Kalama Falls via Road 7500 Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Kalama Falls Trailhead
- End point: Kalama Falls
- Hike type: In and out with small loop
- Distance: 4.6 miles
- Elevation gain: 350 feet
- High Point: 1,635 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: Spring into fall
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
The shorter and more popular way to get to Kalama Falls is via a gated gravel road through the Merrill Lake Wildlife Area (Discover Pass required). In 2019, the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife completed the transfer of these 1,453 acres of Weyerhaeuser land to the public domain. The area now protects a stretch of the Kalama River, a few impressive old-growth trees near Kalama Falls, important elk habitat, and a distinctive lava bed. You’ll take up trails in the last part of this hike, but you can also ride a bike on the road section. For a longer trail hike to Kalama Falls, see the Kalama Waterfalls Hike.
Pass around the gate and begin hiking down Weyerhaeuser’s former Road 7500. At a road junction, there’s a kiosk that displays information about the Merrill Lake Wildlife Area. Continue hiking down the main road, with lodgepole pine forest on either side. Soon a replanted clearcut appears on the left. If you look back, you’ll see the western slopes of Cinnamon Ridge. Before the road dips a little more steeply, you’ll enter a more varied forest of Douglas-fir and western hemlock with a few cedars and western white pines. A rusting logging cable lies alongside the track. Where the road flattens out, you’ll see the Kalama Falls Trail crossing it from right to left. It’s more interesting to take the trail, but if you continue on the road, it makes a 90-degree bend to the left. At the bend, you can take a user trail down a low bluff to an alder flat and the Kalama River.
The trail takes you into a lush sword fern and moss-carpeted Douglas-fir forest. Then you’ll skirt a 1,200-year-old lava flow, the same flow which dammed Merrill Lake. (Scrambling around this jumbled lava expanse will reveal tree wells and small lava tubes.) Large stumps attest to the massive trees that once flourished here. The trail winds around to reach an abandoned road bed, where you go right to follow the route. (Heading left will take you close to the exit of gushing Merrill Lake Creek, the outflow from Merrill Lake, where it appears from under the lava flow.) When you reach Road 7500 again, walk left about 40 yards to a log pile and sign that reads “Kalama Falls Trail.” You’ll see a road bridge over Merrill Lake Creek to your left.
At first you’re in previously logged forest, but soon you’ll begin to notice some impressive old-growth Douglas-firs and even a few big cedars. A spur right takes you to a view of the river. After you pass through a log cutting, go right to visit a couple of pretty drops and pools above the lip of Kalama Falls. Just past a massive Douglas-fir, you’ll get your first full view of the waterfall as it thunders into its amphitheater. A narrow, rooty trail leads down a bluff through sword ferns to reach the river bank, where you can scramble about to get views of Kalama Falls and the gaping grotto to its right. The waterfall has one main plunge, but when river levels are high two more pretty streams appear on the right.
The more adventurous can continue along the river bank following a brushy trail to the confluence of Merrill Lake Creek with the Kalama River. The creek runs impressively in the spring but, after lake levels drop in the summer, it is bone dry. A big log forms a bridge over the creek. At the other end, go right to get a view up the river to Kalama Falls. Go left for a steep scramble up the bank (there are ropes to assist). You’ll soon pass a huge 10-foot diameter Douglas-fir and then reach Road 7500. Go left and hike a third of a mile, crossing the road bridge over Merrill Lake Creek, to pick up the Kalama Falls Trail on your right – or just keep following the road - and return to the trailhead on FR 81.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Discover Pass required
- Information kiosk
- No camping in the wildlife area
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Kalama Falls via Road 7500 Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Kalama Falls via Road 7500 Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- Merrill Lake Conservation Area – Kalama River Falls (Washington Trails Association)
- Merrill Lake Wildlife Area Unit (Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife)
- Kalama Falls Trail in Cougar Washington (Gloria’s Vlogs)
- Kalama Falls Hike (DJFalls)
- Kalama Falls Trail (All Trails)
- Kalama Falls (A Waterfall Lover’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest)
- Kalama River Falls (LocationsHub)
- Kalama Falls (World Waterfall Database)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)