Drift Creek Falls

 

Drift Creek Falls is a popular trail with scenic waterfalls near Lincoln City in Oregon. This scenic waterfalls is about 2 hours of drive time from Portland. The hiking trail itself is 1.5 miles long 1 way with very little elevation gain. Thus the trail itself is quite easy and very family friendly. This trail is often crowded during the weekend due to its popularity, thus it is recommended to go there early in the day.

Since this Thanksgiving Black Friday was actually a sunny day, we decided to visit Drift Creek Falls. We left home around 7AM and got there around 9AM. On the way driving there, we had to drive through winding forest road in the mountain for about 25 minutes. The road was winding the narrow. We wished that we didn't have to spent so much drive time on the forest road. The good part was that most of the forest road was paved.

When we got to the parking lot, we were the third car there. The early November morning in the mountain forest was chilly and we could see the sun rays peeking through the fog. It was a beautiful site. Since it was Black Friday, no fee was needed to use the trail.

The hiking trail went downwards unlike many other trails. The trail itself was quite muddy and slippery due to the moistures in the air, but the air was extremely fresh. The trail then went around the creek and went across the creek on a wooden bridge. Once we crossed the wooden bridge, we were almost at the falls because we could hear the loud water running sound.

After about 5 minutes, we reached the suspension bridge. This suspension bridge was long and narrow. The bridge pretty much only allowed one person to go through at once. That was how narrow it was. The surface of the bridge was a bit icy and slippery. Thus we were being very careful and walking slowly to make sure we did not slip.

From the top of the bridge. we could see the falls from above. The amount of water running through the creek was breathtaking.

We then crossed the suspension bridge and headed downwards to the river side. From here we could see the falls from the bottom and also see the suspension bridge right above us. The water was icy cold!

As we depart, more people were hiking on the trail and there were cute dogs too! When we got back to the parking lot, it was already full and it was only about 10:30AM. It was a fun little hike in the morning and a nice walk outside during the weekend.

Fort to Sea Trail

 

Fort to Sea Trail is a somewhat unpopular trail near the Northwest Oregon Coast. The hiking trail is about 6 miles long, so the round trip distance is 12 miles. The trail head is about 5 miles North of Seaside and people can either start the trail from the "Sea" or from the "Fort". The Fort that is referred to here is the Clatsop Fort that is built back in 1800 when Lewis and Clark ventured to the West. The trail is not as popular due to its length.

On this beautiful sunny October weekend, we decided to give this a try. We drove about 1.5 hours to get to the trail head at the "Sea" because we wanted to come back to the beach and relax there. When we got to the trail head, we saw 2 cars in front of. 1 car parked and the people in the car hopped into the other car. We were thinking that they must be heading to the Fort and just do a one way hike, which is quite a smart move.

The day was quite sunny. The first part of the trail was 2 miles towards Highway 101. The trail went through prairie land covered with tall grass. Then the trail went on a beautiful white bridge to cross Sunset Lake. The bridge was beautiful. We think it was a great spot for taking wedding photos. After the bridge, the trail cut through several cow farms.

These cow farms were so green with just few cows on it. Although it was quite smelly, we still enjoyed hiking through the farm. The trail was zig zagging through the farm and went through wooden gates to hop from 1 farm to another. Make sure you don't get lost when looking for the trail because we were quite confused on how to proceed when we hit the first wooden gate.

After going through the tunnel under Highway 101, we were starting to head upwards to Fort Clatsop. On the side of the trail, there was a farm with electrical fence, so make sure you don't touch it. There were also few snakes wondering around on the trail. We almost stepped on one of them.

The trail started to climb for the next 1.5 miles. The elevation gain was minimal but still made us to sweat. After about 30 minutes. We got to the top of the hill at the outlook. The view from here was kind of blocked by trees. So it was not the spectacular. The view point was a let down, but we were excited that we were close to Fort Clatsop.

From the outlook to Fort Clatsop was only 1.5 miles with down hill trail. We were walking quite fast and got to the Fort in 20 minutes. There weren't many people there. Due to the pandemic, the side entrance to the Fort was closed. Thus we went through the visitor center to get to the fort. Fort Clatsop was quite small and very well maintained. The bit room with the fireplace on the right was for the captain and the rooms on the left were for the others. It looked like the captain had a lot of privilege. There were also few other trails in this area along the river side and the canoe landing.

After paying a visit to Fort Clatsop, we were ready to head back to the "Sea". Heading back down to the coast was much faster and we got back within 2 hours. Along the way we also saw 2 people covered with white blankets as ghost along the trail because it was Halloween!

From the parking lot to the beach was just about 0.5 miles. The Sunset Beach was beautiful, especially with the sun setting on the West side. We saw many cars drove on the beach and people having picnic right on the sand. It was such as relaxing moment to enjoy.

The Fort to Sea trail was definitely better than what we expected. It was an easy trail with lot of change in scenery along the trail. We enjoyed it quite a lot. 12 miles round trip may sound a lot of this type of trail, but it was definitely worth the effort. If 12 miles is too long, people could always turn back after hitting Highway 101.