Portland Hikers Archive

Dry Creek Falls (It's not so dry after all)

Jeff Statt and I headed out the Cascade Locks yesterday with a plan to go check out Dry Creek Falls. Neither of us had been there, but it sounded like the perfect hike for me to check out my knee and give it a little test. The trail starts from the parking lot next to the Bridge of the Gods and immediately hooks up to the PCT. You spend a brief period of time on a couple of gravel roads, but the end result is well worth it.

We only saw 2 other hikers heading out as we were heading in. They weren't very talkative but looked to be finishing a portion of the PCT. We stumbled across a fire pit or two along the way; they looked more like a small party zone than a camp site. We finally got to the old gravel road that heads South to the falls itself and the sound changed considerably. Between the noise of the creek and the crashing of the waterfall we knew we were almost there.

Once we got to the falls we were a little surprised to not see a single person there and never did during the entire remains of the hike. It was a glorious place to stop and try out my new camera. It had been somewhat warm before we got there, but as usual the falls produced its own weather. The cooling breeze coming off the base of the falls was very welcome.

As I moved around taking pictures from various angles I heard some rock falling not far behind me. I looked up the steep "trail" and saw nothing except for the random rock making its way to the bottom of the steep hill. I looked around for Statt wondering where he had gone and couldn't see him anywhere. I finally realized that he must be the reason for the falling rocks. Sure enough, Jeff had scrambled way up this very steep hill to get a different view of the waterfall. There was no way I was going to head up there, so I decided to stay at the bottom taking more photos and a few of him on his way down.

If you've never been there it's well worth the short hike to get to a little known waterfall.

The trail is rated as moderate with an out-and-back length of 4.4 miles with a 580' elevation gain. Lat: 45.6622 / Long -121.8968

The beginning of the trail

Dry Creek Falls

Jeff Statt making his own trail

Not so dry Dry Creek

Re: Dry Creek Falls (It's not so dry afterall)

Couple of photos to add to the mix:

Some people may not be aware that there's this trailhead parking lot just near the toll both to the Bridge of the Gods.  This is where we parked at started our short trek yesterday.

Parking lot at the top of the Oregon PCT, near Bridge of the Gods

...passed by it a million times on the way to Charburger!

We were both amused by the spray painted PCT sign as you pass under the I84 bridge

There was this old water regulating equipment in front of the falls.  This definitely added some character to the scene

Jeff Black - "the picture takin dude"