14 min
Overview
Tucked into the Cascade foothills north of Sweet Home, Linn County's McDowell Creek Falls County Park offers an entertaining family outing at every season. The loop trail here takes you to two impressive waterfalls as well as a couple of smaller cascades and a popular summer swimming hole. Hiking through the lush mixed woodland here, an island of serenity in the surrounding clearcuts, you are almost always within earshot of the sound of rushing water. The substrate around these falls is different from the lava flows farther north at Shellburg Falls and Silver Falls: these are layers of volcanic breccia, sandstone, and intrusive diabase typical of the Old Cascades. McDowell Creek is named for James McDowell, an early settler in these parts. Note that the falls become rather wispy trickles in the dry season, so late fall into early summer are the best times to visit. Mossy big-leaf maple, red alder, Douglas-fir, western hemlock, grand fir, western red-cedar, sword fern, and salmonberry compose the woodland at the parking area. The trail crosses a footbridge over McDowell Creek. Look for a small waterfall downstream from the bridge. Continue on a graveled trail a junction, where you go left to a footbridge that allows a view of two-tier Royal Terrace Falls, 120 feet high, on Fall Creek. After viewing these falls, backtrack and head left up a stone staircase with a clearcut to the right. At the top of the falls is a small viewing platform. Continue on this loop trail over a small footbridge on Fall Creek. The trail heads up into woods of Douglas-fir and hemlock, vine maple, red huckleberry, salal, Oregon grape, trailing blackberry, thimbleberry, and sword fern. You are now high above McDowell Creek on a canyon rim which offers partial views towards the Willamette Valley through the screen of Douglas-firs. Where the trail splits, go right. Cross McDowell Creek Road and continue for 0.3 miles through the forest to reach the Majestic Falls Trailhead. Stone steps lead down from the parking lot to viewing platforms a
Trail Stats
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70 m
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Photos
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