Dave Goes Outside: Gorton Creek Falls

The plan was to go hike Wind Mountain for the second time but I was on mental auto-pilot on the way out and missed the exit for the Bridge of the Gods. Instead of turning around I figured we could just stay on the Oregon side and pick out something else. I was debating going to Mitchell Point again, but we decided to stop a little sooner at a smaller trailhead, the Wyeth trailhead.

There isn't a whole lot accessible from Wyeth within non-absurd distances, which is kind of surprising and depressing because there are several big sweeping cliffs visible from the campground. From the Wyeth trailhead you can take a 5-mile low level trail to the Herman Creek trailhead, with mild views. You can take a 3800 foot 5 mile climb to North Lake, and eventually Mt. Defiance if you hate yourself.

The final option is a tiny half mile jaunt up Gorton Creek to Gorton Creek falls. From the trailhead at the back of the campground head forward for like .2 miles and then you come to a junction with the 3 options branching off. Right goes to Herman Creek. Left to North lake. Straight to Gorton Creek falls.

The trail only technically goes to Emerald Falls, a pretty little 10 foot cascade about .4 miles past the junction. Beyond this point the trail becomes an extremely rough user path as you effectively climb up the cascading mini-gorge 200 yards to Gorton Creek falls. It's tough going, you gotta hand over foot climb up boulders through tight gaps and slippery rocks. It took us about 20 minutes to go 200 yards up this gorge. But the falls is two tiered and probably 100 feet total, with the bottom section being about 80 feet of that.

Gorton Creek Falls

Tiny Emerald Falls

Resting after a fun scramble

We rested, climbed back down and decided to walk on the Herman Creek - Wyeth link trail. There was lots of poison oak! I've always been shaky with my identification skills of plants (because I don't particularly care) but I spent a lot of time a few weeks ago looking up Poison Oak facts because I may have gotten a very small patch of it on my forearm a month ago. Tiny swatch, didn't even itch that much, but obviously a rash and I can't think of what else might have caused it. I've never had a true poison oak/ivy outbreak so I think I'm largely immune, which might explain why the patch was so tiny and not all that irritating. But on this trail Poison Oak littered the bushes and I made my first definite confirmation, so now that I've seen it for sure in the wild, it'll be easier to spot from now on.

We walked the Herman Creek - Wyeth trail for a short half mile to a Talus slope, got a good view of Wind Mountain across the river, then headed home.