We have planned quite a lot of sightseeing for today, but all of it will be in an area of the Cascade Range bounded by Grants Pass, Crater Lake and Roseburg.

We will be leaving Grants Pass and driving a bit east on Interstate 5 through the town of Rogue River and to the small town of Gold Hill. Then we will head northeast through Gold Hill on Oregon 234 to the intersection with Oregon 62. At this point, we will begin to parallel the Rogue River, a very picturesque small river with quite a few waterfalls and other scenic points along its course. We will follow the river, stopping whenever we see something interesting, until we have passed through the town of Prospect and are on our way to Union Creek.

At Union Creek, we will find a natural bridge and some lava tubes along the Rogue River; we will be quite close to Crater Lake National Park, and the Rogue will be falling through volcanic deposits. Here we will also find an area we've read about called "The Chasm." Instead of following Oregon 62 into Crater Lake NP, we will angle off on Oregon 230 towards Diamond Lake and Mt. Thielsen, looking for National Falls.

Our last major stretch will be the North Umpqua River Area through which Oregon Highway 138, also known as the North Umpqua Scenic Byway, runs. Along this stretch we've read that there are numerous waterfalls, and we would like to stop and see as many of them as we can. We've read about Clearwater Falls, Toketee Falls, Watson Falls, Fall Creek Falls and quite a few others, so I imagine that we may even set some sort of record for the most waterfall stops in a single day on any of our trips.

We hope that the light will hold until we've seen our last waterfall and we are ready to head to Roseburg, Oregon, for the night. We've already made a reservation at the Super 8 Motel there, so there is no time pressure in that regard.

Well, we have quite a lot to do and see, so let's get started.

Sightseeing Along the Rogue River

Getting to the Rogue River Scenic Area

To begin our day's explorations, we left Grants Pass and headed east on Interstate 5 to the town of Gold Hill. We navigated our way through town to Oregon Highway 234, angling up towards the intersection with Oregon Highway 62. From there, we headed north, with the Rogue River coming into view.

We passed through the town of Shady Cove and reached Trail, Oregon, where Highway 62 turns eastward heading over towards Crater Lake. Right at the turn, we found a turnoff for a short woodlands hike, which we thought we would take down to the river itself.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

It was a pleasant little hike, as you can see if you play the movie at right, but we wanted to get on to the waterfalls, so we didn't spend much time there. Just after that eastward turn, we came to a small park and picnic area that had a great view of the river.

We'd seen the river while still south of Shady Cove, but now the road began to parallel it in earnest. We stopped at the overlook area to see what we could see, and were treated to a very picturesque river view. The Rogue River is flowing from the east and Crater Lake, and it made a turn here to head southward. We noticed some river rafters and kayakers here, and it looked like a lot of fun. Below are thumbnails for three more pictures we took from this point; click on them to see the full-size pictures:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

While we were here, I also made a movie of the Rogue River flowing by, and you can watch that movie using the player at left.

Mill Creek and Barr Creek Falls on the Rogue River

From the Rogue River overlook, we continued up Highway 62 through the Joseph Stewart State Park. We crossed the Rogue River and then continued to follow it on its north side. About a mile from the state park, we saw the turnoff for the scenic highway that was supposed to offer us access to two waterfalls, so we took that. Just a short distance down the road was the parking area for both waterfall trails.

  Mill Creek Falls

Mill Creek Falls is the main feature in the Mill Creek Falls Scenic Area, developed by the Willamette Timber company, located between Trail, Oregon and Prospect, Oregon on Oregon Highway 62. When we got to the parking area for the hike to the falls overlook, we noticed that there was another set of falls accessible from the same area, so those will be next on our list. We hiked down the short, half-mile trail to the edge of the Rogue River Canyon, where we could look across the canyon at Mill Creek Falls as Mill Creek falls 173 feet, seemingly in slow motion, to the rocky river below. We had to be careful at the edge of the gorge, for it sloped off very steeply into the river.

We couldn't find any information on who discovered or named the falls; none of the signs gave us that information. Before we left the overlook, Fred took a picture of me at Mill Creek Falls.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

I also took a movie of the falls with my little camera. But I wasn't thinking about orientation, and I held the camera in vertical mode, thinking it would work like a film camera and allow me to rotate the movie. Alas, that feature was not present in my camera and so, until recently, I have either had to eliminate movies like that from my album, or force you to look at the movie sideways (which I have not done). But, recently, a software program has become available that can rotate movies like the ones I take and store them permanently in that rotated mode. So, from now on, as I work back through the photo album, I'll be able to include vertical movies, like this one of Mill Creek Falls in the album for you to see. You can watch it with the player at right.

When we were done here, we walked back up the trail to the fork that would take us to a second set of falls.

  Madrone Trees at the Trail Fork

As we were walking back to the trail fork, we came down a different way from the cliff edge at the Rogue River, and our path took us across this large fallen tree. Then, when we got close to the fork, we saw something else we'd missed on the way down- a huge Madrone tree. These are very unusual trees; I had not seen one before. They have a very interesting bark, which is reddish and peels off to reveal a green bark underneath. I think that green bark eventually weathers or ages, turns reddish and then repeats the peeling process. You can see this process clearly in this picture of the Madrone tree bark. Before we left to head down to Barr Creek Falls, Fred took one more picture of me with the Madrone tree.

  Barr Creek Falls

The trail down along the cliffs above the Rogue River took us about twenty minutes before we came out at an viewpoint where we could look across the Rogue River Gorge to Barr Creek Falls.

Barr Creek Falls is the largest waterfall accessible here on the Mill Creek trail system near Prospect, Oregon. The falls, hurtling over 200 feet over the canyon wall into the Rogue River, are viewed from a rocky outcropping high above the canyon floor. Although Barr Creek flows all year round, the falls are much more impressive during the high water periods of May and June; now, in July, the flow was much reduced. There is a left-hand segment of the falls, but it had run dry when the creek's volume decreased this summer. This waterfall and it's namesake creek were apparently originally named Bear Creek Falls, and through time, the name was morphed into its current form.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Before we left the falls, I made a movie of Barr Creek Falls, and you can watch it with the player at left.

The Natural Bridge and the "Hidden River"

When we were done at Barr Creek Falls, we got back onto Highway 62 and headed north through the town of Prospect. The road took straight through the beautiful tall pines; play the movie below to see what we saw:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

In about five miles, we came close to the town of Union Creek, and just before it we found the turnoff for the Rogue River Natural Bridge and the "Hidden River."

Although it has little to do with the actual hike down to the Rogue River, Fred noticed at the edge of the parking area a stand of rudbeckia flowers near the parking area, and they were so pretty that I thought I would include them here.

The Rogue Gorge Trail guided us to a spectacular view of the Rogue River cascading through a constricted channel of basalt lava. The gorge was formed by the erosive action of the river. The trail began at the Natural Bridge Viewpoint parking lot and traveled upriver on the east side of the Rogue River. We passed the Natural Bridge and Union Creek Campgrounds before arriving at the Rogue Gorge.

When we arrived at the gorge, we found ourselves on an arched bridge over the Rogue River right at the point where the river was emerging from its narrow channel, widening out, and flowing downstream. I think you may get a much better impression of what the river looked like at this point by watching the movies that I took of it looking upstream through the gorge and looking downstream. You can watch these movies with the players below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Quite a different character from one side of the bridge to the other.

When we first got to the bridge across the Rogue River, we could look down and see the water boiling in and out of holes in the channel walls- and some of these were lava tubes. Here are some thumbnails you can click on to see full-size pictures of the roiling water:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

From the bridge, we walked up the canyon to the overlook for the "hidden river." Here, the Rogue River flows through a lava tube behind the wall of rock underneath us, becoming a "hidden river." When the water is low, the entire river goes through the tube, and several potholes are sometimes visible here. They are nature's artwork- formed when small rocks are trapped in holes in the lava and swirled by flowing water. The resulting action slowly grinds the solid rock away, leaving bowl-shaped potholes, as illustrated on the sign at left.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

From this point, I made a movie of the river entering the lava tube below us and going to its outlet downstream, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

So, at this point we were standing above the inlet where the Rogue River disappears into a lava tube, taking 35 seconds to travel 200 feet to the tube's outlet. Although the river normally flows through the lava tube, seasonal flooding may cause it to cover the Natural Bridge, which is the area that you saw in the last movie between this inlet and the outlet downstream. Sometimes, we could see the water spraying up from the "blow-holes" in the surface of the Natural Bridge, caused by the turbulent nature of the hidden river.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

I took the time to walk downstream across the natural bridge to find the end of the lava tube, and I made a movie of the Rogue River emerging from the lava tube- a movie you can watch with the player at right.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Then, while I was standing at the same place, I made a movie of the river emerging from the lava tube and flowing downstream, trying to enter another, blocked tube; you can watch that movie with the player at left.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

There were times, such as just below this outlet, where the river seemed to enter another lava tube, but the flow did not seem to be reduced, which seemed to mean that the lava tube was closed up inside. I took a movie of this phenomenon, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

The Rogue River emerges from the lava tube outlet after a short underground trip and continues its journey to the Pacific Ocean, 184 miles downstream. At peak flows approximately 335,000 gallons of water rush from this outlet each minute at a speed of 6 feet per second. Not only is the water fast...it is also cold! Fed by melting snow on the slopes of Mt. Mazama (Crater Lake) in the High Cascades, the river's temperature at Natural Bridge varies seasonally from 32 degrees to 60 degrees.

We took some additional pictures from and around the bridge near the outlet of the "hidden river," and I have put thumbnails for those pictures below. You can view the full-size images by clicking on those thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We walked across the natural bridge on a trail that led upstream from the lava tube exit, and we were walking across the underground river at that point. The natural bridge began as a river of fire, when basaltic lava flowed from fissures in the earth's surface and traveled long distances through lava tubes.

Lava tubes develop when the upper surface of a basalt flow rapidly cools, causing the outer edges to solidify while the hot inner lava continues to flow underneath. As the molten lava drains out, it leaves behind a long, hollow tube. Eventually, the river of fire was replaced by a river of water. The Rogue River entered a section of a lava tube, becoming a "hidden river" which flows below ground for 200 feet. In doing so it created a natural bridge that connects the banks of the river. Indians and early settlers used this natural bridge to cross the Rogue River.

From our position atop the natural bridge, this time at the inlet for the hidden river, we took a good many pictures, and I have put thumbnails for some of those pictures below. You can view the full-size images by clicking on those thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

You can return to the Page Index or continue on with the next section.

Diamond Lake and Mt. Thielsen

The Chasm at Union Creek

We continued north on Highway 62 to the picturesque resort town of Union Creek, where we stopped to look at Union Creek itself; it is one of the small streams that feed into the Rogue River. I took a movie of the creek and town, and you can watch that movie with the player below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Then we drove another mile or two to the turnoff for The Chasm.

From the parking area, a half-mile trail led to a viewing platform from which you can see The Chasm, and trails led along both sides of the canyon.

As we were walking along the trail from the parking area to the overlook, we could actually hear the river before we got our first glimpses of it through the trees, and that made the short hike very pleasant. You can watch us coming up on the falls if you play my movie below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

When we reached the viewing platform, we could see the entire chasm, from the upper falls all the way down the chasm and under the point of rock on which we were standing. It was quite a sight, with all the water channeled into an extremely narrow canyon. I made a movie of the course of the water from the upper falls all the way in front of us and the into the canyon on our left, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

Here at the Chasm, just northwest of Union Creek, Rogue Gorge forms a canyon 500 feet long. The Gorge narrows to 25 feet from the platform's edge to the opposite wall, and it drops 45 feet to the river. If you look down at the river, you are watching enough water (almost half a million gallons) flowing through the chasm beneath you each minute to fill an olympic-size swimming pool. But with an average temperature of only 44 degrees, you probably wouldn't want to swim in it. Because of the upper Rogue's very cold water, native fish do not grow to a large size.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

There was a nature trail along the east side of the gorge. To our left, we could walk down along the gorge a ways to see the water coming through the canyon (follow us by playing the movie at left), flowing beneath us and then continuing to the end of the gorge about two hundred feet away. Here is a beautiful picture of the gorge looking from our vantage point downstream to the end of the canyon.

We walked back north along the canyon rim, passing the observation point where we could again get a good view up to the top of the gorge.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Then, we were able to follow the trail up the gorge, passing the middle falls. I made a movie at this point, beginning at the middle falls and following the watercourse downstream, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Finally, we were able to reach the top of the falls, where we could look upstream and towards Crater Lake National Park. From this point, I could get an excellent view of the Rogue River as it came through the forest, reached the top of the gorge, fell through the waterfalls and exited at the end of the gorge, and I made a movie to detail all of this. You should have a look at that movie with the player at left.

The Chasm was a really beautiful place, and we were the only people there which made it all the more impressive. We returned along the trail to the parking area and headed back to the main highway.

National Falls near Diamond Lake

From the Chasm, we got back on highway 62 and headed further north towards Diamond Lake. A few miles down the road, we crossed a highway bridge over the Rogue River. As we passed over the bridge, we could see how beautiful the river was, and so we stopped on the north side of the bridge to walk back to admire the river flowing down from the northeast. This is what I picture when I think of a mountain river in the Pacific Northwest- clear water, a rocky streambed and trees on both sides.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

It was only a couple of miles later that we saw a turnoff for National Creek Falls. We had not marked this waterfall on our map and list of sights to see today, but we thought we'd go see it anyway. It was a mile off the highway where we found the parking lot and trailhead. The trail to the falls led from the parking lot down into the Rogue River gorge- but this one being a more gentle forested gorge than we had seen at the Chasm. With Fred leading the way, we hiked down the trail for about three-quarters of a mile; you can follow along with us by playing the movie at right. All along the way we were shaded by huge pine trees on both sides of the trail and off into the forest.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

We could hear National Creek long before we could see it. We knew it was ahead at the bottom of the gentle gorge, and we actually expected to come out at a point where we where looking up at the falls. But the trail fooled us; when it arrived at National Creek (watch the movie of National Creek at our point of arrival by using the movie player at left), we found ourselves still above the falls as the trail turned to follow the flow of water another few hundred feet to the falls themselves. So, very shortly, we found ourselves starting to descend a trail alongside the falls. Fred went on ahead, but before I followed him down the trail, I stopped at the very top of the falls where I had a great view of the first cascade.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

I took advantage of this great vantage point to make a comprehensive movie of National Creek Falls from the perspective of standing at the top of them, and I think the movie turned out well. You can watch it with the player at right.

Just below my feet I could see the upper falls here at National Creek Falls, and after I climbed a few feet down the side of the falls (paralleling the official trail that Fred had taken), I could look straight down the falls all the way to the bottom.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Finally, I descended further down the falls until I was at approximately the middle of them, and made a movie of the water coming from the top of the falls going down the main portion of them into the pool at the bottom. You can watch that movie with the player at left.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

I continued down the path alongside the falls, eschewing the trail for the time being, so that I could get some good views of the falls as I went. I took one movie from just about the middle of the trail down, just looking out over the falls, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

I also took some other good movies and pictures of the falls as I worked my way down to the bottom.

National Falls (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The Falls from Across the Creek (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Well, I have worked my way down to the bottom of National Creek Falls and out onto a huge falled tree that spans the stream below the falls, and this spot gives me an excellent vantage point for another great movie of National Falls. The fallen log allowed us to cross the stream to the far side to get a different view of the falls, and I got up close to the right side of the falls to take another movie of them from this different perspective. You can watch both these movies with the players below:

National Falls (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The Falls from Across the Creek (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The area below the falls was interesting in itself, what with all the log bridges and little pathways and places you could just sit and admire the falls. Fred was particularly interested in the huge pine trees that surrounded the falls (and which had also been present along the trail). You can watch his movie of them with the player at right.

We spent some time here taking pictures, and I have put thumbnails for three more of these pictures below. Just click on the thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

We could have stayed here a long time (which is usually true of the waterfalls we visit), but there were plenty of other sights to see on our way around the Umpqua River area, so we reluctantly headed back to the car.

Diamond Lake and Mt. Thielsen

Well, we have passed the turnoff to Crater Lake and are now heading north towards Diamond Lake. Just north of the turnoff for National Falls, we again crossed the Rogue River; the river began to parallel the highway again for a ways. Just before we reached the highway junction for Crater Lake, we noticed that the river was going to curve eastward away from the highway as it veered north, so we stopped to take a final picture of the picturesque Rogue River.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

We actually never got to see Diamond Lake; it was about a mile off the road to our left, and we never got high enough to see over the tall pines. But a short ways up the road, we did begin to get wonderful views of Mt. Thielsen as we were driving along the highway, and you can see some of these views with the movie player at right.

We had just passed a sign for a turnout where you could stop and get good views of the mountain, so when we came to that turnout we stopped to take a look. The inset picture at left was taken from this turnout, and I also took a picture of Fred and Mt. Thielsen from that same turnout.

As we continued north towards Mt. Thielsen and the Umpqua River area, Fred took another picture of Mt. Thielsen through the windshield. And when we got closer to the mountain, I pulled off to the side of the road so Fred could get out and get a clearer view of Mt. Thielsen.

We went on past Mt. Thielsen, now on Highway 128 towards the Umpqua River.

You can return to the Page Index or continue on with the next section.

Waterfalls Along the Highway 138 and the Umpqua River

Once we passed Mt. Thielsen as we headed north, Highway 138 then turned westward. Shortly after doing so, the Umpqua River, which flows down from the northeast, came to parallel the highway- sometimes quite close and visible, but most times about a quarter mile or half mile away from the road. We had investigated this area on the Internet, and we knew that there were a great many waterfalls along this route and along the Umpqua River or its tributaries, and we planned to stop at as many as we could.

Below you will find a separate section for each of these six waterfalls that we visited. (There were others that we could see from the highway, but the six we stopped at were supposed to be the best of the bunch in this area.)

Clearwater Falls

The short hike to Clearwater Falls begins at the Clearwater Falls Campground, which is just off Highway 138, about thirty-five miles east of Roseburg.

The trail leads right up to the falls, which are more of a tumble over piled-up, moss‑covered boulders than anything else. So the waterfall isn't all that impressive, but the setting is very pretty. The trail (more of just an open area well-trampled by the many visitors to this easy-to-get-to waterfall) allows anyone to hop up to the top of the falls just to the left of the river.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

From here, you can get very pretty views of the falls, and it was an excellent place for me to take a closeup movie of the falls- a movie you can watch with the player at right.

Just up over the very top of the falls, you can see the creek that meanders down from the north. Here, it is a wide, slow-flowing creek that has formed some tranquil pools where the creek flows through a broad meadow-like area. These pools were quite pretty, and belied the turbulence just a short distance away.

From this point, you could also look downstream from the falls as the creek continues its way on down to the Umpqua.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The best pictures were really from the base of the falls, where they are the most impressive. Fred took the best pictures here, such as this one of Clearwater Falls and this one of me beside Clearwater Falls. Fred was also intrigued by the calmer portion of the stream at the base of the falls where many trees had fallen into and across the creek. They had been there so long that various plants and flowers had begun to grow directly from the fallen logs- kind of like those chia pet things. Take a look at Fred's picture of these interesting fallen logs.

The base of the falls was also, as it turned out, the best vantage point for a movie of Clearwater Falls, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

We spent maybe 45 minutes here, and then were off to our next stop.

Whitehorse Falls

The smaller of the two waterfalls on the Clearwater River, Whitehorse Falls, has a nice observation deck built next to it, right near the parking area, so that everybody may enjoy the falls, and it was from here that I took my first movie looking down on Whitehorse Falls from that observation deck (see the movie section below). Even though this waterfall is further downstream from Clearwater Falls, the discharge has been artificially reduced by the Swamp Lake dam and a canal sending the rest of the water to a powerhouse further downstream. If the plunge pool at the base of the falls is deep enough, it would serve as a good swimming hole.

We took a number of pictures here and, even though you might not want to look at all of them, I have put thumbnails for six of the best ones below. Just click on the thumbnails to view the full-size images:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

I also took three good movies of Whitehorse Falls. The first one was made when we first arrived at the observation deck right near the parking area. The other two were made a little later as we walked around the falls to get the best views. You can watch all three of these movies with the players below:

Whitehorse Falls from the Observation Deck (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Whitehorse Falls (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

And to finish our picture taking here, Fred took a quite beautiful picture of what I think is something related to Columbine, and you might want to look at this picture of a beautiful mountain flower.

Watson Falls

The North Umpqua River drainage is abundant with waterfalls; 272-foot Watson Falls is easily the best in this area. About twenty miles east of Roseburg on Highway 138, we easily found the signed turnoff for Fish Creek Road, and we drove only about a tenth of a mile south from the highway when we came to the well-marked Watson Falls trailhead and picnic area on the right of the road.

The trail began on the uphill side of the road and climbed steeply through the forest for a short ways to a point where we could see all of Watson Falls ahead of us; we could also see the creek coming out from the boulder-strewn amphitheatre below the cliff and heading on down towards the highway the Umpqua River.

Watson Creek hurtles over a huge cathedral‑like cliff into a massive amphitheater, then cascades down through mossy rocks.

At the base of the falls is a nice bench to rest on after the steep but short climb from the road. The falls are much more turbulent in the spring during the snowmelt, when spray is ejected hundreds of feet into the air. Now, later in the summer, the creek is much calmer and the falls get blown around in the wind. We got our best views of the falls from the base of them. We could look up and see Watson Creek falling over the precipice, and we could look down and see the falling water landing on the boulders below. There was no real pool here; the area below the falls was too steep, and the water just ran immediately down the hill through the rocks.

We were so intent on examining the falls, that we almost did not notice the view across the Umpqua River valley behind us to the northwest. It, too, was a beautiful view. We did notice some interesting things among the boulders in the watercourse below the falls. There were lots of ferns and other vegetation, and at least a couple of fallen trees. One interesting thing that I saw was a particular tree trunk that had fallen so as to be sticking out over the cascade. Moss had grown almost entirely over it, and it's decay was such that plants and flowers were growing on it, all suspended over the water and without the benefit of much soil at all. I suppose the spray keeps it well-watered.

I took five good movies here at Watson Falls. I have put movie players and short descriptions for each of them below; you can watch the ones you want using those players:

A complete view of Watson Falls from the top, down the cascade, and then down the boulder-strewn creek back towards the parking area and trailhead. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Fred at the end of the Watson Falls trail, and the view he had of Watson Falls. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

A fun movie that begins with a sideways view of the falls and Fred and then turns into a normal view of the falls and the course of the water down the hillside. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

All of Watson Falls, including the continuation of the creek down the hillside through the boulder cascade. (Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

In the movie below, you can seethe boulder-covered watercourse below the falls, with the myriad smaller waterfalls and cascades. The sound of the water is almost as nice as the view of it.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Watson Falls was really neat, but, all too soon, it was time to head to the next waterfall.

Toketee Falls

Toketee Falls is probably the most famous waterfall in Southern Oregon. Here, a small portion of the North Umpqua River is channeled into a narrow gorge, where it drops down several small falls, before hurtling over a pair of basalt cliffs, the upper falls (shown here from a point halfway along the trail to the observation platform) dropping 28 feet and the lower falls dropping another 85 feet into an aqua blue pool. Photographers from around the world flock to this location. Look around in photography books, ads, TV commercials, the falls have been used as a backdrop for just about everything.

Toketee Falls is a result of Cascade Mountain volcanic activity that occurred approximately 250,000 years ago. Molten lava spewed from a vent and flowed like a river through this valley. Basalt columns formed as the hot lava cooled; these are very reminiscent of those at Devil's Tower, Wyoming. The North Umpqua River drops over a remnant of this basalt flow to form Toketee Falls.

Toketee is a Chinook word meaning "graceful" (again, ironic naming, considering the falls were likely named well before the hydro project drew off the majority of the river). The Toketee Falls trail is well marked from both directions, and isn't hard to find. There is a parking area for the trailhead just a mile off highway 138 on the north side, and just after you cross over the Umpqua River.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The trail to the falls was recently reconstructed, and now features a great network of staircases and walkways situated precariously on the gorge walls. The trail winds through an old growth stand, and follows the North Umpqua River, which is visible at several places as it cascades through a narrow rock gorge. At one point, about halfway along the trail, I made a movie of the Umpqua River as it flows into a narrow chasm which is actually the upper falls of Toketee. If you will use the player at right to watch the movie I made here, you will be able to watch the water as it flows into this narrow opening; the upper falls are just to the right out of the movie frame towards the end.

Now, when you look at this closeup of Toketee Falls, you will be able to see where this water goes as the upper falls are very visible in that picture.

The trail has 97 steps up and 125 steps down (since the return trail follows a slightly different path). The trail ends at a sturdy viewing platform perched on the canyon rim, and it offers magnificent views of the double falls with tiers 40 and 80 feet high. The viewing platform is reached from the trail via a broad staircase that leads down to it and a huge pine tree grows up through the center of the platform (and is also used as a partial support for it). There is seating on the platform where visitors can relax and admire the beauty of the falls.

I took two very good movies of Toketee Falls from different positions on the viewing platform, and you can watch those movies using the players below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Also of interest is the 12' diameter Toketee pipeline. This very old pipeline channels the majority of the North Umpqua to the Toketee powerhouse a mile downstream. Were this not in place, Toketee Falls would appear drastically different. Water from Toketee lake flows through the pipeline, which is comprised of an aboveground wood stave pipe (which actually lays alongside the parking lot), an underground tunnel and a steel pipe en route to producing hydroelectric power at the Toketee Generator Plant.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

The wooden aboveground pipe was very interesting; I have never seen anything like it before, and I think you should use the player at right to watch the movie I took of it.

This trail and the falls at the end were really a treat; I can see why these falls are used so often as a background image. One other item of interest was that we ran into a fellow who was driving a biodiesel pickup truck. We had puzzled over what the tank in the bed of the truck (the only other vehicle in the parking lot) was for, so when we met its owner on the trail, we asked about it. It was basically home-made, we found out, and he used vegetable oils and all sorts of other stuff to run it.

By now it was getting on towards late afternoon, and we had a couple of more falls to see, so we returned to the car and headed on westward towards Roseburg (at this point about fifty miles away).

Fall Creek Falls

When we got back on Highway 138, we traveled about fifteen miles to the turnoff for Fall Creek Road and the parking area for the hike to Fall Creek Falls. Between Toketee Falls and here, the Umpqua has crossed under the road and is now south of it; Fall Creek is one of the tributaries that feeds it from the north.

From the parking area, a one mile trail ascends through a crevice in volcanic rock, then continues alongside the creek through lush vegetation and old-growth timber, via a series of switchbacke, to the tiered falls. The trail actually continues beyond the falls and climbs above them to connect with the old North Umpqua Highway, and I would have liked to have done that, but we did not have the time.

Fall Creek drops over a series of four pretty waterfalls, only two of which are very evident. The upper tier is only visible from the top, and the third tier is almost completely hidden from view by the canyon's shape. The second and fourth tiers are the oft-photographed ones. This is a very scenic waterfall, surrounded with mossy cliffs and a few maple trees. The falls are listed as being 197 feet tall, but they seemed shorter- probably because we couldn't see all the tiers of the falls.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Perhaps you can pick out the various tiers of the falls if you will use the player at right to watch the movie I made of them.

As we have come westward, we have crossed from the High Cascade Range to the east (very young at some 200,000 to 1 million years old) into the older Cascade Mountain Range that was formed 25 to 35 million years ago. The hike was relatively short, and the falls were certainly interesting, but in the fading afternoon light we did not stay long or take lots of pictures. We returned to the car and headed off to our last waterfall stop.

Susan Creek Falls

The scenic Susan Creek waterfall plunges 50 feet over moss-lined volcanic rock cliffs into a wonderfully inviting pool. The water flows through the pool to a much smaller waterfall that provides an exit for the continuation of the water's trip down Susan Creek towards the Umpqua River on the other side of Highway 138 about a half-mile away. Waterfall rates vary from low flows during the summer to high flows during rainy periods.

The trail to the falls is about a mile long, and was recently rebuilt to provide easier access; the trail used to be quite steep, apparently, but now the maximum grade on the trail is 8% for a short distance; average grades do not exceed 5%. The trail is surfaced with crushed rock with resting spots along the way, which is another series of switchbacks leading to the stream at the base of the falls. When you near the falls, the trail comes up alongside Susan Creek and see the waterfall a ways ahead of you.

There seem to be a great number of fallen trees below the falls, and these offered ways to get from one side of the creek to the other for picture taking, and Fred has caught a picture of me halfway across one of them preparing to take some movies of the falls.

I thought that the light was getting too low for my little camera, so here I only took some movies of Susan Creek Falls. But I think both movies turned out well, and you can watch them using the players below:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Susan Creek Falls was very pretty here in the early evening, and it was a good close to a drive that had taken us to ten different waterfalls- a record for one day, we thought. We had no more stops to make, so we stayed here a while, but eventually found our way back down the trail to the car. Then we headed off to Roseburg to spend the night.

You can return to the Page Index or continue on with the next section.

We Stay Overnight in Roseburg, Oregon

Getting from Susan Creek Falls to Roseburg was a snap. All we had to do was continue west on Highway 138 all the way into town. I remembered this route from many years ago when Tony and I drove across country. We stopped at Crater Lake, then took Highway 62 to 138 and then traced the same route that Fred and I drove this evening.

I recall it being a good meal, and well worth the wait and the short drive. Then it was back to the hotel and some sleep before our last full day in Oregon. Tomorrow: the Oregon Coast.

You can return to the Page Index or navigate to the next or previous day of our Oregon trip using the links below.

	July 24, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 8
	July 22, 2004: Oregon Trip Day 6
	Return to Main Index for Oregon Trip Pictures