Beaver Falls Trail

[SCurtis]

A couple of weeks ago I hiked the Beaver Falls trail. Not to be confused with Beaver Creek Falls which is in Southern Oregon. Beaver Falls is just off Hwy 30 about half way to Astoria. A friend at Columbia County Parks recommended the trail.

The directions I found online for Beaver Falls all said to look for a gap in a chain link fence. This went to the trail head. I think there was only one original text and all the others were copying that. The gap does go to the falls - to the top of the falls with this limited view.

This trail is about 100 yards long and ends at the top of the falls. The overlook is very slick and muddy. Nice view but there is a better trail and view.

Take Highway 30 about 50 miles towards Astoria. About 5 miles past the Longview bridge (or Lewis and Clark bridge, whatever it is named now) take the Beaver Creek road on the right. If you hit the small town of Delena you have gone too far but no problem. Turn right at Delena and go one block and you will find the road. Head West on Beaver Creek road.

Beaver Creek Road is the one of the old sections of Hwy 30 and Beaver Falls used to be well known when it was on the main Hwy, but now no one even goes on this road and they are hard to find. The falls are about 5 miles down Beaver Creek Road.

At about 4 miles you will see upper Beaver Falls. There is a pull off with a small gap in the guard rail. The upper falls are right on the road.

Continue on and you will come to a large section of chain link fence on the left. There is a small pull out next to a gap in the chain link fence that leads to the top of the falls. View if you want but then continue on.

About ½ mile further is another, paved pull out. You can get to the falls from here but the start is a steep scramble down a scree field. There’s a better trail head to come so keep going. Just a little further is a third, larger gravel pull out. This one is just right. The trail head is on the top, west end of the pullout. Look for the official trail head sign.

The first section of the trail is somewhat steep and will be slippery when raining. My friend at Columbia Parks is looking for suggestions on how to fix this. Watch for a TKO trail work party later on.

The trail parallels the road heading back West. There are some nice views of the creek below.

The trail travels up the creek for about 1 ½ miles.

It ends up at the bottom of the falls with a much better view. Approaching the falls.

Full view. There is a smaller water fall to the left. Nice example of columnar basalt on the right.

Looking up is our old enemy the chain link fence.

This is a nice short hike that you can combine with others towards the coast. We continued on and did some of the trails around Ft Stevens.

[BrianEdwards]

Thanks for sharing those directions. That's a beautiful falls! Nice shots

[Splintercat]

Beautiful, Curtis - this is going to be a great TKO project!

Tom

[Peder]

I love the third and fourth from last pictures! Those were part of my response to Sean's Herman Creek camping trip just after the great server crash. Please note that it is a vegetarian sea lion from Phoca Rock. I will eventually re-post.

[Pdxmaestro]

FYI there is copious amounts of poison oak, and trash is littered everywhere (even in the tree's). The falls look nice, but it's heartbreaking to see the garbage everywhere. Appears to be a local swimming hole for the teens. It's all downhill to the falls, and all uphill back (but a pretty short hike).

8/27/2014

[BrianEdwards]

Indeed there was lots of trash the last time I was there. Still a neat waterfall right off the (terrible) road