Drift Creek Falls Hike

Three of us went on Saturday, Valentines Day, and there were lots of families and couples on the trail.

The hike is pretty easy, and is more like a calm, refreshing out-and-back nature walk. It starts downhill through a second-growth, younger forest with big stump remains of the giant trees taken years ago. After crossing a footbridge over a small trail-side stream flowing over a rock face (what we called the "water feature"), the forest changes. Thick, hair-like moss covers almost all of the trees as you wind slightly uphill and across another footbridge over a crisp babbling rivulet through the trees. Coming through the woods to the suspension bridge is nothing short of awesome. And the waterfall...it's exceptional. So it's no wonder so many people make the long trip on the one-lane Forest Service road to see it.

Once you've crossed the bridge and gone down to the waterfall viewpoint, the trail ends and it's back the trail and up the hill to the parking lot.

NOTE: we did not take the North Loop trail, but we likely should have.

Probably not the best hike if you are coming from Portland (especially when there is extensive Valentines Day coast traffic!). We ended up spending a good portion of the day contributing to the stop-and-go traffic, making the two hour drive closer to three.

Too much car time for such a short hike, but it sure was pretty!