Oregon Hikers

I hiked the Lewis River Trail from the very bottom, at Curly Creek, to Lower Falls. The car campground is closed, but you can camp there as a walk-in, which is what I did. I wasn't the only one, but just a few others. Although there are a variety of backpacking sites along the way, none are within probably 3/4 mile of the falls, so I wanted to do that this time since it would be almost empty. A few of the sites are just a hundred yards from the lip of the falls, so you can be close by.

That's just short of 11 miles one way, almost no net gain in altitude but of course a decent amount of up and down on the way. And the middle 8.5 miles are the wilderness section. Not designated wilderness, but the road is on the other side of the river and not at all close, so it feels wild. The Lewis River valley has few views, but some of the best forests this side of the Olympics.

The trail had not been cleared yet and there was a lot of small to medium stuff to be negotiated. I didn't think to bring a handsaw, but spent a lot of time just throwing stuff off the trail. There were very few people on the wild section, but maybe 10 people at the falls when I got there at 4:30, since the parking lot is only 200 yards away.

Thank you.