Kentucky Falls
On Saturday this past weekend we hiked the Kentucky Falls trail in Oregon. It's about 50 miles west of Eugene in the Siuslaw National Forest. It was part of our busy Saturday with visiting the Cascades Raptor Center and then going hiking.
Kentucky Falls is in a somewhat remote area. Traffic was initially heavy on highway 126 as we drove west from Eugene. The city has expanded a lot to the west since the last time we visited, several years ago. Traffic tapered off as we entered the coast range mountains, then became fairly sparse as we turned off the highway onto Forest Service and BLM roads. These at least were in better condition than during our previous visit to Kentucky Falls in 2016.
...Yes, we've been to Kentucky Falls before. So why go back? Well, click the link above to see why they're worth going back to. Or just scroll down for more.
The trail to Kentucky Falls starts off easy at first, dropping gently into a creek canyon surrounded with mixed-growth forest. The trail then descends more steeply down a switchback to near the base of Kentucky Falls, a two-tier waterfall about 100 feet high.
This view from near the base disguises the upper tier of the falls. Here's a view from higher up on the trail that shows the upper tier(s) better:
I captured this photo on the walk back out. The vantage point is hard to spot on the way in because it requires turning around to look backwards. So it's easy to miss on the way in but easy to catch on the way out.
Based on these two photos you might think all I did was hike to Kentucky Falls. If that's all I had done, this trail would have been worth the effort. Kentucky Falls is only about .75 mile in from the trailhead and entails an ascent of a few hundred feet on the return. But put in the work to go 2 miles in, and climb out an extra several hundred feet on the return, and there are two more waterfalls here just as nice as this one. Stay tuned for those!
In beauty I walk.
Kentucky Falls is in a somewhat remote area. Traffic was initially heavy on highway 126 as we drove west from Eugene. The city has expanded a lot to the west since the last time we visited, several years ago. Traffic tapered off as we entered the coast range mountains, then became fairly sparse as we turned off the highway onto Forest Service and BLM roads. These at least were in better condition than during our previous visit to Kentucky Falls in 2016.
...Yes, we've been to Kentucky Falls before. So why go back? Well, click the link above to see why they're worth going back to. Or just scroll down for more.
The trail to Kentucky Falls starts off easy at first, dropping gently into a creek canyon surrounded with mixed-growth forest. The trail then descends more steeply down a switchback to near the base of Kentucky Falls, a two-tier waterfall about 100 feet high.
This view from near the base disguises the upper tier of the falls. Here's a view from higher up on the trail that shows the upper tier(s) better:
I captured this photo on the walk back out. The vantage point is hard to spot on the way in because it requires turning around to look backwards. So it's easy to miss on the way in but easy to catch on the way out.
Based on these two photos you might think all I did was hike to Kentucky Falls. If that's all I had done, this trail would have been worth the effort. Kentucky Falls is only about .75 mile in from the trailhead and entails an ascent of a few hundred feet on the return. But put in the work to go 2 miles in, and climb out an extra several hundred feet on the return, and there are two more waterfalls here just as nice as this one. Stay tuned for those!
In beauty I walk.