Silent Creek Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Silent Creek Trailhead
- Ending Point: Mount Thielsen View
- Hike Type: In and out
- Distance: 2.0 miles
- Elevation gain: 85 feet
- High Point: 5,270 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: Late spring to mid-fall
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
The walk along meandering Silent Creek is a lush, quiet retreat from the bustling shores of Diamond Lake and its busy campgrounds. The streamside wildflowers and clear shallow waters of the creek offer a rare picture of a pristine, high elevation bottomland creek before it flows into Diamond Lake at its marshy southern shore. (The mouth of Silent Creek is one of Diamond Lake’s prime fishing areas.) Take note that mosquitoes are very active here until mid-summer!
Head in on the Silent Creek Trail #1479. The trail follows a corridor through a lodgepole pine forest with a grouseberry carpet. Silent Creek flows lazily to your left. Marsh-marigold, purpleflower honeysuckle, elephants-head lousewort, rangers buttons, and western coneflower bloom on the creek verges, while monkey flower populates the exposed logs lying directly in the stream. Cross a boardwalk and then a small side creek before the trail leaves the boggy bottomland and leaps over a hump forested with mountain hemlock. Hike over more footbridges in lush meadows and cut across a looping meander in the stream. The trail then traverses along a dry lodgepole hillside. The traffic along Highway 230, somewhere across the creek, can be heard.
The path veers in above a gushing spring that issues forth a very short tributary of Silent Creek. Then you’ll reach a junction with a ski trail, where you can stay right to hike into a heavily thinned stand of lodgepole pine which offers a view to Mount Thielsen. The trail continues through the ugly thinned woodland to a road and then the lower trailhead for Mount Bailey, but it’s best to turn around here to enjoy the quiet meanders of Silent Creek once more.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Share trail with cyclists
- Mosquitoes are a pestilence from spring to mid-summer
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Boulder Creek Wilderness, Rogue-Umpqua Divide Wilderness, Mount Thielsen Wilderness, Oregon Cascades Recreation Area
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Diamond Lake Ranger District
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Umpqua National Forest
- Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Land of Umpqua
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Silent Creek Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Silent Creek Hike
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Southern Oregon & Northern California by William L. Sullivan
- Oregon’s Best Wildflower Hikes: Southwest Region by Elizabeth L. Horn
- Hiking Central Oregon & Beyond by Virginia Meissner
More Links
- Silent Creek Trail #1479 (USFS)
- Silent Creek Snowshoe Trail (All Trails)
- Diamond Lake-Silent Creek Trail (Rob Saunders)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)