January 1, 2013

Some of these posts are going to be clips from Portland Hikers forum board.  My partner and I try to post trip reports on there on occasion   Sadly, he has me quite beat in that department.  This next part is a trip report Timothy did from there.  :)

Timothy:

Yay...it's the new year so time to start a new list of waterfalls for the year.  I decided to start the year off with one I hadn't seen before. Stout Creek is SE from Silver Falls State Park about twenty miles east of Salem. Just a little over an hour drive from Portland. I have been up in this area a few times before so I knew winter is the best time to go bushwhacking and that the falls down there look nice with a higher flow. This was my first time looking for Stout Creek Falls. I knew they were in the area but wasn't sure how to get to them. The old logging road that leads there usually has someone set up there target shooting so if you head down this way I'd make this the first stop. The old logging road is about half a mile past where the road crosses over Stout Creek on the right side.

Heading down the road a short ways the road seems to end but if you look kind of SE you can see where an old logging road is pretty overgrown. If you keep heading east on that road you'll eventually come to a nice mossy clearing at the top of the falls.

We made our way down towards the river fairly easy. It was a little cold out though.

A nice high flow for Stout Creek Falls....not a bad looking waterfall.

# 1 Stout Creek Falls (bushwhack ~ moderate access)

 

After making our way back to the car we drove back down the road to where it crosses the creek. There is a closed road just north of this crossing where there is a gate. We parked there and headed up the road only a couple of hundred feet before we could clearly hear Horseshoe Falls. There are steep cliffs on the north side of the creek near the fall so to get to the bottom we headed toward the junction of Stout Creek and Ayers Creek. This tall dead tree is easily seen from the road, head toward it and you can find a safe way down. Looking back at the tree on our way down.

Horseshoe Falls from the bottom. Nice little waterfall.

# 2 Horseshoe Falls 

(bushwhack ~ moderate access)

For some reason after seeing this fungi I was craving bacon. 

From Horseshoe Falls we made our way downstream to where Stout Creek and Ayers Creek come together. Not the easiest of bushwhacking.

Ayers Creek Falls is only a couple hundred feet upstream from the junction. Clearly visible when you come around the bend.

# 3  Ayers Creek Falls

This was my first time to the base of these falls...I think it was worth it.

(bushwhack ~ moderate access)

 After making our way back to the road we had one more waterfall to see. We hiked up the road for about 1/2 mile around to the west side of the canyon so we could see Upper Ayers Creek Falls. We were pretty beat from all the bushwhacking so we didn't go all the way to the base of it. We got a few good shots from halfway down the hill. These falls are pretty skimpy later in the summer, not much to see.

# 4  Upper Ayers Creek Falls (bushwhack ~ moderate access)

Heading back just in time.