Latourell Falls, Jan 7th

Some of you may know that, after the Eagle Creek fire this past summer, I got engaged with Trailkeepers of Oregon. This organization does trail stewardship and advocacy. With them I’ve gone on several work parties ranging from cleaning an existing trail to creating a new trail were there’s none. Since some of the activities also involved maintenance, there was a need to scout a couple of trails on the Gorge to identify needed work. When I saw that, I quickly signed up. The first trail I scouted was this short loop in Latourell Falls. I must confess that I had never done this loop before and part of it is because I tend to put aside trails that are too short as it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me to spend more time driving than hiking. I must also say I was pleasantly surprised with this loop. It’s indeed short and doesn’t have a lot of elevation gain, but it goes by a couple of pretty impressive waterfalls. Most of the elevation gain happens in the first section as you quickly start climbing towards the upper fall. You can see the lower fall from the trail but soon you leave it behind. The trail meanders thru the forest always close enough to the creek as you get deeper into the canyon. Finally, the trail ends at the upper waterfall which is a sight ion its own.

From here, you cross to the other side of the canyon and the trail eventually takes you away from it, but it gives you some views of the Gorge. I found that a lot of people don’t take this route as there’s a foot path and log crossing that makes an even shorter lollipop loop just covering both falls, so I did find a bit of solitude on my way down. What I liked about this route though is you almost forget you still have the lower falls to visit and they do come at you quickly after a turn. The lower falls is far more impressive than the upper fall as the water plummets down a basalt formation. When I went by the wind was blowing from the falls and it was a bit rainy so taking a good picture was a bit of a challenge but in the end, I managed.
As far as the scouting report, I did find several minor drainage issues that need to be fixed plus one tree that fell on the trail blocking a double switchback and a root ball that’s resting on the side of the trail. I’m not sure when but I believe we will be fixing all these in the next couple of months.

You can see the rest of the pictures here

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