Revision as of 01:49, 24 September 2018

The rim, Tumalo Creek Canyon (bobcat)

Overhang, Tick Ranch, Tumalo Creek Trail (bobcat)

Trailing Oregon grape (Mahonia repens), Tumalo Creek Canyon (bobcat)

Looking up Tumalo Creek, Tumalo Creek Canyon (bobcat)

Pine woods, Mrazek Trail (bobcat)

The loop described, using the Mrazek Trail for the return (not a GPS Track) (bobcat) Courtesy: Caltopo

• Start point: Tumalo Creek Trailhead
• End Point: Columbia Southern Canal
• Trail Log:
• Hike Type: Loop
• Distance: 9.1 miles
• Elevation gain: 940 feet
• High Point: 4,585 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Seasons: Most of the year, except when there is heavy snowfall
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: Yes (bikes on Mrazek Trail)

Description

The Tumalo Creek Canyon Trail on the eastern verge of the Deschutes National Forest is not your nice, broad, evenly graded stroll. Even though it never gains or loses much elevation, it is a rough, narrow, rocky tread that is often overhung with bitterbrush and manzanita. However, the trail offers an excellent cool season alternative before the snow melts out in the mountains. Because of private land holdings near the trailhead and the topography of the canyon itself, the trail doesn’t reach the creek until well into the hike, but then it stays close to the water before rising gently out of the canyon. There’s a loop option here, via the gently descending Mrazek Trail, which was constructed by mountain bikers. This trail is not half as interesting as the Canyon Trail, but it offers an easy fast pace if you want to hike quickly or simply jog back. Otherwise, you can do the canyon as an eight-mile out-and-back to revisit the sights: Tumalo Creek itself, numerous rimrock cliffs, of which a couple are popular climber walls, a mixed coniferous forest of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, western larch, and white fir, and at the junction with the Mrazek Trail, the white elephant that is the Columbia Southern Canal.

Note that the area near Tumalo Creek, while not fenced off and laced with user trails, is actually private land. To hike the canyon, head up the slope past the trailhead sign. Eight short switchbacks will take you up an incline of green manzanita and small ponderosas to the trail junction at the Tick Ranch climbing area (Yes, there are plenty of ticks around in the spring, but you’re more likely to pick them up on the plateau if you return via the Mrazek Trail). The cliffs along the canyon are a broken layer of 200,000 year-old lava that overlies softer pyroclastic deposits.

Go left here and take up the rough trail that undulates below the cliffs. The trail traverses above the Tumalo Creek Canyon in a mixed forest/scrubland of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, white fir, green manzanita, bitterbrush, and Oregon grape. In fall, the yellow “candles” of the turning larch trees light up the forest on the opposite bank. Traverse below a rock wall and under an overhang. Enter a dense grove of young Douglas-fir and pass an old junction post (The descending trail here reaches private land and returns to the trailhead along the creek).

Pass along an open manzanita slope under rocky buttresses and then reach a park-like ponderosa woodland. The trail passes above high cliffs and comes to a viewpoint from which you can see the rushing waters below. Hike up and pass under another ledge of rimrock. The trail continues to ascend on a rocky tread and almost reaches the rim before passing below another ledge. Get a view of the creek below from a couple points on the trail before ascending above the canyon rim. Then, make a descending traverse to clamber over large rocks under a cliff. Look up here to see a “balancing” rock at the west end of the cliff.

The trail almost attains creek level under shady Douglas-firs, white firs, and ponderosa pines. Hike along above the creek and then angle up into ponderosa pine woods. The trail parallels an old jeep track before dropping to a campsite at a 15-foot rock face. Cross the jeep track, which leads to a couple of campsites below on the creek. The trail now undulates along, but keeps close to Tumalo Creek. Pass under an andesite cliff known to rock climbers as The Powerlines, and begin the climb out of the now shallow canyon. This gradual ascent reaches the powerlines and Jack Pine Spring Road, which you cross to enter ponderosa/manzanita woods. Reach the Tumalo Creek-Mrazek Trail West Junction: if you are doing the hike as an in-and-out, visit the Columbia Southern Canal and return the way you came.

To make a loop hike, go right on the Mrazek Trail, a fairly featureless mountain bike trail that winds down a broad slope. From the junction, you can get a glimpse of the Three Sisters through the trees before you find yourself hiking along the manzanita/snowbrush-lined levee that borders the dry channel of the Columbia Southern Canal. The canal, begun in the early 20th century, was built to channel creek water from a reservoir via gravity flow to irrigate farmlands north and west of Bend. The reservoir filled in 1915 and promptly leaked all its water, so the project was abandoned – yet this massive scar on the landscape remains. Where the trail turns off the dike, go on a little farther to a viewpoint over a “waterfall” on the canal.

The trail proceeds to amble through secondary ponderosa and lodgepole pine woodland. A shallow gully appears to the left and then a rock outcropping. Descend along another gully, passing large brush piles. The Mrazek Trail splits: a more difficult weaving gully trail goes left; hikers should take the easy trail to the right, which leads up to the broad ridge crest. Reach the other end of the loop and cross and recross an old road bed. The trail levels in an open manzanita thicket before gradually descending among ponderosa pines and a few scattered junipers. Cross an overgrown road bed and enter the area burned by the 2014 Two Bulls Fire, now replanted with baby ponderosas. There are some views through the fire snags there to the tops of the Three Sisters, Black Butte, and Mount Jefferson. Snowbrush is beginning to carpet the ground. Return to secondary forest, and hike along the edge of a ridge to get a glimpse of Mount Jefferson (Going off trail in this area will almost certainly land you with some friendly ticks in the spring). Cross wide gravel FR 4606 and begin to descend a gully. Reach the Tumalo Creek-Mrazek Trail East Junction at a cairn and trail post, and go right.

Reach a parking pullout and walk 30 yards to your left to pick up the Tumalo Creek Trail. Make a rocky traverse up through the manzanitas. From the top of the canyon, you’ll get the most elevated views of the hike: east across the broad plateau above the Deschutes to the Newberry Crater area. Drop down below a rock outcropping to the Tick Ranch climbing cliffs. The trail makes a series of rubbly ups and downs to reach a junction. From here, go left and make the eight switchbacks down to the trailhead.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• Share Mrazek Trail with mountain bikes

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Tumalo Trail System (USFS)
• Green Trails Maps: Bend – Three Sisters #622SX
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Deschutes National Forest
• Adventure Maps: Bend, Oregon, Trail Map

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Tumalo Creek Canyon Loop Hike

• Tumalo Creek Canyon 04-03-16

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Tumalo Creek Canyon Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this destination

• Bend, Overall by Scott Cook
• Central Oregon: Walks, Hikes & Strolls for Mature Folks by Marsha Johnson

More Links

• “A verdant hike along Tumalo Creek” (The Bulletin)
• “Tumalo Creek Trail” (The Bulletin)
• Mrazek Trail (The Bulletin)
• Mrazek (MTB Project)
• The History of Tumalo Irrigation District (Tumalo Irrigation District)

Page Contributors

• bobcat (creator)