Tryon Creek Ranch Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Pittsburg Landing Trailhead
- Ending point: Tryon Creek Ranch
- Hike type: Lollipop loop with spur
- Distance: 22.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 6800 feet
- High point: 3,250 feet
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Seasons: Mid-spring into fall
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: No
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Hike Description
Some places in the Oregon’s Hells Canyon are so remote, it takes some creative organization to reach them if you don’t have time for a week-long backpack. This hike uses a section of Oregon’s Snake River Trail to make a loop with a couple of other trails and reach the homestead at Tryon Creek Ranch. However, the most convenient access is from Pittsburg Landing on the Idaho side of the river, and that requires some advance planning (see the Pittsburg Landing Trailhead page for details). There’s some new signage in this area, but there are also creek fords and sections of trail that are quite indistinct. In the springtime, all named creeks should be flowing. Poison ivy abounds in areas close to the Snake River and in ravines and creek crossings. Bring a GPS and compass, and pay close attention to the terrain, orienting yourself constantly.
The section of the Oregon Snake River Trail on this route was maintained in 2021. Without regular maintenance, some spots would be difficult to pass, especially in ravines and creek crossings.
After crossing the Snake River, you’ll arrive at Pittsburg Bar on the Oregon side, where there is a Forest Service administrative station with buildings and an antenna. You’ll be heading downriver on the Snake River Trail. After coming up the boat ramp trail, shortly before the first building, look for a sign on the right indicating where the trail is. Go right (northwest) on the trail. As you rise, you’ll get views from the river bluff across to the car camp at Pittsburg Landing.
The trail traverses bunchgrass slopes at about the 1600-foot level before entering the lovely Pleasant Valley Creek drainage, where balsamroot adds colorful splashes to the grassland in spring. The area of the creek crossing is thicketed, but recent trail maintenance allows for good passage. Then you’re in for a thousand-foot ascent up a ridge where a new sign at the junction with the High Trail #1751 greets you. The trail keeps at about the 2,600-foot level on a wide open slope now, passing in and out of V-shaped valleys, including those of Davis Creek and McCarty Creek. From McCarty Creek, the path ascends a draw 500 feet to the high point on the Snake River Trail at 3,100 feet.
To your right on this ridge is a grassy knob, Peak 3249. It’s only a 150-foot ascent from here and well worth the effort for the views. You can see up to Somers Point and also the vicinity of Lord Flat. The Snake River is partially visible below, and the snow-capped peaks of the Seven Devils Mountains in Idaho are to the southeast.
Coming down from the Peak 3249 ridge, you’ll reach the junction with the Tryon Bench Trail #1769. You’ll be returning by this trail, so head right down into the Somers Creek drainage with the grassy cone of Englishman Hill looming ahead. When you arrive at Somers Creek, be aware that you will have to make the first of three crossings. All must be forded in the spring and might be knee-deep, so be prepared! The crossings are close enough to each other that it may be worth hiking in your water crossing footwear until the last one. It’s only 120 yards before you recross the creek near the confluence with Hog Creek. You’ll hike downstream about 500 yards to reach the final ford. The route then follows a cleared alleyway through a thicket of poison ivy and reaches the Snake River at a grassy flat and great camp spot above the Somers Creek Rapids.
From the camp bench, cliffs force the Snake River Trail to head up about 150 feet before returning to river level at Camp Creek. There’s also a nice camp spot here. The Indians called this place Wis-pei-kas-poo-hol, and the Tryon brothers kept a winter range sheep camp on this bench in the 1890s. Here, you’ll also find the junction with the Cow Creek Trail #1699, which you’re going to follow up to Tryon Creek Ranch. The trail is actually an old road bed, in decent condition and following a moderate grade. The route follows Camp Creek for about ¾ of a mile, and then winds up a ridge to meet the signed cairn that marks the junction with the Tryon Bench Trail, 1.6 miles from the river. This is the other end of the loop portion of the hike, but first keep right on the Cow Creek Trail.
From the junction, it’s a little over a mile to the Tryon Creek Ranch. You’ll follow a verdant, grassy bench to enter only one gully, where you pass the unmarked junction with the Lone Pine Bench Trail. Then you’ll pass the cairn with the sign for the Lookout Trail, which leads north, and enter the area of the Tryon Creek Ranch. Here, there’s a two-story ranch house with a porch, an outhouse, and a couple of outbuildings. There’s a large shed across Tryon Creek. You will also see some rusting farm equipment and a piped spring. You can camp anywhere in the vicinity, but the house is locked although it is sometimes used by the Forest Service and other authorized parties. The two brothers, Nate and Jim Tryon, homesteaded here in the late 19th century and used the creek to irrigate their hay crop.
To complete the lollipop loop, go back along the Cow Creek Trail to the junction with the Tryon Bench Trail. The latter trail is less maintained but can be followed with attention. After dropping to cross Camp Creek, where you will be wading through thickets, the trail rises and traverses the open slope to Hog Creek, another brushy bottom. From Hog Creek, the trail heads in and out of gullies, including Dry Gulch and Thorny Creek. Three miles from the Cow Creek junction, you’ll arrive at Somers Ranch, an area now overgrown with thickets with few visible remnants from Frank Somers’ homestead days. The Somers Creek Trail once led from here up to Somers Point, but that trail is now totally overgrown.
Cross Somers Creek (in spring another ford) and come, in a quarter of a mile, to the Snake River-Tryon Bench Trail Junction. Hang a right here to follow the Snake River Trail six miles back to Pittsburg Bar and your appointment with your boatman.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Wilderness rules apply
- Arrange boat crossing of Snake River in advance
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and Wilderness
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Tryon Creek Ranch Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Tryon Creek Ranch Hike
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- Hiking Hell’s Canyon and Idaho’s Seven Devils Mountains by Fred Barstad
- Backpacking Oregon by Douglas Lorain; revised by Becky Ohlsen
More Links
- Snake River Trail #1726 (USFS)
- Pittsburg Landing Boat Launch (USFS)
- Hells Canyon Recreation Collaborative
- "Senior FFA students take dream trek into Hells Canyon" (The Observer)
- Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Comprehensive Management Plan (USFS)
- Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (USFS)