Little Fall Creek

Some of the tallest trees in the world are just an hour east of Eugene.

You don’t have to travel all the way to the redwoods of northern California to see really tall trees. Some of the tallest trees in the world are found just 15 air miles east of Eugene-Springfield around the Tall Timbers trail on the Willamette National Forest.

This is an awesome hiking experience and only about an hour drive, but you will have to navigate a maze of Forest Service logging roads to get there. I strongly recommend you pick up a Lowell or Middle Fork District map from the Forest Service, either at the Lowell Service Center or the Federal Building in downtown Eugene.

Directions: Take I-5 south from Eugene for approximately 3 miles. Take the Oakridge/Klamath Falls exit (Exit 188A). Stay to the left onto Hwy. 58. Drive 58 for approximately 13 miles and take the left onto the Jasper-Lowell Road (next to the white covered bridge). Drive through the town of Lowell, following the signs for Fall Creek (a left on W. Boundary and a Right on Moss Street). A mile outside of Lowell, you’ll come to a 4-way intersection with another covered bridge ahead. Take the right onto Fall Creek Road. In a half-mile stay left on North Shore Road (stay to the left at the intersection in seven miles). This paved road follows Fall Creek and turns into Forest Service Road 18.

One mile past the boundary of the Willamette National Forest, just past the Dolly Varden Campground, take a left onto the graveled FS 1817 road (stay right at the junction in 2 miles). In 4.5 miles take a left on FS 1818. In 1.5 miles, take a right on FS 424 (stay right at the junction in 2 miles). In 2.3 miles take a left at the unsigned FS 1806 (stay left at the junction in several hundred feet). In 3 miles take a left at a sign for the Tall Timbers trail. Park on the right in .3 miles. The trailhead is on the left hand side of the road.

The trail itself is only a twenty-minute stroll, but it’ll take you through some spectacularly lush forest and dozens of outrageously tall Doug-firs. The trail is just a small glimpse at an almost 1,000-acre grove located in the Little Fall Creek drainage at the western edge of the Willamette National Forest. I believe that this grove contains the largest contiguous block of uniformly near record sized Douglas-fir in the world.

The Douglas-fir isn’t Oregon’s state tree just because of its good looks. Its sturdy wood formed the backbone of Oregon’s economy for almost a century. On the drive up you probably noticed that vast swaths of the magnificent old growth forest that once blanketed the landscape have been converted to even-aged tree farms less than 30 years old. Logging levels have declined dramatically in the last decade, but the Willamette continues to log giant old growth trees more than 500 years old. Just about three miles up the 1817 road you passed the Clark sale where tree-sitters have been perched 200 feet in the air to prevent logging for almost five years.

This hike shouldn’t be attempted unless you’re carrying a map and compass and are accustomed to rugged terrain. But if you can handle the bushwhack, you’ll see some world class tree specimens right in our own backyard.