Opal Creek 1 November 2014

Opal Creek is an old growth forest with beautiful blue pools and little waterfalls.  The entire area is very popular - you may even stay the night in a cabin at Jawbone Flats!  In the summer lots of people swim in the pools.  Fall and winter bring cooler temperatures and fewer visitors, but the lot was still full of cars when I arrived at 11:30a.  The trail was pretty empty though, probably because a lot of it was underwater.  I was thanking God for my waterproof boots.  :-)  I used this opportunity to experiment with some long exposure photography.

the trail begins on a road, but a pretty one!

the trail is a "creek" too

the forest is very pretty here

Silver Falls State Park 24 Oct 2014

Daylight and rain-free hiking were at a premium this week.  So, today's hike was a quick trip to Silver Falls to race around the loop (8 mi in 3.5 hr with lots of picture taking) before it started raining.  NOAA said 11a, and at about that time I started feeling the occasional droplet.  But it didn't really get going until I was safely back in the car.  Photos are dark, sun was blocked by thick cloud cover - but it was still a very pretty day.  The falls were very full due to recent rains.

woods on the Rim Trail

South Falls

Lower South Falls

Lower North Falls

Middle North Falls

Middle North Falls

Upper North Falls

raindrop

Scott Mountain and Loop 17 October 2014

Rain greeted us this morning, but the weather map showed it was NOT raining at our planned destination, Scott Mountain in the Three Sisters area.  We were able to reach the top of Scott and complete half the hike before it began to sprinkle.  It was beautiful!  Love the clouds and new snow on the mountains.  We were blessed to have sun on the little lakes and a view of the mountains.  10 miles, 1300 ft gain

a pond near the trail

one of the Tenas Lakes

one of several meadows

snow on Scott Mtn

from the summit of Scott...the Three Sisters and Broken Top

Mt Jefferson in the spotlight

lunch spot

changing light

many mushrooms but not the variety of last year's crop

raindrops

Iron Mountain 10 Oct 2014

Wanting something easy and familiar, I headed to Iron Mountain on a sunny fall day, hoping to enjoy some nice color.  The woods and meadows were very dry and the colors were not as pronounced as previous years, but it was still a very pretty day.  When I got up to the summit of Iron Mountain I could see that there was another fire to the southeast but the wind was blowing the smoke away from me.  On the way back, I stopped at the Hackleman Old Growth forest trail to do the little 1.2 mile loop.  Colors were more vibrant there because a little creek ran through the area, keeping everything nice and damp.
Total hike mileage for today - 7.8 with about 1800 ft gain.

Iron Mtn and spent coneflowers

the demise of vanilla leaf

huckleberry near the summit

lunch spot

beautiful meadow

old growth

colorful bunchberry

McKenzie River 3 Oct 2014

Tamolitch Pool was our first stop on the day's journey along the McKenzie River.  The air was quite crisp when we arrived around 10:30a but it warmed up quite a bit later in the day.  We enjoyed the pool to ourselves as we hiked over to the dry falls for our lunch. Soon many bikers also stopped for lunch - quite a crowd of them!  We had to "pull over" to the side a lot to let them by.  We headed over to Sahalie and Koosah falls for the short walk to both viewpoints before heading home.  On the way we stopped at Clear Lake to check out the fall color progress, but it looks like it needs another 2 weeks...vine maples are just beginning to turn.

Tamolitch Pool

Lunch spot on the dry falls

Koosah falls