Eagle Creek

12 miles
1650 feet elevation gain

The classic.

There isn't much to say about Eagle Creek that hasn't been said by millions. Eagle Creek is one of the most celebrated hikes in Oregon and all of the pacific northwest. Of course, that makes it extremely popular. Even on a weekday at 7am you'll find a packed parking lot.

Eagle Creek is the classic Gorge hike for a reason. It's amazing and features something for everyone. It has amazing waterfalls, high cliffs, sweeping vistas, camping options, long or short trail options, and places where stupid people have probably died.

It's also pretty easy. The grade is very mild. Even walking the 6 miles to Tunnel Falls only nets you 1000 feet of up.

I've hiked Eagle Creek several times. I like it, but honestly it's not my favorite or anything. I'm a big fan of epic sweeping views and that's the one thing Eagle Creek falls a touch short on compared to other hikes. I also don't like that it doesn't have any really viable loop options. But these are minor niggles, Eagle Creek is absolutely a great hike and absolutely worth everyone's time. I've done it in a number of conditions in all 4 seasons. Winter, Summer, Spring and Fall. I'll try to combine all trips into this one entry. If I had to pick a season, I'd pick fall or early winter. Summer is too hot, Spring is too wet. Winter has atmosphere and Fall has the most open and accessible hiking. Spring has the most impressive waterfalls though.

One of the reasons the hike is so killer is that for the first 3 miles to High Bridge, the hike pulls no punches in giving you so much to love.

You start out immediately on a cliffside next to the creek, which is bigger than some rivers at this point. After following the cliffs for a while you get to the perilous cliffs, water droplets falling on you as you cling to a railing with a steep drop off. Then you reach the open cliff, an awesome cliffside view deep into the chasm. All in the first mile or so.

Cliffside trail

After that you head into the woods for the next mile, surrounded by huge trees. At several points along the trail you have to cross some creeks and dodge some water falls. After about a mile and a half, you see a little trail to the Metlako Falls overlook. Metlako can be very lame in late summer when the water levels are low, but in spring and winter it's an impressive fall.

Metlako in Winter

Super absurd Metlako in Spring

Not half a mile later you see the cutoff trail to the bottom of Punchbowl falls. Very recommended in summer and fall, when the water levels lower and the creek isn't so strong. The water is still frigid cold and you want good footwear for the slippery rocks. If you get to the bottom by punchbowl early you get the sun streaming in and it's a thing of beauty. On other days, the hike to the bottom just isn't worth it. You can't really see around the corner of the canyon to Punchbowl unless you get cold and wet. But summer? Awesome.

Lower Punchbowl colors

Lower Punchbowl

Punchbowl Canyon with the sun

Punchbowl from the bottom

Closer in

Admiring the effects

Back up the trail you shortly come to the Punchbowl overlook. Punchbowl is a really pretty waterfall and it's easy to stand and admire it for a while. It's here most people turn around.

Punchbowl from the top

If you keep going you enter the woods again, cross a few streams and a landslide area. The trip to high bridge isn't quite the scenery extravaganza the first two miles were, but it's still great. After most of the next mile you get to the next sheer cliff and high bridge, with Loowit falls off to the side dropping into it's wonderful little round pool. Eagle Creek gets vary narrow and slides between two very steep cliff walls, and you walk right over the top. Sadly pictures just don't really show it very well.

High bridge is a great spot, and things start to taper off a bit here. The next 3 miles to Tunnel and Twister falls are not nearly as jam packed with hiking goodies. The plus side is you'll be mostly alone by now, only the real hikers go past high bridge. The trail winds into the woods, you begin to see campsites, a neat waterfall called Skoonichuk Falls is off to the left and worth taking a peek at. After a while you hit 4 and a half mile bridge, and the last of the interesting views for a while. The creek here is very calm and wonderful, and on my trip here with some friends we stopped in this pool on our way back and hung out for an hour relaxing our legs in the cold water. It's a great spot for when it's hot.

Past this you hit one big final camp, then you have to grab a free permit from a handy box because you are now officially in the Hatfield Wilderness. Now it's just a matter of walking for a while. Mile 5 is largely boring until you reach the Potholes, a section of cliff they blew out leaving weird columns on the path.

The "potholes"

Shortly after that you reach the amazing Tunnel Falls.

The tunnel and the falls

Hilarity

All of tunnel falls

You actually walk into a cave behind the falls, and it provides a cool experience, but I don't think it's quite as astonishing as some other walk behind falls, especially those in Silver Falls State Park. It's still neat though.

A good hiker walks another 1/4th of a mile along the biggest most terrifying cliff yet and is rewarded with a great lunch spot on top of Twister falls.

at the top of Twister on the creek

Looking down Twister

Twister's top

It's impossible to see all of Twister from the trail due to the cliff, you'd have to wade up the creek 100 feet below to see it all.

You can keep going from here all the way to Wahtum Lake from here, but that's for backpackers and a 14 mile hike one way. Right now you've gone 6 miles, and you have to go 6 miles back out. So have fun!

As for when to do this hike: In winter, we did this hike in late January. The conditions were not great and several paces featured uncomfortable amounts of ice. You couldn't get to High Bridge unless you had proper snow footwear, and I mean spikes. But the atmosphere in winter was astonishing. The mist, the ambiance, the lack of people, it felt like Jurassic park. Prepare for ice, and a winter escape in Eagle might be a great way to see the classic hike in a different light.

Winter in Eagle

Winter in Eagle

Where are the Dinosaurs

Unparalleled atmosphere

Summer/fall was nice. It got hot though, and the waterfalls are low flow. It's great for exploring the creeks since the water doesn't rush, but outside that the power and majesty they usually show is kind of tame here.

Spring...don't go in spring. We went there after a rainy day in march, and it was the wettest hike I have ever been on. It wasn't raining, but by the end we were soaked. Tons of water falls off the cliff in new places onto your head, several small streams that you hopped across become torrential rivers, and we couldn't reach Punchbowl because of one of these streams. But the waterfalls were RIDICULOUS. If you want to see water at it's most powerful, grab everything waterproof that you own and prepare to get wet. There are waterfalls on that hike I didn't know existed until that day.

In short, Eagle Creek is awesome. It's not my favorite, but it's up there.