Difference between revisions of "Eagle Fern Loop Hike"
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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[[Image:EagleFernLoopMap2.png|thumb|400px|The trails at Eagle Fern Park (not a GPS track) ''(bobcat)'' Courtesy: ''Caltopo'']] | [[Image:EagleFernLoopMap2.png|thumb|400px|The trails at Eagle Fern Park (not a GPS track) ''(bobcat)'' Courtesy: ''Caltopo'']] | ||
| − | {{Start point|Eagle Fern | + | {{Start point|Eagle Fern Trailhead}} |
* End point: [[Kitzmiller Road Trailhead]] | * End point: [[Kitzmiller Road Trailhead]] | ||
* Hike Type: Two loops | * Hike Type: Two loops | ||
Revision as of 21:39, 24 January 2020
- Start point: Eagle Fern Trailhead
- End point: Kitzmiller Road Trailhead
- Hike Type: Two loops
- Distance: 3.4 miles
- Elevation gain: 645 feet
- High point: 870 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: in summer
Contents |
Hike Description
This gem of a Clackamas County Park is a great place to enjoy a quiet forest walk in the off season. You’ll marvel at massive old-growth Douglas-firs and western red-cedars, gaze at the mossy boughs of maples overhanging Eagle Creek, and pause at the 18 stops on an ADA-accessible nature trail. There are two loop trips here: a nature trail (also called Loop C or the Lower Loop) can be combined with the Upper Loop (Loop A), which is a rougher trail, sometimes steep and rooty; in addition, off of Kitzmiller Road on the North Fork Eagle Creek, there’s Loop D and a narrow rooty lollipop loop that winds south around above Eagle Creek Road but doesn’t connect with the developed part of the park. Each of these two options is about the same length, 1.6 miles, with a short road walk in between.
After depositing your day-use fee at the pay station, look up to admire the huge Douglas-firs and cedars in the parking area that are dripping with Methuselah’s beard lichen. Then walk north past the restroom building and a kiosk with information on the Eagle Creek Watershed to find a suspension bridge leading over the creek. If there’s a brochure in the dispenser here, you can pick it up (You can also get one online: Eagle Fern Park Trail Guide). Maples extend mossy branches over the wide creek, which spills over a weir just upstream. Look for dippers bobbing and then disappearing into the current. You’ll come to a junction and can make a right to begin the interpretive loop.
The numbered trail takes you to stations where the trail guide describes plants, birds, and habitat. A short spur leads to Eagle Creek. Impressive Douglas-firs, cedars, and hemlocks tower overhead. The lush understory supports vine maple, red huckleberry, salmonberry, sword fern, and lady fern. At Station #8, there’s a massive rotting log in the final stages of decay. Reach a junction where a sign states “Uneven Trail Conditions”, and take this narrow trail, the Upper Loop or Loop A, up the slope.
Switchback and pass a decommissioned trail. Then hike up six more switchbacks to a slope of alders and maples. The trail begins to drop through the sword ferns, making 17 switchbacks to arrive near Eagle Creek. Across the stream, you can see the picnic area in the developed section of the park. Pass an atmospheric grotto, and undulate along the steep slope at a bend in the creek. Switchback up twice to a rocky viewpoint over the creek shaded by a mossy maple. The tread then squeezes down a narrow defile. Keep right at a junction before you walk past small creekside beaches above the weir. Turn right at the junction near Station 16 to rejoin the nature trail and head back across the suspension bridge.
To do the second loop, turn left after crossing the bridge and hike out to Eagle Fern Road. Then turn up Kitzmiller Road, and walk about 200 yards before coming to a parking pullout on the left and a hiker sign on the right. You can take a short trail from the pullout down to the shore of the North Fork Eagle Creek. Loop D begins at the hiker sign. Turn right at a trail junction, and continue your walk past old-growth Douglas-firs and cedars. Heading up the slope, you pass between two massive Douglas-firs on the sword fern draped hillside. A total of nine switchbacks take you up to an unmarked trail junction. Go right here if you’re interested in doing the lollipop loop and exhausting the park’s trail possibilities. This narrower less maintained trail switchbacks up a hemlock/Douglas-fir slope and traverses into a deeper forest before making eight more switchbacks to descend to a rather rickety footbridge with a partial rope “railing.” Make a rooty traverse of the slope, passing the steep descent of the lollipop and catching glimpses of Eagle Fern’s parking area and structures below. Then turn up the hill, switchbacking five times through the sword ferns before descending along a fallen hemlock. Several more switchbacks take you down to close the loop. Turn right, recross the footbridge, and return to the junction with Loop D.
This more maintained trail traverses the hillside and then drops steeply in eight short switchbacks. Another traverse takes you below a rocky outcropping and then a switchback at three large cedars. Two more switchbacks take you down to river level and Kitzmiller Road.
Maps
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- $6 day-use fee
- Dogs on leash
- Information kiosk, restrooms, picnic area, play area
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Eagle Fern Park
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Eagle Fern Park
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- PDX Hiking 365 by Matt Reeder
- Afoot & Afield: Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
- The Dog Lover’s Companion to Oregon by Val Mallinson
More Links
- Eagle Fern Park (Clackamas County Parks)
- Eagle Fern Park – Estacada, Oregon (Black Watch Sasquatch)
- Eagle-Fern County Park Loop Trail (All Trails)
- Eagle Fern Park Loop (Hiking Project)
- Explore Eagle Fern Park in Clackamas County (Explore Clackamas County)
- “Caretaker of the parks” (Estacada News)
- Coming Soon to Clackamas County: New 1400-Acre Eagle Creek Community Forest (Clackamas Democrats)