My wife and I took a picnic lunch to Abiqua Falls, east of Scotts Mills, off Crooked Finger Road, in Marion County. A few things have changed since we were last there a few years ago.
There is no sign at the turn off from Crooked Finger Road, but soon you pass through the Crooked Finger ATV Area on Santiam State Forest land. The gate past the quarry has now been removed, so the area is accessible all year. The road narrows and deteriorates after this, but is still O.K. for passenger cars, dropping through a parcels of BLM and Longview Timberlands property before arriving at a parking pullout before a rusting gate.
The trail began about 40 yards back from the parking area and we passed two signs put up by the (Mt. Angel) Abbey Foundation, which owns the land on this slope and downstream from the falls. The track dropped steeply and would be slippery in wet weather. A rope assisted the descent along a large log and then we followed the path along the north bank of Abiqua Creek to the splended basalt amphitheater formed by Abiqua Falls.
After lunch, we drove a little farther along Crooked Finger Road and turned down the also unmarked, but recently resurfaced, road to Butte Creek Falls. The site and trails are maintained by the Santiam State Forest. We looped down through lush Douglas-fir, hemlock and maple woods and first stopped at Upper Butte Creek Falls with its deep overhang. The trail then traverses above Butte Creek, passing above a small cascade, before emerging at the clifftop viewpoint looking across to 80-foot Butte Creek Falls. Since it was a dry day, I took the steep scramble trail down to the plunge pool and then worked my way to the left so I could look down from the top of the third waterfall, Lower Butte Creek Falls, to its shaded pool.
