim is left center with South Sister in the center and North Sister to the right center.

We turned down what we believe on the map to be the Maston Tie Trail (it was unmarked) and followed it for a quarter of mile back to the beginning of the Settlement Trail at the Maston Trailhead.
Heather and Dominique on the Maston Trail.

Maston Tie Trail comging back to the Maston Trailhead Coming up on the Settlement Trail.

This wound up being a nice loop, just under 5 miles, with minimal elevation gain (200′ or so). The network of trails provides options for both shorter and longer loops too with multiple starting points available. We hope to come back again in the Spring some year to check out more of the area and see what it looks like during a different season. Until then this was a great introduction to the area. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Wildcat Canyon

Tags Bend, blm, Cline Buttes, Deschutes River, Headgate Trail, hiking, Maston Trail System, Oregon, Rockbar Trail, Settlement Trail, Tumalo, Wildcat Canyon, Wildcat Canyon Trailhead

Bend/Redmond Central Oregon Hiking Oregon Trip report

Cove Palisades State Park – SE Oregon Vacation Day 8

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 20, 2018
3 Comments on Cove Palisades State Park – SE Oregon Vacation Day 8

After spending the night in Bend it was finally time to head home. We had one final hike planned before we drove back to Salem though. For the final hike of our vacation we headed north of Bend to the Cove Palisades State Park.

The park is home to the man made Lake Billy Chinook which fills a canyon behind the Round Butte Dam. Three rivers converge here, the Crooked, Metolius, and the Deschutes. We didn’t do it on purpose but by hiking here we wound up starting and ending our vacation with hikes near the Deschutes.

We started our hike from the Lower Deschutes Day Use Area which according to a signboard didn’t open until 7am. I hadn’t been able to find that information on the park website so we had arrived just before 6am. Luckily the gate was open and the automated permit booth was operating. There was also a second sign stating that parking was prohibited between the hours of 10pm and 5am so we went ahead and parked in the large, empty lot.

We were going to hike the Tam-A-Lau Trail which actually officially starts at a trailhead near the campground but a half mile connector trail started at the eastern end of the day use area.

The connector trail crossed over the day use entrance road then a short while later it crossed the main road through the park before arriving at the trailhead.

From this trailhead the Tam-A-Lau Trail climbed just over a mile to the rim of the canyon and the start of a loop atop the plateau.

As we climbed the views got better, both of the Deschutes arm of Lake Billy Chinook and of Mt. Jefferson which appeared above the far side of the canyon.

The trail also passed some nice rock formations revealing the various layers of the canyon.

Near the top of the rim Mt. Jefferson was entirely visible and several other Cascade peaks could be seen.

The Three Sisters

At the start of the loop we took the left hand fork which followed the rim of the canyon north.

As we continued north more mountains emerged to the SW.
Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, The Three Sisters, and Three Fingered Jack.

The only major Cascade missing was Mt. Washington which was hidden behind Black Butte and Green Ridge.

After 1.25 miles of the loop we reached the tip of the plateau which looked out to “The Island”. Despite it’s name The Island isn’t surrounded by water but it is a separated portion of the plateau.

To the right of The Island the Crooked River arm flows in to merge with the Deschutes. From the tip of the plateau the trail followed the rim above the Crooked River arm for another 1.1 miles before turning inland across the plateau to complete the loop. From this section we had a good view of the bridge over the Crooked River arm.

Shortly after turning inland we spotted a group of deer on the far side of a fence.

(the camera deciding the fence was more interesting than the deer)

It was 1.3 miles across the plateau where we headed back down to the campground and then on to the day use area where the number of cars had double to two including ours. (A third arrived while we were loading up.) The relatively short hike was a good way to end the vacation and put a cap on 8 days of hiking. We’re not done with SE Oregon yet and we’re looking forward to our next visit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Cove Palisades State Park

Tags Cove Palisades State Park, crooked river, Deschutes River, hiking, Lake Billy Chinook, Lower Deschutes Day Use Area, Mt. Jefferson, Oregon, Tam-A-Lau Trail, The Island

Columbia River Gorge South Hiking Oregon Trip report

Lower Deschutes River – SE Oregon Vacation Day 1

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 18, 2018
4 Comments on Lower Deschutes River – SE Oregon Vacation Day 1

It’s been awhile since our last post but we have a good excuse, we were busy hiking. Eight straight days of hiking in fact. 😊

For the last two years we’ve had plans to visit SE Oregon in May but each time our vacation week arrived so did rain in the forecast. Since May wasn’t working out we decided to give June a try. A dry Spring had things looking promising but a system moved in at the end of the week prior to our leaving that had us a little worried. There was rain in the Willamette Valley (and snow in Cascades) but our destinations looked like they would escape mostly dry. At least dry enough that we could rearrange a few of our planned hikes to let things dry a bit before attempting the drives that would be impassible if wet.

Before we could even attempt those hikes we had to get to SE Oregon. Conventional wisdom would have had us driving through Bend via Santiam Pass but we aren’t conventional. First the Sisters Rodeo was happening which meant even more traffic than usual in that little town. More importantly we wanted to squeeze a hike in on the way to Bend were we planned to stay with Heather’s parents again.

Following up on our recent hike along the Deschutes River at Macks Canyon (post) we decided to kick off our eight days of hiking at the Deschutes River Recreation Area near the mouth of the river. From Salem we drove north to Portland and took Interstate 84 ten miles east of The Dalles to the park. It seems a bit odd to kick off a SE Oregon vacation with a hike near the northern border of the State, but it’s a hike we hadn’t done yet and it was sort of on the way.

We parked at the end of the park and walked across a grassy area to a trail sign at the far end where we followed a pointer for the River Trail.

Unlike the trail at Macks Canyon, the River Trail stayed close to the water.

We stayed right at junctions sticking to the River Trail where we passed several groups of Canada geese.

The trail did climb away from the river to cross over a rocky area at the 1.5 mile mark.

Pigeons kept an eye on us as we passed the rocky cliffs and a family of mergansers sat on a rock in the river below.

The trail improved again beyond the rocks and it passed below a rock arch.

A short distance beyond the arch we passed Rattlesnake Rapids.

Up to this point we’d seen a few flowers and an interesting dragon fly.

Showy milkweed

Chicory

Blanket flower

After 3 miles on the River Trail we passed by a 10 acre wheat field.

At the far end of the wheat field we followed an old dirt roadbed uphill to a gravel road where we turned right, crossed small Gordon Creek and veered right again on another dirt roadbed down to a primitive camp site.

After checking out a small beach where one could wade in the river we headed back to the gravel road.

The road led up to the same old railroad grade that we had followed on our hike at Macks Canyon.

Here the grade is in good shape and used by bicyclists as well as hikers.

We followed the old railroad grade for a mile and a half from the primitive camp to a signboard.

The unmarked Ferry Springs Trail led off to the right a little before the sign and use paths to the left of the sign led to a view of the rock arch from above.

After checking out the arch we took the Ferry Springs Trail uphill.

This trail gained nearly 500′ as it climbed up and then traversed the hillside above the Deschutes River.

As we gained elevation we also gained more wildflowers, primarily yellow blanket flower and purple lupine.

Just over three quarters of a mile along this trail we came to Ferry Springs where we crossed a brushy creek.

A lizard greeted us on the far side of the creek.

The trail then passed a less than informative sign and passed through an old fence.

Beyond the fence the trail began to descend back down toward the river. From here we had a good view of the river’s confluence with the Columbia.

Near the end, the trail follows a section of the Oregon Trail.

After almost 1.75 miles on the Ferry Springs Trail we arrived back at the railroad grade. Here we had the choice of following it back to the parking area or continuing on hiker only trails. We opted for the hiker trail and flowed a pointer on the far side of the bike path.

This trail traversed the hillside between the River Trail and the bike path and brought us back to the start of the River Trail in just under three quarters of a mile.

The hike came in just over 8 miles which was a nice way to start a week of hiking. It had been pretty windy (not unusual for the area) but the rain had stayed to the west which we took as an encouraging sign for the rest of our trip. We left the Deschutes and headed east to Biggs Junction where we took Highway 97 south to Bend and had a nice visit with Heather’s parents before heading further east (and south) for more adventures. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lower Deschutes River

Tags Columbia River, Deschutes River, Deschutes River Recreation Area, deschutes river trail, Ferry Springs Trail, hiking, Merganser, Oregon, Oregon Trail, Rattlesnake Rapids, Rock Arch