Siouxon Creek

Me and Courtney at Chinook Falls

My sister, Courtney was visiting from Seattle and we had planned to hike around Mt. St. Helen's, because in the 10 years she has lived in the Pacific Northwest, she hadn't been. Saturday morning I checked the weather and the forecast called for no rain but overcast at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, so we headed out for the 2 hour drive from Portland. We were within 10 miles of Johnston Ridge and it started to rain and as we got a little closer the fog was so dense that we could barley see 10 feet in front of us. We pulled over at a look at point and pulled out our hiking book to figure out what plan b was going to be. We picked Siouxon Creek.



The awesome trail

I wasn't thrilled to have to drive another 1.5 hours but we were determined to hike! As soon as we started to hike we almost forgot that we spent ~3 hours in the car. The very well maintained trail gradually follows Siouxon Creek, through a Doug Fir and Hemlock forest. There were at least 2 of the most impressive trail bridges I have ever seen, outside of New Zealand. The water in the creek was some of the clearest I had seen in awhile, in some sections it was almost aqua blue. 2 miles in we passes Siouxon Falls, a small waterfall that pours into a greenish-blue pool of water. 



One of the amazing bridges

Siouxon Falls
At ~3.5 miles we got to a bridge crossing Siouxon Creek, where a lot of people were hanging out, taking picture and turning around. I knew I had read there was another waterfall, I checked the map and noticed that it was only .20 miles away, we continued on. We were so glad we did, we were rewarded with an impressive Chinook Falls, with no one around. We found a perfect rock in front of the falls, enjoyed lunch and happy we ended up with plan b!


Courtney at Chinook Falls

Chinook Falls
After getting home and examining the map more, Susan and I can easily make a 20+ loop around Siouxon Creek. Next year!!!!


More trails to explore


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