Big surprise: It’s been raining in Oregon.
We went hiking on Saturday and got really wet. I, a woman who never leaves the house without checking the weather, checked the forecast for Opal Creek Wilderness and saw that it should be snowing during our hike. Apparently we weren’t hiking at quite the altitude of the weather sensor, because it was 30-something degrees and raining on our hike. Eric and I were both dressed for snow. Megan and Jordan were a bit better prepared, but we all got soaked. Turns out my winter gear is not at all waterproof.
Anywho, we drove about 2.5 hours to the Opal Creek Trail, which is a rough, pot-hole-filled drive once you get off the main roads. Jordan was a trooper and drove the Subaru like a boss.
The hike starts at a locked gate (where you pay $5 to hike for the day if you’ve forgotten your Northwest Wilderness Pass, like we did), and follows an old logging road. We crossed a 60-foot-high bridge over Gold Creek near the beginning of the hike, offering gorgeous views of the turquoise water below.
About 2 miles in, there’s also some rusty machinery left from the mill that closed after two of the mill’s lumber trucks fell off the cliffs. Yikes.
We turned right at the old barn and followed the trail down to Sawmill Falls, which was gorgeous.
At this point, we were pretty cold and wet, so we turned back to complete a 4-mile hike. Sometime, I’d love to go back and finish the 7-mile trail that goes to Opal Pool. But I’ll need to invest in some better rain gear first…
We followed up our hike with some delicious apple-gouda-walnut pizza at Pizza Research Institute in Eugene. Yum.
Big thanks to the Bloems for hiking with us and taking great iPhone photos that turned out way better than my poor, wet Nikon’s shots.
-Ally
allthoughtswork says
Lovely pics. Still want to do that one. Ironically, I came within a few feet of doing it one year, but missed.
We took the wrong way at a Y in the road and ended up hiking eight miles round trip up a different road nearby. It still had some great falls but a few in our party (who wouldn’t listen when I said “No jeans!”) got soaked to the bone without ever seeing the pale blue hues of Opal Creek. No more large group hikes for me.
I’m going back on a weekday in late fall when it’s dry, colorful, and all the children are safely stored in classrooms. Your pics have inspired me to rekindle that goal.