Oregon Hikers

There's a huge rockslide on the Tamanawas Falls Trail right before the falls. The boulders that have fallen over the trail are large, numerous and difficult to navigate. You can make it through, but it's dangerous.
So yeah, the trail needs to be closed before somebody gets seriously hurt trying to climb over the boulders.

There were several injuries and SAR scenarios in that same area last winter due to the snow and ice on the trail. It's too bad about the rockslide, as the trail through there was pretty impressive from a labor and construction standpoint, even though it is still the most difficult part of the trail. Thanks for the update.

Was up there today. It's a big slide, alright. No official signage at the trailhead about it. There is something up at the forest service website.

It's pretty disappointing to me that in a week the Forest Service can't manage to get a temporary sign out to the trailhead describing the situation and warning people. Mattisnotfrench and I eventually decided to try to go around the rockslide but after doing it I did not feel that we made the right decision and we saw many other people, specifically several people with babies in baby carriers rock climbing around it that we thought made even poorer safety decisions. I feel there is a very strong possibility of someone getting hurt up there. We saw 20 people trying to climb around it during our 10 minute stop on the way back from Lamberson Spur. If that is any indication of the volume of people going to Tamanawas then the amount of people alone leads me to believe someone will at the very least break a leg or fall. Hopefully with the arrival of winter fewer people will be heading up there. I do hope the Forest Service can find a manageable workaround as it's a great little trail.

Relying on the MHNF to actually do anything that doesn't involve green-lighting logging projects is just futile. While I'm sure there are good people there, and they are probably tasked with far more than the manpower they have, it's obvious in the 10 years I've been hiking and backpacking in the forests around Mt Hood, that they just don't really do much. Other than SDS, Weyerhauser bidding.

I don't know when the logging for the Pollalie/Cooper two timber sale is supposed to start but when it does it will close access to the Tamanawas Falls trail. In view of that fact I don't expect there will be any action by MHNF to deal with the slide. Must have been quite an event to bring down rock that size. Glad I wasn't there when it happened.

Quick update after hiking the falls last weekend, now in full winter conditions.

The trail leading up to the slide area was mostly snow covered but easy to make out (lots of low hanging trees including a "tunnel" made by bushes.) The large boulder is still in the way but with the snow base and a few rocks to the right side, there's a fairly stable step up to climb around it. Couple more rocky steps after that, all inviting a nice slip, but nothing major to deal with.

The real issue just beyond that boulder with a steepish hill section that was covered by loose, useless snow. Kicked my way up in the deep powder just fine and I believe the group before me may have taken the butt slide route down (or they went further into the boulders to the side where there was more snow) but I simply elected to turn around, reuse my steps and then plunge step off to the side below the steep stuff.

While it was quick going, I can certainly see the area becoming a hazard on a busy day. Even just the few people on the trail ahead of me made the snow mighty slick and crumbly; I probably passed 20 people on the way back who had yet to reach the slide and many of whom had little to no gear, tennis shoes, etc, to handle the increasingly worn down and slick snow with.

Wandering around the boulders there was at least one major attempt to navigate around the hill and slide (unsuccessfully) and signs of many people punching through the rocks trying to do so.

Just an update - 4 of us hiked this trail yesterday. We were able to climb over the rock slide but I would not recommend it for people carrying little dogs or children (as we saw passing us on the trail yesterday). The trail itself still has packed snow/ice in some parts while other areas are completely cleared.

Once we reached the falls, I captured this nice pano: