Cascade Streamwatch Loop Hike

Overview

The federally-designated Wild and Scenic Salmon River issues from the Palmer Snowfield on Mount Hood and runs for 33 pristine miles. This forested recreation area right off of Highway 26 is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management and is the last developed public access to the Salmon River before its confluence with the Sandy River. A network of trails with interpretive signs run through the shady forest to a wetland, a salmon spawning creek, the ruins of a mill, and the Salmon River itself: the hike described takes advantage of most of the trails here, but most visitors restrict themselves to the popular Wetlands and Cascade Streamwatch Loops (about 1.75 miles for both). The recreation area is set up for day-long visits using outdoor kitchens and sports fields. You can drive into the site from early spring through the summer, but other months of the year, you need to park at the entrance gate (See the Wildwood Recreation Area Winter Trailhead) and walk in half a mile. In the fall, spawning salmon, especially coho, can be seen from the banks of the Salmon River here. Find the Boulder Ridge Trailhead sign to the left of the restroom building and take a paved trail using the attractive, arched footbridge over the Salmon River. A set of steps leads down to the left: you can take this riverside trail when you return from the boardwalk loop. These are lush, shady mixed woods of Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western red-cedar, red alder, big-leaf maple, cottonwood, and vine maple. Go left on the Wetlands Trail and begin the boardwalk. The trail has a total of five spurs that leads to viewing platforms over the skunk-cabbage swamps of Sixes Creek. There are nature guides and three-dimensional plaques illustrating local species. Undergrowth on the drier side of the boardwalk includes trailing blackberry, vine maple, elderberry, wood fern, sword fern, and nightshade. These wetlands were created as holding ponds when there was a private sawmill at Wildwood during the first half of the 20th century. At the western end o

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