McKenzie River Trail and Santiam Wagon Road Trail

[Sugar Pine]

Day hiked the McKenzie River trail from the north trailhead to the ranger station, minus the section closed by the 2021 Knoll Fire, over 2 days. The hike was very wet (rained most of the weekend). The trail is in pretty good shape. Between the Carmen dam and Blue Pool there are many low hanging maple branches. Downstream of the Blue Pool the trail was filled with pools of water, but still many hikers despite the rain! The River and waterfalls were raging. The forest had vibrant mixed hues of green and some flowers. The section north of Carmen Reservoir is most interesting with Clear Lake, Sahalie and Kooshah Falls and Tamolitch Blue pool. Other than near the blue pool we saw few other hikers and only one group of bikers.

Bear grass at Clear Lake

Sahalie Falls

Tamolitch Blue Pool

Having some extra time on our first day we hiked the Santiam Wagon Road Trail which starts at the Upper McKenzie River Trailhead. We only saw a few remnants from the wagon road, some metal pieces and a tree with rope marks. We were surprised to see Ponderosa Pines along the trail, not having noticed any along the McKenzie River.

Tree along Santiam Wagon Road

Old road marker

[greenjello85]

Wow! Sahalie Falls was certainly raging! I usually avoid popular areas but might have to give this a go with so much else still closed. Thanks for the report

[Holly and Bryan]

Thanks for sharing! We did some hiking along the McKenzie River Trail as well a few weeks ago. So beautiful. I didn't know about the Santiam Wagon Road, though; thanks for mentioning that. Looking forward to exploring it sometime!

[chiefWright]

Peaks and ridges between the North Santiam and upper McKenzie Rivers are about 1000' higher than elsewhere in the Western Cascades. Tombstone Pass is only a few hundred feet lower in elevation than Santiam Pass. So a miniature rain shadow forms East of Hwy 126, and a bit of Eastern Oregon spills over the Cascade Crest, including Ponderosa Pine and other vegetation typical of the East Slope.