canyonwalker: Hangin' in a hammock (life's a beach)
North Cascades Travelog #15
Winthrop WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 5pm.

This afternoon is where we come up short because the hikes we wanted to do in North Cascades National Park are on fire. The past few days we were able to do other hikes instead... but those were hikes we were going to do anyway, in addition to (at least) two trails in the park. We just skipped the hikes in the burn area and did the others. So this afternoon we have half a day left and nowhere else on our list to go hiking. Nowhere else that's not closed, covered with smoke, and at risk fire.

We're skilled at finding alternatives, though. Part of traveling a lot is gaining a lot of experience at finding alternatives when one plan gets foreclosed for whatever reason. Because unexpected closures do happen. It can be bad weather, delayed flights, construction closures, fire, hurricanes, death riders; you name it, we've probably had to route around it.

Abby Creek Inn, Winthrop WA (Sep 2023)

With nowhere else to go this afternoon we decided to stay put. Stay put at the hotel, that is. The Abby Creek Inn (where we're staying 3 nights) has a nice pool area in the central courtyard. The photo above shows the swimming pool. The water feels a bit cool today with air temps in the low 70s. It was probably more relaxing a few days ago when the weather spiked to around 90. Instead of the pool we took a soak in the hot tub.

After the hot tub we decided to go sit down by the river. Well, I decided to sit; Hawk went rock-hopping.

Sitting by the river in Winthrop, WA (Sep 2023)

BTW, no, this is not Abby Creek. It's the Methow River. I don't think there is a namesake waterway for the Abby Creek Inn. And the inn doesn't even make a big deal out of this bit of riverfront land. It's beyond the back parking lot, past a terraced slope. There are two picnic tables but they aren't that close to the water. I grabbed the chair I'm sitting in from the edge of the parking lot, where it seemed like it was left as junk.

We hung out at the river for a few hours. Hawk rock-hopped up and down the river while I relaxed and enjoy the scenery, water bottle (and later two cans of beer) in hand. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. And I didn't even miss hiking all that much. I'm kind of stiff from all the hikes that's haven't been on fire the past few days.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #14
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 12pm.

I didn't expect this one trail hike to stretch to 3 blogs especially because it's not even that long, but here we are. There's just been so much beauty to share.

Near the top of the Fall Creek Trail, Okanogan National Forest (Sep 2023)

After we reached near the top of the Falls Creek trail and had seen several waterfalls on the way up (previous blog) we turned around to go back down. As hard as the steep uphill stretches were on the way up, we ate up the distance quickly on the descent. It seemed like we were back down to flatland in 5 minutes. (I think it was actually 15 minutes.)

Up close to the lower falls on Fall Creek

Before going all the way out to the trailhead, though, we stopped back at the first falls. On the way past them the first time we'd noticed a perch we could scramble up to to be right next to the falls. We skipped that on the way up, figuring we'd hit it on the way back after seeing everything else. Plus, the scramble up to it was really steep. Well, after seeing how steep the rest of the trail was, we were like, pfft, let's just do it.

It was fun to stand up next to the falls. The wind wasn't blowing, so spray wasn't much of a problem. The sun dodging behind clouds was a problem, though. It was dim. But as I noted a few blogs ago, dim light is something of a secret boon to waterfalls photography. Not only I was able to get lots of motion-blur photos of the water using my neutral density filter but the scene took on an eerie color cast. On the downside I hadn't carried my tripod on this hike, so I had to capture these slow exposures free-hand, relying on the camera lens's image stabilization system to avert excessive blurring from camera motion. Not all the shots I took are keepers (I shot a lot) but I'm happy overall with the results.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #13
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 11:15am.

Have I mentioned I'm glad we bailed out on hiking Falls Creek Trail yesterday afternoon and came back this morning when we were well rested? Yeah, I've said that twice already. As we started up the trail this morning the hike was easy at first, to the first falls, then got significantly steeper. Yes, first falls; it turns out there are actually several falls on Falls Creek in this canyon where pluges down through a rocky ridge. And after the first one they take a bit more effort to get to.

Waterfall into a grotto on Falls Creek (Sep 2023)

This falls into a deep grotto came after the first steep uphill stretch. The trail past here veered away from the canyon. We spotted an obvious use trail partway back down into the canyon and followed it to where we could see a waterfall between the trees. The waterfall did not disappoint.

Falls Creek Canyon viewed from high up on the side (Sep 2023)

Back on the main trail we climbed ever higher up the hillside. At this point (photo above) we were well above the water level in the canyon and could see the mountaintop. We could also see the burn area from a wildfire a few years ago. The scars of the burn make it starkly beautiful.

As high as we seem to be at this point there was still one more really steep part before we'd see the upper falls.

Upper parts of Fall Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

We huffed and puffed up one more hill to reach this overlook point. Here three of the drops in the upper falls area are visible. There's a fourth right below these that's under the rock ledge. They don't photograph well because of the steep angle from up here.

We looped around a bit to the right to get a better falls of the uppermost tier.

Upper Falls on Fall Creek, Okanogan National Forest (Sep 2023)

This is basically the top of Falls Creek though not the top of the trail. The trail continues up from here over one more hill that forms the canyon wall and then drops back down to creek level in a high meadow. At least that's what I figure from studying the contour map. One hiker in a group that was near us continued up toward the top; everyone else agreed with my map reading skill and headed back down from here.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #12
Okanogan National Forest, WA - Mon, 4 Sep 2023, 9:45am.

This morning we got up early-ish— it's technically a weekday even though it's a holiday, so my standard alarm wakes me up at 6:45am— puttered around the hotel room for a bit, ate a light breakfast, pulled our packs together, and headed out for a morning hike. Our hike this morning is the Falls Creek Falls Trail. It's about 12 miles north of Winthrop in the Okanogan National Forest.

The Falls Creek Falls Trail starts off easy... (Sep 2023)

Curiously today marked the second time we've been at this trailhead. We were here yesterday, too! As I noted in my Day 2 wrap-up last night, when we got here late in the afternoon it was getting dark with clouds in the sky and had just started to sprinkle rain. Plus, we were really achy from other hikes earlier in the day. "It's only a half mile trail, maybe we should do it anyway," we told ourselves. We decided the poor conditions meant we should try again today. And since it's only about a 20 minute drive from town it's not like it's a lot of extra time spent getting there and back.

Though the trail does start out easy— in the photo above you can see it's paved and is marked as handicap accessible— I'm really glad we chose to bail out the first time and come back today. We're feeling so much more refreshed, and the weather is beautiful.

A paved trail leads to Falls Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

That paved trail in the first pic leads gently upwards through an old growth forest to Falls Creek Falls... or at least the first part(s) of Falls Creek Falls. Yes, the first part(s), because as beautiful as these falls are— and we spent a while drinking in their beauty— there's more to see further up the trail.

This spot is where the sidewalk ends, though. The trail turns to dirt and climbs steeply from here.

The Falls Creek Falls Trail gets steep after the first falls (Sep 2023)

Zig-zagging up the switchbacks from the first falls took some huffing and puffing but it was a nice part of the hike. As we climbed out of the valley up the side of the hill we passed through a burn zone— as you can see in the photo above. A wildfire is burning right now in the high mountains to the west of here. This area burned maybe 3 years ago, I read. The charred hulks of the big trees remain, some of them barely clinging to a bit of life, while new undergrowth is already starting to thrive.

Stay tuned; there's more to come!

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #10
Near Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 4pm.

We made pretty good time coming down the trail after visiting Cedar Creek Falls this afternoon. I was thinking the return hike might take until 3, but we were back to the car by 2:30. That gave me more confidence we might even manage three waterfall hikes today, not just two. But first, two. Number 2 was Boulder Creek Falls.

Finding Boulder Creek Falls required a bit of attention to directions and a bit of wilderness sense. We drove back to town and then out on a country road to the north for about 6 miles, turning off onto a forest road. The remaining directions were "Drive 1.8 miles to a wide spot in the road. Park on the right." There's no actual sign for the trail. And around 1.8 miles in there were multiple wide spots in the road. That's where we had to eyeball the shape of the contours of the canyon, predicting where a drop might be, and listen for the sound of crashing water. Fortunately it wasn't that hard (not for us, anyway) and we found the right spot.

Boulder Creek Falls, Okanogan National Forest (Sep 2023)

In addition to the trail not being signed it was also primitive. It's more like a use trail, where we're following a path created by people following in one another's footsteps rather than a trail built or maintained as a trail. A short walk took us down to a rocky ledge above the falls (photo above).

Earlier we'd seen a person down in the creek below the falls. How to get down there? we wondered. The hill on the right is prohibitively steep, and the creek on the left has no bridge to cross.

"We'll just have to get our feet wet," I proposed.

Hawk was reluctant at first— not so much for getting her feet wet but for the possibility of slipping and torquing her back fording the swift creek. She warmed to it after I went first and didn't fall.

Boulder Creek Falls, Okanogan National Forest (Sep 2023)

Once across the creek we looped around to the right and walked out on a rock ridge that's kind of opposite the falls. Balancing atop the rock was a bit challenging with wet boots, but I perched there for a while enjoying the view and snapping photos like the one above.

It was pleasant, as well, that we had the area to ourselves. That's one of the benefits of finding these hard-to-find trails.... Not many other people find them. The small group of hikers here when we arrived left a few minutes after we arrived.

Boulder Creek Falls, Okanogan National Forest (Sep 2023)

I scrambled down the side of the rock face to a spot at the foot of the falls. The scramble was a tad tricky with my wet boots and my stiffening muscles— the downside of doing two-fers and three-fers! But I used my outdoors skill to pick a safe route down the rocks so I didn't slip. The view at the bottom of the falls was kind of similar to the one from 15' higher up but still just enough different to make it worth it. I stayed in the grotto below the falls, enjoying the nature and solitude, for about 10 minutes before heading back up.

Why not stay longer? Well, there's that three-fer we still want to do! Stay tuned for more.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #9
Mazama, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 2pm.

On Sunday we made hiking the Cedar Creek Falls trail our main event for the day. The hike up the trail was about 2 miles of walking with 500-600' of elevation gain, leading to a lovely set of waterfalls.

Middle tier of Cedar Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

In my previous blog (link above) I shared a photo of the first falls we saw. Moments later I discovered it's Middle Falls, as there are falls both above and below it. But before that, as I was stepping around on rocky perches overlooking the scene, I discovered that from a different angle Middle Falls actually has two chutes of water (photo above).

After rest at this vantage point for a few minutes I scrambled down to the rocks near the top of the falls. The view downstream was poor from there (I couldn't see much looking don) but the view upstream was beautiful. That's where I saw the upper falls.

Upper tier cascade of Cedar Falls (Sep 2023)

The upper falls don't include a large drop like the middle falls, which I estimate to be 40' tall. The biggest drop in this cascade looks to be at most 10' tall. But the series of small falls form a pretty cascade. And the pool at the foot of the cascade is a nice swimming hole. A fellow hiker was enjoying wading around in it.

I might have joined for a swim except (a) I didn't bring a change of clothes and (b) the water was too cold. I learned (b) when I slipped on a wet rock snapping photos like the one above and got wet up to my knees and soaked my boots. Maybe I should have brought that change of clothes. đŸ¤£

Scrambling down to the foot of the falls (Sep 2023)

Having seen the middle falls from atop a rocky perch and the upper falls from up close and personal (and wet) I scouted routes to see if I could get to the bottom of the middle falls. I found a steep trail with a forbidding looking 10' drop down some exposed boulders. As I looked at it more I realized it only looked forbidding and was totally within my ability to do. I headed down the rocks.

Hawk stayed at the top while I headed below. The rocks were easy enough for me to navigate because with longer arms and legs I could brace with hands and feet and lower myself down safely. Hawk doesn't have as long limbs so it would be tougher for her, and she wanted to avoid risk of twisting her back.

View from the foot of the middle tier of Cedar Falls (Sep 2023)

The steep dirt parts of the informal trail actually presented more chances of slipping than those sharp rocks. I made it down without a slip by being careful and using my hiking pole for added support. That's literally why I carry it! At the bottom of the middle falls I enjoyed a great view of the two chutes.

From the floor of this part of the canyon I could look over the lower tier of the falls. Wow, they are big! But no way down from here, and the view peering over the precipice isn't great... unless you like vertigo. đŸ˜… Instead I came back up out of the canyon, rejoined Hawk, and together we went looking for a perch from which to see the lower falls.

The lower tier cascade of Cedar Falls is the tallest— and hardest to reach (Sep 2023)

Finding such a perch wasn't hard. There are "use trails" all around the area; little unofficial footpaths created by all the people who visited before us. We both enjoyed views of the lower falls, over 80' tall, from a perch up on the canyon wall.

Could we have gotten to the bottom of these falls? I will say "yes, we could..." because another hiker there at the same time did so. But she scrambled down a ravine where the trail was at about 60°. That was way too much of a falling risk for Hawk and too much even for me (the hiker who went down was very young and spry) so we stayed up here and appreciated them from above.

During our time at these various falls the sky turned from partly blue to all gray. A bit of it was smoke hanging in the sky from the fires burning in the high mountains to the west; but most of it was thicker clouds moving in.

Photographic Aside

While gray skies are kind of a bummer for enjoying the great outdoors, they're a bit of a secret boon to photographers. It's easier to balance areas of light and shadow when the light is dimmer. That's because a camera can't capture as much of a range of brightness as the human eye can appreciate.

When you're looking around in nature, your irises can widen or narrow your pupils to adjust for an enormous range of brightness. A camera's iris gets one setting to capture a picture. In addition there are limits to the range of brightness the digital image can represent. In bright sun things like water tend to get "blown out" to full white when you set the exposure to see what's in shaded areas. Set the exposure for the water, and the shaded areas are murky black. Under grayer light, though, the light and dark areas are closer in brightness value so it's easier to capture them both visually in a single picture.

Three-fer, Four-fer?

After a while we decided to head back down the trail. The gray clouds mounting overhead suggested that it could rain soon. Not wanting to get caught on the mountain trail in the rain was one reason to head back down. But an even bigger reason was we actually have two more trails on our list we'd like to hike today. Those will make it a three-fer— or even a four-fer if you count our car-touring in the Washington Pass this morning.

Stay tuned to see what we see next!

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
North Cascades Travelog #8
Mazama, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 1pm.

What do you do when the trails you wanted to hike are on fire? You find somewhere safer to hike! Fortunately we'd already made a list of several trails we wanted to hike in the area, so after crossing off the top few there were still 3-4 left. Tops on this list is the Cedar Creek Trail to Cedar Falls.

On the trail to Cedar Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

We started the hike under graying skies. Partly it's because there's cloud cover building over the North Cascades (it would rain lightly late in the afternoon) and partly it's because there's wildfire smoke lingering high in the sky. Still, rays of sunlight would occasionally break through.

On the trail to Cedar Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

While fires are still burning (or at least smoldering) higher up in the mountains west of here, this area shows fire damage— from a fire that burned 2 or 3 years ago. Some of the bigger trees survived the fire. The smaller ones were reduced to charred husks, if they weren't burned entirely as the undergrowth was. But one aspect of fire is that it's part of a natural regrowth cycle. With the old forest canopy mostly gone, wildflowers and bushes have regrown rapidly.

There's one particular wildflower we're seeing a lot on the trail today that I haven't been able to identify. It's got small, purple flowers late in the season and plentiful wisps that have turned into cottony, dandelion-like puffs. Hawk said it's Russian thistle weed, but none of the pictures I've found online match what this plant looks like. (Among other things, Russian thistle seems to grow in ground-hugging clumps, while this wildflower grows in stems 3-4 feet high.)

As pleasurable as it was to walk among the wildflowers, our main reason for the hike was to see Cedar Creek Falls. Oddly it's not marked on the trail! But after about 2 miles of hiking we could hear the din of water falling not far off the trail, so we followed a use trail to explore it.

Middle tier of Cedar Creek Falls (Sep 2023)

This is what I'll call Middle Falls on Cedar Creek. As I've explored around the rocky perches above the creek I've spotted a cascade and a smaller falls upstream, and another, larger-seeming falls downstream. It's time to do some more exploring to see if we can get to them— stay tuned!

Updatepictures of falls galore in my next blog!


canyonwalker: Uh-oh, physics (Wile E. Coyote)
North Cascades Travelog #6
Winthrop, WA - Sun, 3 Sep 2023, 9am.

I remarked in my previous blog that this trip to Eastern Washington and the North Cascades is revenge, revenge for things we were not able to do in years past because of car trouble or poor weather. Well, where once poor weather kept us from appreciating Palouse Falls more fully, this year it was the government. All the trails down into the canyon are closed now because some dumbasses fell off the cliffs. Partly the closure is to protect other dumbasses from falling to their deaths— not that dumbasses actually pay attention to warning signs anyway— and partly it's because the local governments are fighting about whose budget has to be used to go and haul their bodies out. So that's why the other 99.9% of us can't have nice things.

Ah, but Palouse Falls was only the minor (thwarted) act of revenge travel this trip. The main part of the revenge was North Cascades National Park, where we cut our trip short six years ago when our car broke down. Now we'd come back for a few days and hike all those trails we were cheated out of hiking before! Except Mother Nature was ready for us. That bitch.

This morning we opened our guide books and websites to recheck the places we'd go hiking today and tomorrow. Whoops, there is a fire in North Cascades. Almost all the trails we wanted to hike are currently closed.

We made specific plans for this trip 6 weeks ago. That was relatively recent by vacation plans making standards! Everything was all clear then. This fire only started within the past few weeks.

I don't think the trails are literally on fire right now; I think the fires are mostly out, but things are closed until crews can make sure. And then there will need to be checks to make sure that everything's safe. You wouldn't want some dumbass shaking a dead tree and dying when it falls on their dumb ass. I mean, whose budget would even pay to haul their dumb ass corpse out of the woods?



canyonwalker: My old '98 M3 convertible (cars)
I drove a Chevy Malibu. Again. It was our rental car on our trip to Oregon two weeks ago. I say again because we also got a Malibu in New Orleans to take a jaunt through Mississippi. That trip we logged 375 miles on the car; this trip we logged over 700. With now 1,100 miles in recent model Chevy Malibus I feel more qualified to review them. (Note many reviews, even owner reviews, come from driving less than that.)

When I got a Malibu in New Orleans a few months ago that was simply the car they assigned me. I was renting at a city Avis location, and that was basically what they had in the class of car I rented. On this more recent trip, though, I had choices. There were at least a few models of car available in my category at the airport Avis. I chose the Malibu because it didn't suck when I had it before. The main alternative at the PDX location was a Nissan Altima. I've rented a lot of Nissan Altimas over the years, and that car has impressed me less and less. Nissan is kind of king of finding ways to cut small features out of its cars at the lower trim levels to save money. And you know the cars the rental agencies buy are generally the lower trim levels.

Chevy Malibu we rented (Jul 2023)

The Malibu from PDX had basically the same features as the Malibu in New Orleans. It comes standard with a few important modern features such as Apple Car Play/Android Auto. Both cars were the one step up LT trim, with heated cloth seats and dual-zone climate control (among other things).

This Malibu was newer. It had fewer than 700 miles on the odometer when I picked it up, versus the 35,000-ish on the car a few months ago. I'm not sure if it was a 2023 or 2024 model. The model year barely matters as Chevy didn't change anything between them. And actually this generation of car debuted in 2016. That's a big part of why, though overall it doesn't suck, it's also not inspiring in any way.

Compared to my review from a few months ago, there's not a lot new to say. The Malibu is totally serviceable transportation. It's comfortable, spacious enough for its class, and gets decent mileage. I averaged about 32mpg on mostly highway miles but with mountains and a heavy-ish foot at times.

One thing that I'd change from my previous review is that the Malibu can get up to speed fairly well. The engine's specs of 160 horsepower, 184 lb-ft of torque seem not that special relative to its size and bulk, especially compared to other cars in the class which have slightly better numbers on paper. But the car's continuously variably transmission makes pretty good use of the engine's power band... when you put your foot far enough into the throttle. At part throttle the car took its time getting up to highway speed. With more lead in the foot it came up to speed more vigorously.

The Malibu is still not a car I'd buy for myself. I wouldn't recommend it, either— not without also trying several of its competitors. But as a rental it's a better choice than the Nissan Altima right now and a worthy alternative to even the Toyota Camry for its features like Apple CarPlay and heated seats. If I see a Hyundai Sonata or Kia K5 (they're mechanically related) at rental depot next I'd give them a try. Reviewers rate them highly within the class. And at least as of several years ago Hyundais were common in rental fleets. I suspect maybe Hyundai has stopped offering deep discounts to fleet buyers as it has gained more credibility with consumers, which is why we're back to seeing long-in-the-tooth Chevrolets in fleets again.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Whew. I am now done with blogging about the epic waterfalls hiking day we had a week ago Monday (July 3). Seven different falls, seven different trails, and it only took a week to catch up. Though I did say a week ago that it'd take me a week to finish. đŸ˜… The falls were:

  1. Susan Creek Falls
  2. Fall Creek Falls
  3. Toketee Falls (and carwash!)
  4. Watson Falls
  5. Whitehorse Falls
  6. Clearwater Falls
  7. Warm Springs Falls

There were additions and subtractions to this list as we went. Originally I started with #1-4, 7, and Lemolo Falls on my to-do list. After #4, Toketee Falls, we realized we likely would not have the stamina to do everything. We added on #5-6, a pair of very easy walks, after chatting with some fellow travelers.

With Warm Springs and Lemolo left on the list for last, we chose to hike Warm Springs Falls first because it was the easier of the two. Its 0.6 mile round trip distance and lack of significant climbing meant we were sure we both could do it at the end of the day. The Lemolo Falls Trail was 2 miles round trip with an ascent of almost 1,000 feet on the return. By late in the day Hawk was not in condition to do that. I thought I might be.... But even if I were, I calculated that hiking a trail that long would have us arriving at our hotel in Portland (we drove 419 miles in addition to hiking 7 trails!) close to 1am. Thus I decided bailing out on Lemolo Falls was the right thing to do.

By Tuesday morning it was clear skipping Lemolo falls was absolutely the right thing to do. One of my feet was badly sore with a blister. I am sad that I missed Lemolo Falls... though missing it is only for now. It goes on the list to hike on our next trip in that area!

Is Video Easier than Stills?

Last week Monday wasn't even our only day of hiking an epic seven waterfalls. We hiked eight falls the Saturday before it! And I didn't get backlogged on writing about those. What gives?!

Well, two big things were different. First, those eight falls were on one epic trail, the Trail of Ten Falls. Second, I recorded video at most of the falls. I then spliced together 10 or so short clips into a 2m 40s video. That turned out to be easier than processing photos and writing about them. With Tuesday's seven falls I forgot about doing video.

Seeing now how the efforts compare I will endeavor to make video more often on my hiking trips.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
The last of our hiking treks a week ago Monday in the Oregon Cascades was to Warm Springs Falls. This one was a bit remote. All the previous hikes were basically right off State Route 138. This one involved driving north a few miles from near the top of the pass to Lemolo Lake on a narrow road, then to a small reservoir on a narrower road, then downhill from there another few miles on a dirt road.

One nice thing about driving dirt roads to get to trailheads is that they filter out some of the crowds. Even when they're not 4x4 routes (this one certainly wasn't) a lot of people avoid them like they are. I spotted one car that turned around and went back when the pavement ended, plus another one that should have (they made a wrong turn and were driving painfully slow). When we got to the trailhead for Warm Springs Falls, marked only by a small wooden sign nailed to a tree, there were just 2 other vehicles there.

It's a good thing there was that little sign, because otherwise we might have missed it. The trail starts out in deep forest beneath mature fir trees with soft dirt and pine needles underfoot. It's fittingly quiet here— except for the sound of rushing water in the distance. That, other than the small sign, was our only clue we were in the right place.

Warm Springs Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

The trail winds about 0.5 km (0.3 mi) through deep forest to a lookout point atop a ridge over the falls. There, the fairly tall and wide falls emerge, pouring into a wide bowl. Again, until you get to pretty much this spot there's little clue other than the distant sound these falls are here. The trail doesn't cross the river, nor are the falls or canyon visible until you're literally on top of them.

Warm Springs Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

Hawk joined me in hiking this trail even after swearing she was done at Whitehorse Falls and Clearwater Falls. I kind of suspected she might find enough gas in the tank for this easy, 0.6 mile roundtrip after taking it more slowly for an hour or two.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Whew, it's now over a week since our epic hiking day on Monday, July 3. We ultimately visited 7 different waterfalls along the North Umpqua River watershed. My plan had been for 8— well, my plan had been for 6, then we added two easy ones mid-afternoon knowing that either or both of the last two longer ones might fall off the plan as we get near the end of our energy (and time, too).

Hike number 6 was Clearwater Falls. Along with Whitehorse Falls it's one of the short ones we added late in the day. From the quiet parking lot it was a level walk of less than 100 meters to a wooden viewing platform with benches.

Clearwater Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

The Clearwater River gets its name from the exceptional clarity of its water. It bubbles up from springs about a mile upstream from this falls. The water in those springs flows through multiple layers of dried lava (laid down like layers on a layer cake by successive eruptions further up the mountain) that filter it out quiet well. They also keep it at a consistent flow across the year despite the otherwise heavy spring melt cycle followed by summer and fall drought.

Maybe it's the gentle, consistent flow of the water, but this area is popular with mosquitos. They hadn't been a factor on other trails today, but here I was slapping them two and even three at a time. Maybe it's the elevation over 4,000' where they've just hatched for the summer. At least these young'uns are easy to swat. They're like, "Hey, mom, look, I can fly! Buzz, buzz!" Then *splat* with my hand.

Clearwater Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

While Hawk waited down at the viewing platform, not able to walk further than that (she was still recovering from a muscle tear 2 weeks earlier), I scrambled up a short but steep path along the side of the falls, swatting mosquitoes the whole time. There were nice views from right next to the falls, shown above. I also picked my way out atop the falls and got Hawk's attention to take a picture. I'll have to get a copy of that one from her.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
By the time we finished our fourth waterfall hike of the day, the towering Watson Falls, last Monday Hawk and I were feeling pretty tired. And I still had two more hike-y falls to go on my list! đŸ˜° It was obvious that we'd need to swap in some mostly drive-to falls or risk having to call it a day already. Fortunately, I found two drive-to falls nearby thanks to a reminder from two fellow hikers who'd done every trail we had so far today. The first of these was Whitehorse Falls.

Whitehorse Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

Whitehorse Falls isn't technically drive-to in the sense of being able to see it from inside a car. You have to park, get out, and walk maybe 50 meters to a viewing platform above the falls. There's also an obvious trail down to the water's edge. I made some picture from up above then checked the vantage from water's edge (shown above) and found I liked it better.

While I was still good for short jaunts like this, Hawk said she was basically done-done for the day. She didn't join me in scrambling down to the water. I suggested we take the remaining hikes one-at-a-time, easiest ones first, and see what we could handle. I had serious doubts I'd get through my whole list at that point.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
It was interesting doing some people-watching while we were hiking on Monday in the Oregon Cascades. ...Not that were people-watching, per se; it was more like us merely noting whom we shared the trails with. Especially because one pair of hikers, a couple of middle-aged women, were on 3 of the 4 trails we hiked.

I chatted them up as we were ascending the trail to Watson Falls together. "Hey, we've seen you at 3 of the 4 trails we've hiked so far. Where else are you hiking today?"

"Actually we've seen you at all four," one of them kindly corrected me. "We saw you in the parking lot at Toketee Falls."

I guess I was too busy laughing while taking video of the Toketee Car Wash— or taking pictures of the butterfly that Hawk coaxed on her finger— to have noticed them.

It was easy to spot them at the first two falls trails because those trails were so un-busy. Susan Creek Falls we had to ourselves when we started, and they and maybe one other small group arrived after us. At Fall Creek Falls they also started just after us, and then 3-4 more cars of people arrived.

Toketee falls had, like, 10x the number of visitors. That's part of why I didn't spot the two gals in the crowd. Though I did notice right away that Toketee Falls had a very diverse set of visitors. ...Actually it wasn't diverse; it was 80% South Asian. Whereas the first two hikes were almost exclusively White Caucasian, at Toketee Whites were a distinct minority. I wonder if a cultural association had an event at one of the lodges nearby.

At Watson Falls the hiker community skewed White again. That was primarily because there were several truckloads of wilderness firefighters on R&R there. The fire crews were mostly White and mostly male. We thanked them for their service.

The two gals I mentioned above did share some hints on where they were going next. I reconsidered right as soon as I asked them about their plans that I might seem creeper-ish by doing so... though at the same time I figured that given they've seen me on 4 hikes in one day, I'm almost certainly truly about the hikes and not about hitting on women.

Anyway, they mentioned one hike by name that seemed a bit out of our way. At the end of the day they were heading south and we were going north. But they also noted that there were a few drive-to falls nearby that they'd be visiting next because they were about done with hiking. That made me reconsider my plans for the day as I could tell I was getting close to being done with hiking, too. Once back at the car we pulled out Smedley and found two nice-looking falls with minimal hiking required.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Our waterfalls-hiking agenda on Monday in the Oregon Cascades was a bit of a jumble. I had several browser tables open on my computer to various falls I wanted to hike, and a few sections bookmarked the old-fashioned way (i.e., with a scrap of paper) in Smedley's waterfall book. As we went through the day, having hiked 3 trails already, we were discussing tradeoffs on which ones to add to the list or skip.

"Watson Falls, hmm, I don't know," I said. Then I checked the notes. "272 feet tall, third highest falls in Oregon." Fuck no, we're not skipping that!

The trek to the base of Watson Falls is short but steep. Short, as in less than half a mile. Steep, as in it rises 300 feet in that short distance. But then views like this open up...

Watson Falls, Oregon (Jul 2023)

...and you forget about your aching legs and just focus on finding stable footing while not taking your eyes off the falls.

The trail proper turns away just behind where I'm standing. Yes, everyone in the frame, including yours truly taking the picture, is off trail. But how could we not?

Watson Falls, Oregon (Jul 2023)

A little ways up the social trail is a flat-ish rock to sit on. We sat down for a bit and enjoyed the lush undergrowth and gentle cascade in the foreground with the horsetail of Watson Falls swishing in the background. ...Yes, it really was swishing. Breeze in the canyon blew the water back and forth, left and right.

Watson Falls, Oregon (Jul 2023)

After a bit we picked our way back to the official trail. I mentioned it bent away at that point.... It climbs higher through a pair of switchbacks to a vantage point that's about one-third up the height of the falls. Oddly this vista was very uncrowded compared to the bottom of the falls. It's like everybody had energy to climb the slippery rocks at the bottom and make yoga poses for their Instagram accounts, but nobody had energy or was curious where the rest of the trail went.

BTW, the rock on the cliff here is also basalt, similar to the rock face at Toketee Falls. Here the columnar structure isn't so pronounced. A kiosk at the trailhead explains that this volcanic basalt filled the canyon sometime between 25,000 - 100,000 years ago when a volcano near the top of the pass erupted.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
After our treks at Susan Creek Falls and Fall Creek Falls Monday morning, plus over 100 miles of driving, it was getting to be time for lunch. We found a little gas station convenience store perfectly located in Steamboat, about a dozen miles before Toketee Falls, our next hiking spot. While there I learned that I was pronouncing Toketee wrong. It's not "toe-KEE-tee" but "TOKE-uh-tee". It's a Chinook word meaning pretty or graceful.

So, do the falls live up to the name? It was a short hike, less than 0.5 mile each way, to find out.

Toketee Falls, Umpqua National Forest (Jul 2023)

Pretty? Hell yeah. But graceful? More like thunderous. There is a lot of water coming over these falls. And this is only, like, half the flow (see below).

The falls feature a 30' drop in two steps in the upper part of the gorge then a drop of 80' into the wide pool at the bottom. The water cuts through a chasm in columnar basalt rock. We saw some of that over at Fall Creek Canyon, too.

I mentioned that this is only half the flow. Where's the other half? Would you believe... an unintentional carwash?



At the trailhead parking area there is a huge diversion pipe. It's 12' diameter (in my voice-over narration I estimated 10') and made of wood. It's got a lot of leaks going. People were taking turns driving through the sprays as a free carwash.

This pipe is a penstock, diverting water from Toketee Lake just upstream to a hydroelectric power plant further downstream. Only a 1,500' length of the wooden pipe, built in 1949, remains. The rest has been replaced with a concrete tube.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Our second in a string of waterfall hikes on Monday was Fall Creek Falls, a bit further up the north fork of the Umpqua River from Susan Creek Falls. Like Susan Creek it's a small tributary in a side canyon. Unlike Susan Creek, the trail into it does not rise gently.

Fall Creek Falls Trail climbs steeply through a burned canyon (July 2023)

Fall Creek Canyon starts off narrow, steep, and choked with large boulders that appear to be columnar basalt formations.The trail rises once again through landscape that was burned a few years ago. Here most of the trees were savaged and will not recover, but the undergrowth (which is now not really under anything) is thriving.

This trail made us work for our payoff a lot more than Susan Creek did. That said, we didn't mind the steepness. The burned forest had an otherworldly beauty to it. And Fall Creek tumbles over a number of smaller cascades as it drops down the steep canyon. Once over the initial climb the trail levels out for a bit, then the prize comes into view: a three-tiered waterfall dropping over 100 feet.

Fall Creek Falls pours over 3 tiers (July 2023)

The trail leads initially to the bottom of the falls. There, there's a flat spot and a shallow pool some people opt to take a plunge in (see below). The trail also continues up the side of the canyon wall, to the wood railed viewpoint you can see about 3/4 up the side on the right, and then to a fire road above the falls.

View of Fall Creek Falls from below (July 2023)

We started with the pool at the bottom of the falls, enjoying the view here along with the refreshing spray of the water.

Upper tier of Fall Creek Falls (July 2023)

We climbed the trail switchbacks to the higher viewpoint. Here there's a great view of the upper tier of the falls.

It's not visible from this angle but there's a concrete bridge over the creek further upstream from these falls. Trail signs indicate it's a forest road, so likely not paved other than the bridge itself, and the trail ends at it. We decided not to go that far. Why not explore? Because we had a long itinerary of other waterfalls still to see!

View of Fall Creek Falls from below (July 2023)

As we came back down from the upper viewpoint we stopped again at the bottom of the falls. They'd become more crowded while we were above, with about 10 people clustered at the base taking poor pictures. (I knew their pictures were poor because I saw the cameras and the angles they were using. And when I asked one of them to take a picture of us with my camera, the composition was poor.) I patiently waited for them to step out of frame to capture photos like the one above. Then it was down the canyon and on to our next adventure!

canyonwalker: wiseguy (Default)
I forgot to mention on the way to hiking Susan Falls on Monday we stopped to fill gas in our car. As an American that's normally a non-event, a basic thing of life I've been doing since before age 16. Except this was in Oregon. It's one of the two states in the US that ban self-serve gas. A 1951 law cites the reasons as youth employment and life-threatening dangers. Yes, it cites those two arguments in consecutive sentences. Pumping gas is so dangerous, let's make kids do it for menial wages! đŸ™„

...Actually Oregon only partly bans self-serve gas. Diesel has always been self-serve, and starting several years ago Oregon amended its laws to allow self service for gasoline in rural counties. When we stopped at a Shell station umpteen miles outside Roseburg I thought we were in one of those rural areas. Drivers of a few other vehicles at the pumps were operating the pumps themselves, and no staff were on hand to pump the gas for us. I started up the pump as Hawk went inside to buy a snack.

Hawk came back out and told me the the cashier inside was aghast that we started pumping our gas. It turns out we were not in a self-serve area. "OMG, do you need any help with that??" the cashier asked, belatedly.

"No, we're from California," Hawk said.

What Hawk should have said was, "No, we're from the 48½ states in the US where this is normal."

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
Monday morning I was awoken by the sun blazing through the windows of our corner room at the hotel in Eugene Oregon. It was only 6am— a terrible time to have to wake up on a long holiday weekend, right? Actually, no. Getting up early didn't suck because there was a lot I wanted to do. Monday would be a long day of hiking waterfalls in the Cascades then driving back up to Portland for the night.

From Eugene we headed south on I-5 toward Roseburg then skirted around town to State Highway 138 climbing up into the mountains. It wasn't long until we reached the trailhead of the first hike on my list, Susan Creek Falls.

On the trail to Susan Creek Falls (Jul 2023)

The trail to Susan Creek starts in a burned area. Most of the trees still standing are dead, though in the years since the fire shrubs have thrived. We passed by a lot of wild berry bushes... and poison oak. The trail zig-zags up the side of a hill for a bit before cutting around a corner into the Susan Creek canyon. Here, as you can see in the photo above, some of the taller trees survived the fire.

Susan Creek Falls near Idleyld, Oregon (July 2023)

Once around the bend it's a pleasant walk of another 0.5 mile or so to the falls at the back of the canyon. The trek is just 1.5 miles round trip with an ascent of about 200 feet. Susan Creek Falls pours over a rock ledge and drops about 50'.

Susan Creek Falls near Idleyld, Oregon (July 2023)

The trail offers both a small vista partway up the right side of the hill in front of the falls and a little picnic area below the foot. I found the best viewpoint (above) by going to the lower area then hopping over a few rocks and downed trees to get closer to the falls.

canyonwalker: My other car is a pair of hiking boots (in beauty I walk)
In my previous blog I wrote about hiking to Kentucky Falls in the coastal mountains west of Eugene, Oregon. I remarked that if all I did was get to Kentucky Falls and turn around, it would've been a decent hike. But I didn't turn around there. I went over a mile further (and several hundred vertical feet lower) to reach more falls.

Lower Kentucky Falls, Siuslaw National Forest (Jul 2023)

Kentucky Creek plunges over a falls even more dramatic than the first one on the trail. This is Lower Kentucky Falls. There's a nice wooden viewing platform here. Some younger people scrambled up the slippery rocks to the pool below the lowest tier of the falls. You can see one of them in the photo above.

If you "zoom out" on the view from the wooden platform you see something else, too....

Smith Creek and Lower Kentucky Falls, Siuslaw National Forest (Jul 2023)

There's another fairly tall falls right next to Lower Kentucky Falls. The one on the left is Smith Creek Falls. The two creek plunge over the same rocky ledge then merge together just below it.

While I didn't feel like joining the younger adults scrambling up to the base of Lower Kentucky Falls, I did decide to scramble downstream to the confluence of the two creeks and then up to the base of Smith Creek Falls.

My inspiration for doing this was two-fold. First, I remembered some of the waterfalls in Oahu (Hawaii) we visited last year, where the trail basically disappeared the last 100 meters of the way and we had to boulder-bash our way up the creek. This was no worse than that. Second, as I started downstream to judge if it was worth continuing, my sunglasses slipped off and fell down an 8' tall drop. They landed atop a rock, so they weren't lost in the water. But at that point I figured, "In for a penny, in for a pound," and decided to go the whole way.

Smith Creek Falls, Siuslaw National Forest (Jul 2023)

I picked my way carefully and found plenty of rocks and logs in the creeks to make my way down to the confluence and up the other creek to the base of Smith Creek Falls, without getting my feet wet. "Will it be worth the effort?" I wondered as I started. When I got to the point where I took the photo above, it totally was. ...Okay, recovering my sunglasses was worth the effort. I hate having to buy new sunglasses. The views were gravy.

In beauty I walk.

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