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| Hiking | 8.50 Miles |
1,200 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.50 Miles | 3 Hrs 39 Mns | | 2.33 mph |
| 1,200 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I'd never been to this one before, and with a real heat-wave swinging through the PNW, we set out for an early start before the afternoon sun warmed things up too much. (LOL, these people don't know what hot is!)
Just to keep everybody on their toes, the park calls this the Trail of Ten Falls, but there is no such trail. The "loop" consists of the two primary named trails: "Rim Trail" and "Canyon Trail".
We opted for a counterclockwise loop that starts with the Rim Trail first, a pleasantly forested path that parallels the paved highway 214 used to access the park.
The names of trails, creeks, and waterfalls here mimic those you might find on HAZ for Mogollon Rim canyons. A lot of ordinal directions sprinkled with uppers and lowers, middles, forks and branches. Needless to say, like those here, many don't follow any common logic.
So as you reach the eastern part of the loop, the names indicate you are north. Then you can go a short distance southeast to get to upper north. This would be our first waterfall on the day, since Winter Falls is appropriately named and doesn't flow in summer.
From Upper North we headed downhill via the Canyon Trail, where we passed North Falls, which is west of Upper North. You might think Middle North would be next, but the Twins would have none of that kind of shenaniganry!
Heading west, we did finally reach Middle North, before turning north and passing by Drake and Double Falls. Twin and Double are unrelated, so don't make that mistake!
Next up, we finally dropped to Lower North before continuing even lower toward the confluence where the north and south forks prong into the main fork. At this point we turned southward and made the upstream climb to Lower South. This one has some steep switchbacks to gain the elevation from lower to whatever the next level is.
Nearing the end of the loop, we were treated to South Falls (had we missed a Middle South?), a picturesque tall ribbon that sees the most visitation in the park due to its convenient location a short walk from the gift shop and cafe.
On the final climb, we took a side spur to Frenchie Falls, which was barely trickling today.
Names and humor aside, this is absolutely a great "bang-for-the-buck" kind of hike. Oh, sure, it's popular, but there's a reason why. If you're anywhere nearby, put it on your list.
I think we saw 8 real waterfalls ranging from 27 to 177 feet in height, which is a treat for a desert-dweller like me. Three additional falls were located, but not flowing.
We stopped at the Benedictine Brewery in Mt. Angel for post-hike refreshment. Heavy on Belgian styles, it's run by real monks on the property of a functioning monastery. |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
