Tag: Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness

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

Blue Mountains - North Hiking Oregon Trip report

Upper Wenaha River – 09/11/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date September 14, 2021
2 Comments on Upper Wenaha River – 09/11/2021

For the second year in a row our September vacation plans were disrupted by wildfires. The reality we are facing is that this may well be the norm now and maybe September isn’t the best time to try and take a hiking trip. We’d been avoiding October due to the erratic weather that time of year but it might be time to rethink that. Unlike last September when we scrapped our plans and just stayed home staying inside to avoid the smoke this year we had a viable back up plan. Our original plan was for a long weekend in Union Creek near Crater Lake National Park but that area seemed to be ground zero for unhealthy air quality so we canceled our reservations there and watched the weather and smoke forecast waiting until Friday to make our final decision. A favorable forecast put Pendleton as our first choice but according to the Forest Service website two of the three trails we planned on hiking were showing as closed. The entire Umatilla National Forest had been closed earlier this year due to wildfires but those were either out or mostly contained and the closure area had been greatly reduced. I reached out to the Forest Service and they confirmed that despite what the website said the trails we were planning on hiking were open.

It was a 5 to 5 1/2 hour drive from Salem to the Timothy Springs Trailhead for our first hike of the weekend on the Wenaha River Trail. We had hiked on this trail in 2019 but from the other end near Troy, OR (post). The trail is just under 31.5 miles long but for this hike we planned on following the trail downhill for 4.5 miles to Milk Creek which is Sullivan’s longer option for his featured hike #43 in the 3rd edition “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon”. We arrived to find the campground at the trailhead full of bow hunters which we had expected this time of year. We parked in a dirt area not far from the historic Timothy Springs Guard Station because the only spot open at the actual trailhead would have meant parking over grass which we didn’t want to do given the fire danger.
The guard station.

The only “parking spot” open near the actual trailhead.

The trail immediately entered the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness.

The trail descended gradually through a the forest crossing a couple of small streams before reaching the South Fork Wenaha River at the 2.3 mile mark.
There was a lot of cone flower along the trail.

It had rained the night before but most of the moisture had already dried up or evaporated.

There were just a few flowers hanging on.

There was also a nice variety of mushrooms.

Paintbrush

One of the small streams.

Self-heal

There weren’t many views along the trail but this one was nice.

Pearly everlasting

Ghost pipe

This was one of the smallest frogs we’ve seen. When I first saw it jump I mistook it for a grasshopper.

A short distance before reaching the river we passed what Sullivan described as 6′ waterfall. There wasn’t much water flowing this time of year so we had to picture it mostly.

South Fork Wenaha River

The river was just wide enough and the logs wet enough that crossing dry wasn’t an option so we forded the river, it was maybe mid-calf at its deepest. A brief climb on the far side quickly put us above the river as the trail traversed a rock hillside.

The views were better along this section as it gradually descended to Milk Creek 2.2 miles beyond the South Fork Wenaha ford.

One of two snakes we came across, both the harmless types.

South Fork Wenaha River

Fall colors along the trail.

Milk Creek with the Wenaha River Trail continuing on the far side.

Milk Creek joining the South Fork Wenaha River.

DSCN0844 Elderberry near Milk Creek

DSCN0845 Snowberry

After a nice break at Milk Creek we began the 1300′ climb back to the trailhead. It was a fairly uneventful return trip but we managed to spot a few flowers and mushrooms along the way that we’d missed on our first pass.

Might be an aven?

Coral fungus

Aster

20210911_142859

A lone arnica still blooming.

This was a pleasant 9.1 mile hike and despite it being bow hunting season most of the hunters were already back in camp when we arrived so we only saw one group of three people the entire hike.

It was interesting to see the difference in the forest and terrain between the upper and lower ends of the Wenaha River Trail too. We then drove to Pendleton and after a little hiccup in our plans checked into a motel and then went to OMG! Burgers & Brew for dinner. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Upper Wenaha River

Tags Blue Mountains, hiking, Milk Creek, Oregon, Pendleton, South Fork Wenaha River, Timothy Springs Campground, Timothy Springs Guard Station, Timothy Springs Trailhead, Wenaha River Trail, Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness

Blue Mountains - North Hiking Oregon Trip report

Lower Wenaha River

After dealing with snow the day before at Freezeout Saddle (post) we called an audible and decided not to try hiking at Hat Point. That trailhead is a little higher in elevation along Hells Canyon than we had been during the Freezeout Saddle Hike. We turned instead to the Wenaha River Trail starting from Troy, OR. This trail provided us with the opportunity to make our first visit into the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness. We planned on visiting this wilderness later on this year but knowing our plans are always subject to change we jumped on the chance for a warmer, drier hike that visited another of Oregon’s wilderness areas.

The drive to Troy from Wallowa Lake was an eventful one. The wildlife was out in force. We kept our eyes on the numerous deer that we spotted along Highway 3 between Enterprise and the turnoff to Flora. At one point several elk ran across the highway ahead of us from one field to another. There were two deer in the second field that upon seeing the elk running away from the road toward them decided they should run too, only they ran toward the road (and us). The lead deer realized its mistake and turned around chasing after the elk leaving the second deer looking confused before also turning around. A short while later we were slowed by a turkey in the road. Its escape plan appeared to be to try and outrun our car. If you’ve seen a turkey try and sprint its a pretty funny sight. Eventually it remembered its wings and flew to the side of the road.

Thirty five miles from Enterprise we turned left at a sign for Flora, a ghost town that peaked in the early 1900’s. Beyond Flora the road was paved for the first 4 miles but then turned to mostly dirt with some gravel. For about 7 miles this road wound steeply down to the Grande Ronde River and Troy. Numerous hairpin turns with steep dropoffs made for a bit of a tense drive down but we arrived at the Troy Trailhead in one piece.

Not only were we at a much lower elevation (under 2000′) but the forecast was for just a 30% chance of showers on this day so we were optimistic that we’d have a little better weather experience. The sky seemed to back that up as we looked back over Troy and the Grande Ronde River.

This lower portion of the 31.3 mile long Wenaha River Trail passes through the 2015 Grizzly Fire scar.

Some of the trees survived the fire.

We had seen a trip report from the end of April over on Oregonhikers.org which indicated that the trail was in pretty good shape, but might be a bit brushy in spots. The author had also spotted big horn sheep during the hike so we were going to be keeping on the lookout for those.

In April it looked like there had been a nice display of balsamroot along the trail but most of that was now done but we were pleased to still find some flowers in bloom.
Vetch

Spreading dogbane

Wild rose with a beetle

Yarrow

Houndstongue

Paintbrush

Catchfly

sticky purple geranium

The trail itself began above the Wenaha River but soon dropped down to river level passing through a flat. This pattern would repeat itself over the course of the hike. The sections along the flats ranged from open grass to overgrown brush. We appeared to be the first to be going through the brush since the leaves were heavy with water which quickly soaked the lower halves of our bodies.

As we made our way along the trail we discovered additional flower types.
Oregon sunshine

Monkey flower

Watercress?

Fiddleneck

Rough eyelashweed

Blanket flower with two sleeping bees

After a mile we arrived at a gate which we at first mistook for the boundary with the Umatilla National Forest.

While we were on the lookout for big horn sheep it was colorful birds that we kept seeing (and hearing).
Yellow breasted chat

Lazuli bunting

The contrast in the hillsides on the opposite sides of the river was interesting. The north side consisted of smooth rounded terrain while the south side was much more rugged.

While we were admiring the ruggedness of the opposite hillside we spotted some promising brown dots (they are in the picture above). With a little help from the zoom on the camera and our monocular we were able to confirm they were some of the big horn sheep we’d been looking for.

Just a bit further down the trail we spotted another group. These were engaged in some rowdy play around a burnt ponderosa trunk.

We watched them for quite a while before continuing on. The north side of the river became a bit more rugged and the rockier terrain provided more diverse flowers.

Penstemon

Clarkia

Phlox

More spreading dogbane

Buckwheat

Scabland penstemon

Cinquefoil?

While the trail was up on the hillside we had nice views of the Wenaha below.

A little over two and a half miles in we passed a second fence which was the actual forest boundary.

Just beyond the boundary was a viewpoint across from Dry Gulch.

From the viewpoint the trail made a couple switchbacks down to another brushy flat.

Although it wasn’t thick there was a few pockets of poison ivy along the trail so we kept a watchful eye when the vegetation was close to the trail. It was along these flat sections where we spotted most of the birds.
Woodpecker with a snack.

Northern flicker

Black headed grosebeak

We also spotted a few big horn sheep on our side of the river.

After climbing up a bit again we found a nice combination of false sunflower and balsamroot blooming along a ridge end along with a few other flowers.
Blue dicks with a beetle

Lupine

Salsify

False sunflowers

Balsamroot

Clarkia with beetles

View from the ridge end.

We repeated the dip and climb a couple more times before arriving at a neat rock overhang a bit before the 6 mile mark (at least according to our GPS). Along the way spotted more birds, a deer, and what appeared to be a rattlesnake that had met its demise along the trail.

Another bunting

Wallflower

Another chat

20190525_095959 Geranium

Beyond the overhang we could see Crooked Creek Canyon ahead to the right where it joined the Wenaha to the left.

From the overhang it was a little over a mile to Crooked Creek. The stretch began with another nice selection of flowers.
Skullcap

Stream globemallow

Thimbleberry

Threadleaf phacelia

The the wildlife kicked back in and not in the most welcome way for Heather. I had stopped to try and get a picture of a garter snake that had just moved off the trail.

I heard Heather say snake a couple of time and I was thinking “Yeah I know I’m trying to get a picture of it” only she was talking about a second garter snake that was slithering into the grass on the other side of the trail. Then she notice the third one coiled a couple of inches from her left foot. She is not a huge fan of snakes but has gotten quite a bit more comfortable around them, but three in one spot was getting close to too much. The third snake slithered away when I approached and we continued on.

More welcome wildlife came in the form of a family of geese, a pair of Lewis’s woodpeckers, and butterflies.

At the 6.3 mile mark we passed a rock cairn with a “6” on top. We weren’t sure but thought that it might have been marking the boundary of the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness.

Whether or not that was the official boundary somewhere near the cairn we did enter the wilderness crossing one more off of our list to visit.
Officially inside the wilderness

We followed the trail to the site of the former footbridge over Crooked Creek which was lost in the Grizzly Fire.

We spent some time pondering what the crossing would be like for backpackers wanting to continue on the Wenaha Trail. The water level looked like fording would be possible but we couldn’t see how one would get up to the trail on the far side. The best we could figure is that you would need to ford closer to the mouth of Crooked Creek and not at the old bridge site but we didn’t investigate further.

We turned around and headed back the way we’d come. The day was warming up nicely as blue sky began to emerge overhead. We ran into several groups of backpackers heading in and they all asked about Crooked Creek. We told them that we thought fording would be possible but they’d need to find a spot to get back up to the trail. One of them mentioned what we had suspected, that there was a way up a little further downstream.
Blue sky

On the way back we kept our eyes open for anything we might have missed the first time by.
Wren

Spider and blue dicks

Old man’s whiskers

Wild onion

Near the spot where we had seen the first group of big horn sheep across the river Heather spotted a small group on our side along the river bank.

By the time we made it back to the trailhead the sky was mostly blue and temperatures were in the upper 70’s. It was a far cry from the snow shower the day before.

20190525_134957 The bees woke up at some point.

For some reason I had started craving pizza near the end of our hike so when we got cell signal I did a quick search of restaurants in Joseph and decided a calzone from Embers Brewhouse which really hit the spot and provided breakfast for the next day as well. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Lower Wenaha River

Tags Big Horn Sheep, Black headed grosebeek, Crooked Creek, deer, Embers brewhouse, Flora, hiking, Joseph, Lazuli Bunting, Lower Wenaha River, Oregon, snake, Troy Trailhead, Wenaha River, Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness, Yellow breasted chat