McKenzie River National Recreation Trail

Lower McKenzie River Trail – 12/21/2024

There haven’t been many good weather days in December and those that were dry had either been on days when we were at our desks at work, or one of us was under the weather. With Christmas right around the corner we were running out of time for a December hike so we decided that no matter what the weather we would be heading out on the winter solstice. Once again, the forecast was for a dry day Friday but rain all day Saturday. Given the forecast we opted for a river hike. Forested river hikes typically don’t have big views so cloudy skies don’t negatively impact the hike.

We headed to the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail to hike a segment of the trail we had not hiked before. We parked at the Lower McKenzie River Trailhead. (Note that the linked Forest Service page incorrectly states the trailhead is along Highway 125 instead of 126.)
The trailhead.

The trail begins at a signboard at the eastern end of the trailhead. For the first half mile the trail squeezes between the river and the highway before briefly veering away from the highway.
The caution sign was related to some pile burning that the Forest Service had been doing.

McKenzie River

Mushrooms

The trail approached the highway again across from McKenzie River Ranger Station.

After passing a junction with a spur trail coming from the ranger station at the 1 mile mark the McKenzie River Trail dropped away from the highway.
National Recreation Trail symbol on a tree to the left.

For the next 4.5 miles the trail stayed further away from the highway. At times it followed the bank of the McKenzie River and at others it veered away to avoid private property. At all times the trail passed through a lush green forest.

Private Road sign on Duffy Rd.

There was quite a bit of witches’ butter fungus along the trail.

There were a lot of other mushrooms too.

Unnamed creek crossing.

Ruby-crowned kinglet. We didn’t see much wildlife on this hike but there were several kinglets flitting among the trees here. This was the only photo of one I managed to get though.

We had not expected any blue sky so this was a treat. It had rained for most of the drive and sprinkled for a minute shortly after we started hiking, but it had been dry otherwise.

The trail switching back up a small hill.

The most significant elevation change was this decent to a footbridge over Lost Creek.

Coral fungus

Lost Creek

The footbridge over Lost Creek was a little over 4.5-miles from the Lower McKenzie Trailhead.

Lost Creek

Willamette National Forest Boundary

Approximately 5.25-miles from the trailhead we crossed Belknap Hot Springs Road.

Sign for the Belknap Hot Springs Lodge and Gardens.

Shortly after passing the lodge the trail approached the highway again for a brief time before the river veered away again and the trail followed it.

We had originally planned on turning around at 11am, but Heather’s ankle was starting to bother her, so she turned around at 10:45. I decided to keep going for another 15 or so minutes to try and reach Forest Road 2650 where the trail crosses the river to continue on the western side of the river.
Unnamed seasonal stream.

Footbridge over Scott Creek.

Scott Creek

Mushrooms

Footbridge over Boulder Creek.

Highway 126 bridge over Boulder Creek from the footbridge.

Boulder Creek flowing into the McKenzie River.

Forest Road 2650.

Boat ramp at Forest Road 2650.

The river from Forest Road 2650.

I turned around on the bridge and started back at a quick pace to try and catch up to Heather.

This short section along the road is just east of Belknap Springs Road.

Madrones

Moving at a quick pace had heated me up enough that I had to take off my rain gear which I’d been wearing the entire hike despite it being 99% dry.
A little sunlight on the forest floor.

Not 10 minutes after removing my rain gear it began to rain.
Rain shower falling over Lost Creek. It wasn’t raining hard enough to convince me to pull my rain gear back out.

I spotted Heather with a little over three and a quarter mile left back to the trailhead. (Look for a little orange in the trees ahead and to the right of the trail.)

The rain had stopped again by the time I caught up to Heather.

Ours was the only car at the trailhead when we got back.

My Garmin showed 13.8 miles for the hike to FR 2650, and I’d estimate close to 700′ of elevation gain spread out over several short climbs.

With this hike in books, we’ve now hiked much of the 26.5 McKenzie River Trail.
Red – Clear Lake, June 2014 (post). Green – Tamolitch Pool, May 2013 (post), Cyan – Middle segment, November 2020 (post).

We also started a hike at the Upper McKenzie Trailhead in July 2023 (post) but took the Santiam Wagon Road to Sand Mountain instead of the McKenzie River Trail. We are now just missing sections of the trail between the upper trailhead and Clear Lake, Clear Lake and Koosah Falls, and FR 610 and FR 2650. At some point we do plan on filling in those gaps.

This hike wraps up our 2024 hikes. We hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and as always happy trails!

Flickr: Lower McKenzie River Trail

McKenzie River Trail (Blue Pool TH south to NF-610) – 11/21/2020

**Note a portion of the trail north of Deer Creek burned in the 2021 Knoll Fire.**

A combination of a day off, a favorable forecast and a need to drive to Bend to pick up some Christmas items provided the perfect excuse to check out a section of the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail. This would be our third hike on this 26.4 mile long trail, all on different sections (Tamolitch Pool and Clear Lake).

We started our hike at the popular Tamolitch Blue Pool Trailhead where we had also started our hike to the Blue Pool.

This time though we headed south (left) on the McKenzie River Trail away from the Blue Pool and the crowds that would surely be arriving later in the day (we were the 2nd car at the TH on this morning).

The Sun wasn’t quite up yet, and it was still under 30 degrees, as we set off on the trail.

The trail climbed a forested hillside and crossed a forest road above Trail Bridge Reservoir (2 miles from the TH).

Forest road crossing.

The trail then descended to Forest Road 730 and a crossing of Smith River which feeds into the reservoir.

Another brief climb followed before dropping down to the Trail Bridge Dam.

The top of Three Fingered Jack is visible in the distance.

We continued on the trail which now began to follow the McKenzie River more closely.

Fall means mushrooms.

There were a couple of opportunities to get down to the river bank which we took advantage of and just over a mile and a half from the dam we stopped to admire Olallie Creek joining the river.

Anderson Creek joining the McKenzie.

Olallie Creek across from the trail.

A half mile beyond Olallie Creek the river split leaving a large forested island briefly in its center.

Beyond the island the trail passed some rocky cliffs where icicles dripped before dropping to a crossing of Deer Creek at the 5.5 mile mark of our hike.

Turning up Deer Creek to reach the footbridge.

Shortly after crossing the creek the trail arrived at Deer Creek Road (NF 782) where there is parking for the trail and Deer Creek (aka Bigelow) Hot Springs. We knew the hot springs were somewhere along our route but we didn’t know for sure where until we got home after the hike. There was no sign for the small hot spring that sits along the river bank but we did see an obvious trail heading south down to the river here. Not knowing that the hot springs were down there we visited the bridge over the McKenzie and then continued on the McKenzie River Trail.
Up river from Deer Creek Road.

Deer Creek Hot Springs would be somewhere along the right hand side of the river.

The trail briefly climbed above the river before switchbacking down and arriving at Frissel Creek just over a mile from Deer Creek Road.

We had to go around this bridge due to frost and it being at an angle.

Footbridge over Frissel Creek.

We had planned to turn around between 10 and 10:30 at either the hot springs or Forest Road 610 which the trail briefly follows. Since we didn’t realize we’d passed the hot springs we wound up making FR 610 the turnaround which was approximately three quarters of a mile beyond Frissel Creek. We arrived at the road just after 10:30.
Sun over the McKenzie River

FR 610

We turned around at the road and headed back keeping our eyes open for any sign of the hot springs and any other things we missed on the first pass. We still didn’t realize that the hot springs were where they were but we did spot a lot more mushrooms and the tops of the Middle and North Sister on the way back.

We missed this sign for slough creek the first time by.

Missed this survey marker too.

We also completely missed this sign at Deer Creek.

Still cold

Without the use of the zoom on the camera they are hard to make out but the tops of the North and Middle Sister are visible over the hills.

The Garmin showed 14.6 miles for this out and back (Google maps had indicated it would be 13.4 miles) and there was between 800 and 1000′ of cumulative elevation gain. What climbs there were weren’t ever steep and didn’t last long. We encountered a half dozen other trail users but when we arrived back at the trailhead it was full and cars were stretched all they way down the road with people heading for the Blue Pool. It has become one of “those” hikes and is getting loved to death. After changing we drove to Bend for a quick visit with Heather’s parents and then headed back over the pass to Salem. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McKenzie River Trail