Winter Hiking: Salt Creek Falls – Diamond Creek Falls Loop

Salt Creek Falls

Distance: About 3.5 miles

Directions: From Oakridge, head east for about 20 miles. Turn right at the sign for Salt Creek Falls.

As temperatures plummet, 286-foot Salt Creek Falls plunges over a solid cliff of ice. For those

capable of braving slick roads and potentially foul conditions, a few miles of easy snow hiking delivers a pretty sweet return.

From wherever you can find a place to ditch your rig, start slogging through the snow towards the main parking lot, gated and buried in white. On the southeastern side of the parking lot, you’ll find the path. Follow it to the right, and soon waterfall views abound below you.

My brother creeping down the slide

If you continue to follow the path up several small, probably slippery, stairs, you’ll find the path that switchbacks down  to the waterfall base. Towards the bottom of the trail, a landslide tore through, rending path and guard fence to rubble. In the winter, it may be a bit sketchy heading on from there.

Regardless whether or not you choose to slide down to the falls’ base, the adventure continues by heading back up the way you just came down. Once back at the parking lot, follow the other fork of the trail that heads up the creek. After crossing a bridge, you’ll come to a fork – one going to Vivian Lake, the other to Diamond Creek Falls. Both go the same place.

For now, take the right fork towards Diamond Creek Falls. Enjoy a few views, including a waterfall concealed in the trees, before forking to the right and heading down a steep embankment (not recommended in moody weather), crossing a slightly dicey bridge, and continuing on slightly further to the base of Diamond Creek Falls.

Retrace your steps back to the main trail, then follow it up to a view from the top of the falls.

Diamond Creek Falls

Follow the trail until it forks. Take the left fork to a logging road. Heading straight will bring you to the road as well, but the left fork takes you to exactly where it crosses to the other side. Follow the trail on the other side down some mild switchbacks, cross another road, and take the trail back to the first fork and the bridge leading back to the parking lot.

For more Western Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Foothills page.

Henline Falls

Henline Falls

Distance: 2 miles out-and-back

Maximum Elevation: 1780

Minimum Elevation: 1600

Total Elevation Gain: 200

Directions: From Salem, take Highway 22 and drive 23 miles to Mehama. Turn left on Little North Fork Santiam. Head about 16 miles on it, then head left on Road 2209. In less than a quarter mile, the parking area for the trailhead will be on the left.

My roomate and the waterfall

This short hike gives a small, but very satisfying, taste of Opal Creek Wilderness: a 120-foot waterfall, a pristine creek, and an old mining operation.

The cave entrance

The wide, gentle trail (actually an old mining road) passes a half mile though a thick forest to a steep fork on the right. Ignore it – it goes nowhere. Continue straight on the main trail for about another half mile. Close to the destination, you’ll begin to hear the rush of the creek and waterfall. Next, you’ll see the creek, at first quite far below you in a ravine. Then, the first glimpse of the falls.

The trail squeezes around a big chunk of concrete – the remnants of Silver King Mine’s power building. A short distance further, an easy scrabble-route climbs up to a dark, damp opening in the cliff face – Silver King’s mining shaft. You can explore the first 25 feet of the shaft – the rest is blocked off by an iron grate. If it wasn’t there, you could continue on .25 miles into the mountain’s basement.

The waterfall itself is impressive. A 120-foot sheet of water crashes into a crystal-clear pool, opalescent rocks glinting below the surface.

This hike makes a great warm-up for a longer adventure along Opal Creek.

Looking out from the mining shaft

Collier Loop Part 3: Glacier Creek to Obsidian Trailhead

Middle Sister from Glacier Creek Meadow

Distance: 5.7 miles

Note: A permit is required for all hiking in camping in the Obsidian Area. You can find more about it here.

A continuation of Collier Loop Parts One and Two

The final stretch of the loop takes you along a refreshing creek, across more lava, and through several miles of mountain hemlock forest. As a bonus, it’s almost all downhill – which is largely appreciated after already hiking 9.4 miles.

I’ll admit that this wasn’t the most exciting part of the loop, or of the Obsidian Area, but it makes for a nice, relatively easy homeward journey.

Glacier Creek

From the charming meadows at the PCT-Glacier Creek junction, head .7 mile down Glacier Creek Trail to its junction with the Obsidian Trail. Going left at this fork would take you back to the PCT to see Obsidian falls. Heading straight/right continues the loop. 

Soon after, you’ll cross White Branch creek, a wide ford so shallow that barely the soles of your boots may get damp in the crossing. 

A lava flow immediately awaits the other side of the creek – and the only real uphill jaunt I remember on this section of the trail. As you descend the other side of the flow, be on the lookout for obsidian mingling in the boulders.

About 3.5 of tree-shaded trail leads to the Obsidian Trailhead. Just before reaching it, however, take a right on the well-marked Scott Trail connector. In .6 miles, the connector joins Scott trail. Head left/straight and it’s .3 miles to the car – the end of a 15.1-mile loop.

For more adventures in the High Cascades, check out my Cascade Crest page.

White Branch Creek

Collier Loop Part 2: Pacific Crest Trail Section Scott Meadow to Glacier Creek

Left to right: North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother from the PCT

Distance: 4.6 miles one-way

Maximum Elevation: 6200 feet

Minimum Elevation: 7200 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1200 feet

A continuation of Collier Loop Part 1

Shortly after beginning this next section of the loop, I passed a fellow hiker along the trail, doing the same hike but in the opposite direction. He said great views were awaiting – in fact, he said his friend had called this section of the PCT one of his favorite parts of the entire 2,650-mile trek.

I would quickly find out why. The trail passes through meadows, forest, a spring, lava planes, and jagged obsidian crevices, to climax on a side trail up Collier Cone’s alpine viewpoint at the foot of the North and Middle Sisters. The spectacular views of some of the central Cascades’ best seemed to never cease on this four and a half-mile stretch of trail. 

Minnie Scott Spring

After turning right onto the PCT from Scott Trail, you’ll head south through the meadow with the North and Middle Sisters dominating your horizon. After leaving the meadow and crossing through a forested section, you’ll reach Minnie Scott Spring about 1.5 miles down the trail. 

The spring lives up to its name. At its deepest, it may be a couple inches. It’s enough to filter water from, though, making it the only reliable water source so far since starting the loop. No other water source exists until you reach Glacier Creek about another three miles further on, so don’t wait to fill up if you’re thirsty. A camping spot or two also might be found close by the spring. 

Another Smeagol picture in the lava

Then the trail heads in earnest into the lava flows. Directly ahead, its red pumice splotched with snow, 7,800-foot Little Brother doesn’t look so little anymore. 

At 1.8 miles from Scott Trail meadows, a massive grey cinder cone rises to the left – Collier Cone. At this point, the PCT veers to the right to skirt the rugged slopes of Little Brother. This will be the eventual route. First, be sure to take a slight left on a smaller side-trail. Its only .3 miles one-way and the views are spectacular. 

It first winds around jagged obsidian crags, then winds through Collier Crater, a moonscape of alpine flowers and pumice at the base of the cinder cone. It climbs the crater wall, a small lava tube off to

Collier Crater

the right, to reach the viewpoint’s crest. North Sister reaches up jagged to the front left. Middle rises up behind Collier Glacier, a huge chunk of ice once known as Oregon’s largest glacier. To the right is Little Brothers, from this view just as impressive as his bigger siblings. Directly below is a murky lake, the rock-mixed meltwater of Collier Glacier.

After you’ve had your fill of the viewpoint, retrace your steps and continue down the PCT for a final couple miles. 

It continues through the lava, then drops down in a series of tight switchbacks to enter forest again. Finally, it opens in meadow to the sound of running water as you reach the Glacier Creek intersection. A beautiful, meadow-framed view of Middle Sister awaits you at the turnoff.

Part three of the loop can be found here.

For more High Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Crest page.

North Sister and Middle Sister from the Collier  Crater viewpoint

Collier Loop Part 1: Scott Trail and 4-In-1 Cone

North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother from Four-In-One Cone

Distance: 4.8 miles one way

Maximum Elevation: 6270 feet

Minimum Elevation: 4760 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1600 feet

Directions: From McKenzie Bridge, head east on Highway 126. Turn right onto Highway 242/Old McKenzie Pass. Between mileposts 71 and 72, turn left at the sign for Scott Lake. Take an immediate right into the Scott Trail parking area. 

When summer weather opens the gates to the winding Highway 242, drivers can access a moonscape of high-altitude lava fields and cinder cones under the shadow of the majestic Three Sisters. Views from the top of the pass are incredible, but heading out on foot into its midst is even better. 

North and Middle Sister from lava fields

Scott Trail gets you into the thick of it. Named after Captain Felix Scott who blazed it as a wagon route 153 years ago, it meanders under mountain hemlock forests, climbs over a jagged lava flow, and ends in a beautiful blue lupine meadow as it junctions with the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Turning right (south) onto the PCT takes you on a 15-mile loop to cover some of the coolest country in the northwest region of the Three Sisters Wilderness. 

Before getting there, however, don’t miss Four-In-One Cone, where a .8-mile side-trip heads up to four craters stuck together by a long, cinder ridge yielding views of the all the Cascade peaks from the Middle Sister in the south to Mount Hood in the North. 

Front left to back right: Belknap Crater (Little Beltknap is the dark mound to its right), Mount Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson. Mount hood is the small white tip just to the right of Jefferson. It's much easier to see in person.

The trail begins at the Scott Lake trailhead. It heads east, crosses the highway, and continues on to a junction .3 miles from the car. The left trail continues the adventure. Going right is a connector trail to the Obsidian Trailhead (Part 3 of Collier Loop, coming soon). Don’t pass up the tiny wild strawberries along the trail in midsummer. They might be smaller than your thumbnail, but a ripe one packs the flavor of a whole crate of the domestic kind. As the elevation increases, mountain blueberries and huckleberries also join the trailside buffet. 

Conks!

In three miles from the car, prepare to cross a river of lava – thankfully frozen. By scrabbling up its craggy chunks of broken surface rock, you may be rewarded in views of the surrounding mountains. Otherwise, hike another mile and a half, crossing a tree island in the middle of the basalt flow and following the flow to cinder fields dotted with trees, and find a rock cairn. To your left will be a mound of charcoal-grey cinders. Here, a trail veers off left towards the mound’s crest. Slog up the dune-like terrain, and find yourself atop Four-In-One Cone.

North Sister, Middle Sister, and Little Brother are the behemoths dominating your southern view. Mount Washington, Three-Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Hood are the peaks visible to the north. 

My brother Smeagol-posing atop a lava crag

After heading back down the cone (classified as such only geologically; geometrically you’d think it more a weird, elongated blob), continue a final .8 mile to the PCT junction; the meadows surrounding yielding a great view of the North and Middle sister. 

Here, a choice is to be made. You can make the trip an out-and-back by just retracing the route back to the car. You can head 6 miles north on the PCT, passing the Matthieu Lakes and Yapoah Crater, to McKenzie Pass. By doing so, you’d probably need a car shuttle to get back to the Scott Trail parking lot. Or, you can head south on the PCT to complete the 17-mile loop, heading down the PCT for three miles to Glacier Creek, then heading west on Glacier Creek 4.8 miles to the Obsidian trailhead and taking the .6-mile connector back to Scott Trail and the car.

The second part of this loop, the Pacific Crest Trail section, can be found here.

For more High Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Crest page here.

The meadows at the Scott-PCT junction

Hemlock Butte

View from the summit. Diamond Peak center, Mount Yoran and its sister peak to the far left

Distance: 1 mile out-and-back

Minimum Elevation: 5330 feet 

Maximum Elevation: 5800 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 470 feet

Directions: From Oakridge, head east on Highway 58 for about 1.5 miles. Turn right at the sign for Hills Creek Dam. You should now be on Forest Service Road 21, known also as Hills Creek Road. In a half mile, continue straight as the road becomes Forest Service Road 23. You’ll be going to the left of the reservoir. In about 19.5 miles is the trail sign on the right for Hemlock Butte. 

This short trail leads to a great view of Diamond Peak, Mount Yoran and the surrounding area. It leaves the road to switchback through a thick forest of mountain hemlock and grand fir. Dense undergrowth and fallen logs crowd out the path in places. Near the summit, the forest opens up to a steep, rocky slope. A short, well-used scrabble route, passing fragile subalpine flowers, ascends the summit block to the 360-degree view.

Rogue River Trail (Illahe to Marial)

Rogue River

Distance: 16 miles one-way

Total Elevation Gain: 1000 feet

Directions: From Gold Beach, follow Jerry Flat Road/545 east along the south side of the Rogue River. Continue straight after 10 miles and the road becomes NF-33. In 24 miles, the spur road to Big Bend trailhead is on the right. 

Hiking above the Rogue

Native iris

The Rogue River Trail follows Southern Oregon’s most famous wild and scenic watershed for nearly 40 miles. The lower half, from the Big Bend Trailhead near Illahe to Marial Trailhead, cuts straight through the Wild Rogue Wilderness. Gorges and waterfalls, meadows and forests, flowers and wildlife, and, of course, ticks and poison oak, await the hiker.

Oaks in early spring

One of the most fascinating qualities about the Rogue River is how much it and the area around it changes with so little change in elevation or other such factors. Parts of the trail cross steep-sloped oak savannah, where ancient gnarled trunks filter the view of the river below. Later, views yield dry forests of madrone and chinkapin, seeming an alien forest to the Pacific Northwest. Then the trail dives into a narrow side-ravine, where western red cedars, sword fern, and think brush remind hikers they’re not as far from the coast as they might think. 

Flora Dell Falls

Waterfalls, such as Flora Dell Falls (four miles from the trailhead) pour down some of the creeks creating these ravines, further enriching the experience. 

With the diversity of the terrain also comes diversity of wildlife. Many species of waterfowl, bald eagles, hawks, kingfishers, osprey, deer, and black bears are but a small sample of the wilderness’ denizens a hiker might likely spot. 

Falls from Inspiration Point

The variety also brings potential hazards to the hiker. Black bears present a hazard to a backpacker’s food cache, and thus food should be tied up in a tree or locked in a bear box (several exist in camping areas throughout the trail). Rattlesnakes sunbathe in the trail’s hot, dry areas during the warm season. Poison oak grows nearly everywhere – in places it could even be considered old growth, with vines thicker than a quarter’s diameter twisting high up into the trees. Ticks lie in ambush in the brush and long grass. Some may carry lime disease. 

Inspiration Point, a couple miles before reaching Marial, one of the more picturesque points of the lower trail. A sheer basalt cliff drops about 100 feet to the water below, and a series of waterfalls cut through the cliff on the opposite side of the canyon. This serves as a great turnaround point for an out and back trip. But for those adventures unwilling unable to turn back, the short hike to Marial and from there the remaining 24 miles of the upper half of the Rogue River trail lies onward.

Mule Creek Canyon near Inspiration Point

Upper Imnaha River

Imnaha Falls

Distance: 7 miles one way

Directions: From Halfway, Oregon, follow Hells Canyon Scenic Byway (Highway 86) east for about 9 miles. Turn Left onto NF-39/North Pine road. Follow the main road for about 23 miles. Turn left at the sign for Imnaha River Campgrounds (NF-3960). Follow the road about 9 more miles to its end at Indian Crossing Campground. The trailhead and day use area is just before a bridge in the campground. Overnight campsites are on the other side of it.

Goldenrod

Perhaps my favorite river that I’ve hiked along, the Imnaha originates on the rugged slopes of the eastern Wallowas and flows down mountain valleys and steep canyonland to the Snake River. The trail headed along its upper length also serves as a gateway into the Eagle Cap, Oregon’s largest wilderness.

The journey begins at Indian Crossing campground, partly shaded by ponderosa pine, and follows the river at a slight distance on a wide, comfortable trail. After passing a pack station and crossing into the wilderness, the trail narrows, becomes rocky, and forsakes the trees for an old burn. Goldenrod, Indian Paintbrush, and other perennials bloom profusely here in midsummer.

Blue Hole

The route soon intersects a .2-mile spur trail to Blue Hole, a calm pool exiting a steep rocky gorge.

Back on the main trail, the brush thickens. In places, the alders, willows, thimbleberries, and other understory, amped up on the extra light provided by the burn, crowd the trail so thoroughly that feet, legs, and arms become invisible in a tangle of green and brown.

The brush thins and then fades altogether on a talus slope, the river beautiful below and the rocks blazing underfoot in midday sun.

Talus slope above Imnaha River

The brush returns as the trail continuously dips up and down to avoid the multitude of cliffs and pinnacles, yielding a vast range of environments – hot barren rock, unburnt forest pockets, meadows, and soggy creek shores.

At one point, the trail crosses a creek that’s been recently dammed by a beaver (or beavers). Young saplings have been gnawed down in the immediate area to build a miniature, though impressive, feat of natural civil engineering. On two sides, a dam of earth and wood rises knee-high, and the middle of the beaver pond reaches approximately six or seven feet deep. Log crossing is the best route across – to both avoid getting excessively muddy and to not intrude on the beavers’ home turf.

Along with the sporadic mountain views far up the valley, perhaps one of the most impressive sights along the trail is Imnaha Falls. One hundred yards down an unmaintained spur path through young pine trees, the river concentrates into a narrow channel and thunders over a five-foot drop, then boils down through a water-polished rock gorge. In late summer, steelhead can be seen jumping the falls (some more successful than others).

Channel below Imnaha Falls

This section of the trail ends at a fork seven miles from Indian Crossing, allowing for further adventuring. The trail to the right follows the North Fork Imnaha River to 8600-foot Tenderfoot Pass. The trail to the left crosses the North Fork (on the only large bridge I’ve seen so far in the entire wilderness, so don’t get used to it) and heads along the South Fork Imnaha River to flat open meadows, beautiful creek gorges, and stunning mountain views. It eventually climbs Frazier Pass, the location of an old mining operation (still privately owned), and drops down to the Frazier lakes.

Other forks of the Imnaha exist and are quite spectacular to explore, but are best discovered by one’s own adventures.

Off-trail adventuring

Divide Lake and Mount Yoran

Mount Yoran rises above Divide Lake

Distance: 8 miles out-and-back

Minimum Elevation: 5330 feet

Maximum Elevation: 6390 feet

Total Elevation Gain: 1200 feet

Directions: From Oakridge, head east on Highway 58 for about 1.5 miles. Turn right at the sign for Hills Creek Dam. You should now be on Forest Service Road 21, known also as Hills Creek Road. In a half mile, continue straight as the road becomes Forest Service Road 23. You’ll be going to the left of the reservoir. In about 19.5 miles, the road (now gravel) will pass a trail sign for Hemlock Butte. Follow the road a couple hundred yards further to a spur road on the left. Here is a loop for parking at the trailhead.

The trail begins in full sun, the product of an old sub-alpine logging. Earlier views of snow-crowned Diamond Peak and brief glimpses of Mount Yoran’s ancient volcanic crags tease of the journey’s destination.

Notch Lake

Soon the trail enters thick mountain hemlock, where currant and beargrass bloom in July and pungent mountain huckleberries fruit in August. In less than one mile, the trail passes picturesque Notch Lake, a great first backpack for families with young children. 

Shortly after, the trail forks – straight heads north for Vivian Lake. Turning right onto the Mount Yoran Trail continues the route to Divide lake. Now the trail steepens as it climbs a ridge. At the crest, views abound. The bulk of Diamond peak towers off ahead to the right, its slopes plummeting to a treed valley below. To the left, Salt Creek Valley cuts through the Western Cascades. The ridges beyond it dip in places just enough to reveal parts of the Three Sisters and Broken Top off to the north. 

The trail passes directly below Mt. Yoran

The trail continues a pattern of following the ridge crest, diving off to the side amongst lupine-covered slopes, and climbing back up again, until it crosses the talus fields of Mount Yoran’s base and slightly dips down to the shores of Divide Lake. 

Blue-green in color, the small lake could seem unremarkable, if it didn’t have three peaks surrounding it. 7100-foot mount

Yoran rises out of its north shore, an unnamed sister peak on its east, and further away to the south Diamond Peak reaches out of the trees. 

Yoran's sister peak

Camping is an option here, at least two hundred feet from the water, though summer weekends often find the lake somewhat crowded. 

For a 1.5-mile round side trip, the trail continues past a couple smaller lakes to a junction with the Pacific Crest Trail and, just before it, a reward of an impressive view of the eastern side of Diamond Peak Wilderness. Mount Yoran and its sister peak can also be climbed from Divide Lake, in theory, though the route is somewhat sketchy. My friend has done it. I have not.

For more High Cascade adventures, check out my Cascade Crest page.

Diamond Peak