Jawbone Flats Hike

Overview

NOTICE: Trails in this area were affected by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire. Please check current closures in the Willamette National Forest before planning an outing. Although the beginning of this hike is not a trail, after visiting here you may consider it one of the most scenic roads you will ever walk upon. You will travel through magnificent old growth, gaze upon the dazzling turquoise waters of the Little North Santiam, and view part of the mining history and artifacts of Little North Santiam Mining District. Your destination the historic company town of Jawbone Flats, now part private environmental education center and part outdoor museum, where you can see rusting vehicles, old mining equipment, and an ore mill among the restored cabins of the Ancient Forest Center. For the first part of this hike, you will be traveling on a gravel road. The tracks is used by the residents of Jawbone Flats only, so it is not likely that you will encounter any vehicles. Head past the gate at the trailhead and walk along the road in an ancient forest of Douglas-fir, western red-cedar, and western hemlock. Salal and Oregon grape form the understory as the road drops. Look down the slope for massive Douglas-firs several hundred years old. Cross the Gold Creek Bridge and view the cascades and pool in the chasm below. The road rises to the Whetstone Mountain-Jawbone Flats Trail Junction, the former a jeep track, formerly FR 2209-330, leading up to the left. The road bed drops passes along the recently redesigned “half-bridges” in a steep-sided canyon, the Little North Santiam rushing way below. Pass an old adit as the road levels and then rises. At the top of the rise, a spur leads right to an overlook. Descend and the trail levels to cross several small creeks. A road turnout leads right into the area where equipment from the Merten Mill lies abandoned. Look for relics of the mining era, such as a boiler and smelter, and walk past a picnic table. Before a decrepit wooden shed, take a short trail that leads to the river an

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