Tag: Smith Creek Trail

Lava Canyon – 08/30/2025

The morning after our last hike, at Silver Falls State Park (post), I woke with a bad case of vertigo and wound up in urgent care thinking I might have an ear infection. That wasn’t the case, but it took the better part of a week for things to settle down putting our hiking plans on pause. By Labor Day Weekend the vertigo had passed, and I was just dealing with a little excess pressure in my left ear. That was good enough for us to head back out for the trails.

For our first hike of the holiday weekend we picked Lava Canyon in the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. This hike had been on our list of trails to revisit for a while now and given the forecast for smokey conditions in the Oregon Cascades it looked like a good time to do it.

Our first visit to Lava Canyon was in September 2012 (post) before we’d decided to try and hike all of William L. Sullivan’s featured hikes. During that visit we did Sullivan’s shorter option, a 1.3-mile lollipop loop following a much longer hike at Ape Canyon. For this visit we wanted to do his longer option and add on a little bit of time on Smith Creek Trail. Doing some pre-hike research led me to the Oregon Hikers Field Guide which described a loop utilizing The Old 83 Trail to return to the Lava Canyon Trailhead.

Our typical early start meant we were the first ones on the trail Saturday morning.

We headed down the paved path past a viewpoint and then a warning sign.

Muddy River

At the 0.4-mile mark we came to a junction with the short loop we’d done on our first visit.

On our previous visit we returned using the bridge shown above. That loop currently isn’t an option due to damage to the suspension bridge a quarter mile further along the trail.

Viewpoint above Upper Lava Canyon Falls.

The view of the falls leaves a little to be desired but there is a better view a little further down the trail.

Upper Lava Canyon Falls

Beyond the viewpoint the trail becomes rougher.

The closed suspension bridge.

The Lava Canyon Trail continuing past the suspension bridge.

Warning regarding the conditions along the Lower Lava Canyon Trail.

We continued down the increasingly rough trail and came to a view of Lava Canyon Falls.

The top of Lava Canyon Falls.

Lava Canyon Falls

Fireweed

The trail was very narrow in places and high, not a good one for people who have issues with heights, children or pets.

This missing section of tread was the sketchiest part of the trail. There was a significant drop which would have been fatal.

The next waterfall we passed was Middle Lava Canyon Falls.

Unnamed stream crossing.

A short distance beyond Middle Lava Canyon Falls we came to the 30′ to 40′ ladder.

After securing our hiking poles we climbed down the ladder and continued along the trail.

Basalt above the trail.

At an unmarked junction we made a hard right turn to take a 0.2-mile spur trail to the top of The Ship where there was a view of Lower and Lava Canyon Falls.

This is the view of the spur trail (on the left) looking back after having passed the junction and turning around.

There was a shorter ladder on The Ship.

Chicken tails

Huckleberry leaves turning colors at the end of summer.

Lower Lava Canyon Falls

After a short break to enjoy the view we carefully headed back down to the Lava Canyon Trail.

The spur trail above the ladder.

We continued another third of a mile to another unsigned junction where we turned right.

We took the spur to avoid the challenging conditions that the sign near the suspension bridge had mentioned. The spur trail crossed the Muddy River on a good footbridge then followed the river 1.1-miles to the Lower Smith Creek Trailhead.

This trail was also a little rough but there were no major challenges.

Mt. Margaret (post) and Mt. Teragram (rocky knoll).

Mt. St. Helens

About 100 yards before reaching the trailhead we passed a yellow rope hanging down the steep embankment. None of the maps or hike descriptions we’d looked at said anything about using a rope to get down to the river, so we ignored it and continued on.

Zoomed in look at the rope from the Muddy River.

The rope is located at the center of this photo.

As it turned out we should have used the rope to get down because the maps and descriptions indicated that from the trailhead you would walk north along the former Forest Road 8322, but that old roadbed ended at a vertical drop where the was no way to safely scramble down to the river.

Vehicle parked near the trailhead sign in the distance.

FR 8322 roadbed heading toward the former bridge site.

Unable to descend from the end of FR 8322 we decided to continue down that road past the trailhead looking for an alternate route instead of returning to the rope. About a quarter mile from the trailhead we came to some campsites where we found a rough scramble trail that we used to get down to the riverbank.

We made a u turn along the river and headed back toward the old bridge site where we would ford the Muddy River.

While the trail had been a little sketchy at times the scariest part of the hike came as we were heading back up to the ford of the Muddy River. There was a family camped near the trailhead, and they decided it would be a good idea to let the kids shoot their 22’s across the river valley. It wasn’t surprising that they would be that careless given they had a big campfire going despite a full ban on campfires in the forest. (Forest Order 06-03-00-25-01) I tried yelling and waiving my arms and I don’t know if that got their attention or if one of the adults spotted us, but they did stop shooting and we made it past.

We changed into our water shoes and forded just below the log here. The water was knee deep and cold.

View back to where FR 8322 used to be. There was no way we were getting down that.

We picked up the obvious trail which climbed easily up the far embankment.

The trail headed back along the river before veering away and arriving at a junction with the Lava Canyon Trail.

The Smith Creek Trail ends at Forest Road 99 just north of the Smith Creek Viewpoint (post)

We stuck to the Smith Creek Trail which followed the old roadbed. After a third of a mile we came to a junction with lots of flagging and some cairns.

Smith Creek from the trail.

Another view of Smith Creek.

Lupine

The unsigned but well-marked junction with The Old 83 Trail. The Old 83 Trail would loop us back to the Lava Canyon Trailhead, but first I wanted to explore a little more of the Smith Creek Trail. Heather opted to skip this detour, so we split up here.

The Smith Creek Trail was relatively level and, for the most part, continued to follow the old roadbed. There was a mix of forest and occasional views of Smith Creek.

Aster

Unnamed creek.

I had planned on hiking for half an hour then turning around, but as the 30-minute mark approached the GPS showed I was close to a junction, so I made that my turn around.

View up Smith Creek toward Windy Ridge near the junction.

The junction wound up being where FR 94 used to split off to cross Smith Creek.

After the hike I realized I had turned around less than half a mile from Ape Canyon (post) which would have been a logical spot to turn around, but I was already 5 minutes over my allotted time. I made my way back to The Old 83 Trail and turned up it following Heather.

The Old 83 Trail followed the former route of FR 83 3.3-miles uphill to FR 83 near the trailhead. The wide road was easy to follow with no major blowdown present. It was a quite walk back for me and despite being sure I would see some wildlife I never spotted anything other than an occasional small bird. Heather however saw at least one and possibly up to three owls.

Barred owl

Crane Lake is back in the trees to the left. There was no view from the roadbed and neither of us found the use trail that supposedly led to it.

Mushroom and foam flower

Groundsel

Trail sign for The Old 83 Trail.

The Lava Canyon Trailhead from FR 83.

My hike was 11.4-miles with roughly 1500′ of elevation gain.

The trailhead was very busy by the afternoon but on the trail I only saw two backpackers. The Old 83 Trail and the Smith Creek Trail were both in good shape, but the Lava Canyon Trail had some rough spots making it quite an adventure. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lava Canyon

Tags hiking, Lava Canyon, Lava Canyon Falls, Lava Canyon Trail, Lava Canyon Trailhead, Lower Smith Creek Trailhead, mt. st. helens national volcanic monument, Muddy River, Smith Creek, Smith Creek Trail, The Old 83 Trail, The Ship, Washington

Hiking Oregon Salem/Albany Trip report Willamette Valley

Silver Falls Backcountry Loop – 10/23/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 26, 2021
2 Comments on Silver Falls Backcountry Loop – 10/23/2021

The run of sunny Saturdays finally came to an end so we were looking for a good rainy day hike. We turned to Matt Reeder’s “Off the Beaten Trail” (2nd edition) for inspiration. Hike #7 in his book is a 9.3 mile lollipop loop in the backcountry of Silver Falls State Park. He lists Oct-Nov as some of the best months for this hike as well as mentioning that it is a good hike for rainy days so the timing seemed right. Our original plan was to start the hike at Howard Creek Horse Camp just as Reeder describes but to deviate a bit from his description to see more of the backcountry. Our previous visits to the park had all involved hikes on the uber popular Trail of Ten Falls (post). There are no waterfalls in the backcountry and therefore far fewer people. The park opens at 8am so we actually slept in a bit in order to not arrive too early but we still had a couple of minutes to kill when we arrived at the park entrance so we stopped briefly at the South Viewpoint.

Park map at the viewpoint.

Willamette Valley

It was rather windy at the viewpoint and it was cold with the wind chill in the mid-30s. We thought we were going to be in for a chilly hike only as soon as we got into the forest in the park the wind was gone and the temperature was near 50 degrees. We picked up a $5 day use permit at a fee booth between the Park Office and campground and continued toward the Howard Creek Trailhead. As we neared we kept seeing signs along the road with pointers for “base camp” and “catering”. We hadn’t seen anything on the park website but it appeared that there might be some sort of event happening. There were a bunch of trailer trucks parked at the Horse Camp and we were flagged down by a Park Ranger? who mentioned that the trailhead was open but there would be a detour to get around the equipment and wires set up on the “horse loop”. We thanked him but didn’t ask any additional questions which we probably should have. We started to park but then decided that if there was an event then it was probably going to get pretty busy/crowded there so we decided instead to start from a different trailhead.

The route that we had settled on was a combination of several trails including the Howard Creek Loop, Buck Mountain Loop, Smith Creek, and 214 Trails. The 214 Trailhead would provide us access to this loop as well as give us a reason to add the Rabbit Hole and Newt Loop Trails to the itinerary. We drove back toward the park’s south entrance and turned left into the large 214 Trailhead. (There is no fee station here so you need to pick up a day use permit elsewhere.)

From this trailhead is was just over 3/4 of a mile on the 214 Trail to the junction with the Smith Creek Trail where we would have eventually been on our originally planned loop. We followed signs for the 214 Trail at junctions. Signage in the park is hit and miss, having a map of the park is a must to avoid getting confused at unsigned junctions.

Sign post for the Newt Loop and mountain biking skills station.

As much blue sky as we were going to get on this day.

A massive old growth nursery log. The tree stood for hundreds of years and will spend hundreds more slowly decaying and providing nutrients for younger trees.

Nursery stump. While some old growth exists in the park it was also logged heavily which was the primary reason it was passed over for National Park status.

The Smith Creek Trail junction.

We stayed left on the 214 Trail at the junction with the Smith Creek Trail following it for another 0.6 miles to a junction with the 1.1 mile Nature Trail Loop.

Does anyone know their salamanders? Not sure what type this one was.

The Nature Trail junction.

We called an audible here and decided that a 1.1 mile loop wouldn’t add too much distance onto our day so we turned left and then left again to go clockwise on the Nature Trail.

In just over half a mile the trail popped us out in the park campground. After consulting our maps we determined we needed to turn left to find the continuation of the trail.
From the spot that we entered the campground you could just see a hiker sign at the far end of the paved campground road.

At an unlabeled junction with the Racket Ridge Connector Trail we stayed right on the Nature Trail. The Racket Ridge Connector Trail crossed South Fork Silver Creek while the Nature Trail followed the south bank for a short distance.

It was a half mile from the jct with the Racket Ridge Connector Trail back to the 214 Trail and just before we completed the loop we passed a blind.

No wildlife to view today.

When we got back to the 214 Trail we turned left to continue on our loop. Just under half a mile later we arrived at a “T” junction with the Howard Creek Loop Trail where we turned left.

The Howard Creek Loop Trail.

This trail crossed a paved road before crossing Howard Creek on a footbridge.

Howard Creek

On the far side of Howard Creek the trail turned right along the road we had taken earlier to reach the Howard Creek Horse Camp.

Sign for the trailhead.

We hiked past the gate in the photo above and encountered the Park Ranger from earlier. He directed us to a trail on the right that would bypass the “wires and equipment”. This time we at least confirmed that the Buck Mountain Loop was open and thanked him before continuing on our way. We still aren’t sure what is/was going on but it wasn’t an event like we had thought. It appeared that they were either upgrading part of the horse camp, repairing the entrance road, or doing some thinning. Whatever they were doing we were able to pick up the Howard Creek/Buck Creek Loop trail at the SE end of the loop at the end of the road.

In a tenth of a mile we turned right on an old logging road.

Three tenths of a mile later we arrived at another junction where the Howard Creek Loop split to the right while the Buck Mountain Loop continued straight uphill.

For the next 2.7 miles we followed this road uphill until it leveled out and came to a large trail junction at the edge of a fire closure. We often turned to the maps along this stretch to ensure we stayed on the correct road.

Blue appeared to mean Buck Mountain Loop (the posts along the Howard Creek Loop had been red and later the Smith Creek Trail posts were yellow.)

The mix of tree trunks here caught our eye.

Approaching the trail junction.

The good news at this big junction was there was good signage and a full park map.

The 2020 Beachie Creek Fire threatened the Park and did in fact burn over nearby Shellburg Falls (post). As it was a small portion of the park was burned causing the very SE portion of the park to remain closed until repairs and removal of hazard trees are completed.

Orange fence marking the closure of the Catamount Trail.

We stuck to the Buck Mountain Loop which descended to a pair of crossings of tributaries of Howard Creek.

The first footbridge which spans Howard Creek. The creek was obscured by brush.

The second footbridge over a tributary not shown on the topo map.

This stream was a little easier to see.

We took a short break at this bridge before continuing on.

Just over a mile from the large junction we arrived at a 4-way junction where we turned right to stay on the Buck Mountain Loop.

A reminder of how close the Beachie Creek Fire was.

The 4-way junction.

We kept on the Buck Mountain Loop for nearly another mile before arriving at the Smith Creek Trail junction.

Approaching the Smith Creek Trail junction.

Up until this point other than a few very brief sprinkles we hadn’t seen much actual rainfall during the hike. As we started down the Smith Creek Trail though a steady rain began to fall. We followed this trail downhill for 1.6 miles to a junction near the Silver Falls Conference Center.

We stayed on the Smith Creek Trail for another 1.3 miles to yet another junction, this time with the Rabbit Hole Trail.

We faced a choice here. Looking at the map the Rabbit Hole Trail offered a slightly shorter route back to the 214 Trailhead versus the Smith Creek Trail, but it also appeared to climb a steeper hillside, albeit via switchback. The deciding factor for us though was whether or not there appeared to be many mountain bikers coming down the trail. Given the weather and not seeing any bikers or fresh tire tracks we decided to give it a shot.

There were 13 signed switchbacks in just over half a mile before arriving at the Newt Loop Trail near the mountain bike skills station.

Ramps in the background at the skills station.

We turned left on the Newt Loop and followed it through the forest ignoring side roads and trails for 0.6 miles to the 214 Trail just two tenths of a mile from the 214 Trailhead.

The Catamount Trail arriving on the left.

The 214 Trail from the Newt Loop.

We didn’t encounter any bikers on the Newt Loop or Rabbit Hole trails. In fact we only saw one mountain biker all day and that was on the Buck Mountain Loop. We did see a couple of larger groups of trail runners (or one big group split into smaller groups) on the Nature Trail but otherwise I don’t believe we saw even a half dozen other trail users during our 12.9 mile loop. Reeder had been right, this was a great rainy day hike and the fall colors made it a good time of year to visit. While we managed to spend time on a number of the trails in the backcountry there is still plenty for us to explore and I’m already coming up with other ideas for the future when the fire closure is lifted.

Our “hiking season” is quickly coming to an end for the year and while it wasn’t an ideal year from a drought and wildfire perspective we’ve been fortunate enough to get some great hikes in while wrapping up a number of our longer term goals which we will be posting about during our off-season. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Silver Falls Backcountry

Tags 214 Trail, 214 Trailhead, Buck Mountain Loop, Catamount Trail, hiking, Howard Creek, Howard Creek Horse Camp, Howard Creek Loop, Nature Trail, Oregon, Rabbit Hole Trail. Newt Loop, Salamander, Silver Falls Backcountry, Silver Falls State Park, Smith Creek Trail