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| Hiking | 10.47 Miles |
381 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.47 Miles | 3 Hrs 45 Mns | | 2.79 mph |
| 381 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Belated post. We were in La Pine Oregon for three days visiting family, so I tried to make the most of the early mornings, visiting trails.  Little frustrating in that I wasn’t familiar with the roads or the trails in the area and didn’t really have a game plan on where to hike. I ended up settling on Benham Falls, primarily because Siri could get me directions to the Benham Falls East TH. I’m not sure who manages this system (Oregon State Parks?), but a day use pass is required to park at this TH. This can be purchased on site. Also, if you have the America the Beautiful card that would work as well. Got to the TH a little before 6am. Enough parking for up to 20 cars. The trailhead had a bathroom, picnic tables and a boat ramp. No drinking fountains. Had the place to myself.  Very windy that morning. I had a tree limb come down while I was checking out the amenities. Luckily, it wasn’t where I parked the rental. I counted 4 trails that left from this TH. Two were unsigned, one was the Old Mill Interpretive Trail and the other was the Deschutes River Trail 2.1. As was par for the course, the on site trail information was severely lacking. (In hiking several Oregon trail systems, I have come to the conclusion that the state does not know how to put forth comprehensive trail maps on location). The Deschutes Trail System was a mixed bag. It did have trail signs with the distances between destinations and, I eventually came upon maps of the area. However, the trail markers, identifying the trails en route could have been better.
The trail starts off paralleling the Deschutes River heading east. The river is wide and placid at this point. In .14 miles the trail reaches a bridge and trail junctures. The Deschutes Trail crosses the bridge and becomes a 10ft wide smooth path. Around .65 miles you start to hear the sound of rapids. A wooden railing has been built in an attempt to separate the wide trail from the river. Probably as much for safety as to preserve the forest. That being said, there was a solid single trail on the other side of the railing as hikers try to glimpse the river. There are quite a few trees between the single path and the river so views are still limited. At about .74 miles there is a designated pathway that takes you to a nice viewing platform to see Benham Falls. For a desert dweller it was quite impressive, both in its intensity and the drop.
One of the nice things about this trail is that it has multiple TH. The Benham Falls viewing area looked to be a TH accessible by car. I’m not sure how to get to FR 4120 or if it was even open for traffic but it looked like it got regular use. There looked to be limited parking, but there were bathrooms and picnic tables at this location. The trail “touched” this parking area before descending down several railed switchbacks. This was probably the most elevation gained/lost on the trail. The park had created a bike path (to keep hikers and bikers separate) that reconnected to the trail immediately after the hill. One of the interesting features about this area was the distinction between the east and west side of the river. On the east side you have a rocky lava field with no vegetation and then on the west you have forested hills. Quite the contrast!
The trail does a decent job of staying close to the river, but between 1.70and 2.40 the trail pulls away from the water and you become surrounded by pine trees and a fairly open forest floor, except towards the river where the brush was thick. Even though you couldn’t see the river, you could still hear it. At around 2.40 the trail reaches another day use area/TH, (Slough TH). There was actually a car at this TH, so I know FR 4120 was open to at least this location. Once again there were bathroom, picnic tables and a boat ramp at this site. The trail cuts north through this open area and picks up on the other side. This crossing is not signed so you need to be looking for the track. On the way back I realized that there were two trails leading to the north. I left on one and returned on a different one. It turns out, one was a use trail and the other was the actual trail. Signage would have been nice. 
Once the trail leaves the Slough TH it leaves the river again and swings wide, circumnavigating a marsh like lake. The only wildlife I saw on this hike were the two cranes enjoying the lake. Around 3.1 miles the trail reconnects to the river and then for the next mile will play hide and seek with it. There were some minor ups and downs along the way, but nothing taxing. At 3.75 another river merges with the Deschutes and a vast marshland opens up to the west. For the next .3 miles the trail is very flat, wide and smooth crossing a couple of bridges allowing streams to trickle into the open slough. A little over 4 miles the trail reaches the next day use/TH (Ryan’s Ranch, which is also the spot for Dillon Falls). Same as the previous trailhead, this TH had bathrooms, picnic tables and trail confusion as unsigned trails continue north from this site. With some frustration, this ended up being my turn around spot, but before I turned around I wanted to see Dillon Falls. The trail taking me into this TH was a 4ft wide gravel path. There were several obvious, but unsigned trails that took off from this path that were not the Deschutes River Trail. I followed both of these briefly before determining that neither were the Deschutes River Trail. It was only by hugging the river and following car path that I was able to pick up the trail as it exited to the north of this site/picnic area. Within several hundred yards the trail brought me to Dillon Falls. A second set of falls, just as intense though not as dramatic as Benham.
I would have loved to continue along the trail, but the day was marching on and this was a family vacation. Very nice trail with some great views. Easy to follow, except ironically, as the trail left the trailheads. Part of the problem was that they have trails designated for bikers and separate trails for hikers. However, these trails have yet to be signed. The rule of thumb seems to be that the hiker trails are closer to the river. I imagine these trails will be signed eventually. No wildlife except for the cranes. I’ve been very fortunate on most of my Oregon hikes, seeing almost no one on the trails and able to enjoy the sights at my leisure. Saw 4 hikers and 1 biker today. |
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