Oregon Hikers

Out for another adventure this weekend my girlfriend and I headed to the coast Friday after work. The only good thing about starting work at 3am is that after an 8 hour shift I was at the coast by 3pm the same day. First stop was Youngs River Falls. A nice little waterfall right off the road nothing to epic but that was just a bonus to what we had planned for Saturday. So we got up early Saturday and headed back towards Portland with a list of waterfalls to see. First stop was Barrier Falls on Gnat Creek, easy little trail from the fish hatchery to the falls. Next stop was one that I really wanted to see....Gnat Creek Falls. I planned this trip out in my old map book with notes from Brian Edwards trip reports (Huge thank you to Brian), not very easy to find without gps or good navigation skills. Luckily I ended up driving right to where I need to be, parked and headed towards the river. My girlfriend is always amazed on how I manage to find places without gps. The closer we got the louder it was...I was pretty excited. After making our way down stream a bit from the canyon rim we made our way down toward the base of the falls. Going down was pretty steep but totally worth it. Gnat Creek Falls. The falls were really impressive...even this little guy was checking them out. So after taking in the scenery the question was should we bushwhack downstream to see the middle falls? It was still early in the day so a swacking we went. Not the easiest trek, lots of devils club and a really steep canyon. The terrain was not the easiest to maneuver but my girlfriend was right there the whole way. What a trooper. Finally we made our way down to the middle falls.....really beautiful and totally worth it. We had the best view of the waterfall from out on this nursery log like Brian Edwards said in his report. There is another lower fall just down stream from the log so we made our way down to grab a few pictures before the long climb out of the canyon. The climb out was really hard but it wasn't the end of our day. It was time for lunch when we got back to the car and we still had a lot more to see. After lunch we drove back to hwy 30 and crossed strait across from Shingle Mill Rd. that we were on to Cliffton Rd. and headed north toward what used to be Bradwood. Hunt Creek flows right along side the road and I read there was supposed to be a waterfall along it near the town. I couldn't find much online but figured it was worth a look since we were out this way. Bingo...we found Hunt Creek Falls right off the road where I thought it might be. Damn it was really steep going down, this wasn't going to be fun getting back up after we just did Gnat Creek. Oh well down we went.....Hunt Creek Falls. Cool little waterfall about 25-30 feet....sadly no one appreciates it for what it is. The town of Bradwood is gone but they didn't care much for this waterfall either. There was a lot of old garbage thrown from the road including a stove and a couple of refrigerators.
There was even an old saw half buried in the mud that has been there a really long time. So after climbing out from the dumps we were off to see more waterfalls. I had done some research on a waterfall up Plympton Creek just south of Westport but it would be a long bushwhack. Gnat Creek took a little more time than I thought so Plympton will have to wait for another day. But we still had time to finish the rest of the falls on my list. Next stop was Beaver Falls....we even got a little rainbow. After Beaver Falls we stopped at the upper falls for a few pictures and then off to Little Jack Falls. Hiking down the old hwy 30 is really neat with some of the old rock work intact. Little Jack Falls isn't that big of a waterfall but it must have some heavy flowing during the winter. The old hwy is washed out at the base of the falls. My old car parked at the end of the old road. We jumped back in the car and headed back down the highway to go see Jack Falls. Last year we hiked that whole section of bypassed old highway and would have done it today but we were loosing light. So we got to Jack Falls from the south. Once there and I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to scramble up to the bottom of the falls for a better view. Up we went.....Jack Falls. So after a long day of waterfalls we did manage to get to Bonnie Falls just as it got dark. Too dark for any really good pictures but we still made it. It was a good day to see waterfalls.

Great job guys. It's awesome seeing another photo of the Middle falls on Gnat Creek. Was the gate open again? That saves a ton of walking. Until now I'd never seen a photo of Hunt Creek Falls. Pretty nice actually. Worth a stop. You guys just might see 365 falls this year!

super cool! where do you park to get to the old section of HWY 30?

Yes the gate was open, thankfully. Hunt Creek is really easy to get to, just sad that there is so much garbage down there. Don't understand why they don't put in a trail. *shrugs* Perhaps they had too many issues with people trashing the place.

Unfortunately for me I'm trying to update our blog and I didn't see this trip report. So if anyone is interested in seeing another perspective got my trip report up on the blog now.