Susan Creek Falls, Trail and Campground

Our trip this past weekend was the perfect finale for the season! Good weather, beautiful fall colors, and great hiking trails. See the photos in the album for a few examples.

Steve and Molly left home on Wednesday so they could grab a good spot - and they were successful. We had a great view, and a nice big site with stone steps leading down to the river. The Susan Creek Falls campground has been lovingly supported since the early 1990's by Eagle Scout and Boy Scout troops from the Roseburg area. Over the years they've built really nice benches and railings at viewpoints all along the trail, and they've installed stone steps at several points leading down to the river. They've also contributed picnic benches and other efforts across the road at the Susan Creek Falls trail. Materials were donated by local building supply companies. What a great partnership! This is one of the nicest BLM campgrounds we've ever stayed at - they're usually pretty austere, but this one has nice showers, and really well maintained trails, and they are in the process of making several of the sites "accessible".

On Sunday we hiked to the falls, enjoying the ferns and deep woods along the way, and then continued up the steep hillside to the "Indian Mounds" - more properly called cairns, these piles of stones were supposedly made by Indian youth during their vision quest. The stone piles have been contained by chain link fencing for protection from souvenir hunters, which is probably a good thing, but makes photography a challenge.

The water level is fairly low this time of year, but the falls are still very pretty, and the fall colors are beautiful in that part of the mountains. The vine maple turns a beautiful cherry red, and the broad leaf maple are a brilliant yellow. The drive home was pretty too, and I stopped to take a few pictures at Colliding Rivers, in Glide. This is the site of a unique geologic phenomenon that causes the North Umpqua River and the Little River to meet head-on. The information center is housed in one of the picturesque 1930's ranger stations, known as "Uncle Sam's Cabins".

All in all it was a great weekend - though too short, as usual!