1.4 hr
Overview
This loop first takes you to the well-known Catherine Creek Arch and then away from the madding crowds as you head up the Catherine Creek valley to eventually rely on deer trails. The slopes here are steep, poison oak is an issue, and you will have to tangle with a little brush. (While this is a short section, it is off trail and involves good navigation skills.) Once, you've crossed Catherine Creek, use an old logging track to head up in shady coniferous forest to join the regular network of trails on Sunflower Hill. To make a longer outing, parts of this hike can be combined with other routes in the area, such as the Tracy Hill Loop Hike and the Catherine Creek-Rowland Basin Loop Hike. From the Catherine Creek Trailhead, hike on a closed road (Atwood Road, signed FR 020), toward the northeast. This trail soon drops down to Catherine Creek as it bubbles through a small oak forest. The graveled road continues upstream for a short stretch to a junction with another closed road, this one signed FR 021, a.k.a. the Catherine Creek Arch Trail. Follow the road as it crosses the creek on a small bouncy bridge made of small logs and plywood. This trail heads up the east side of the creek next an imposing wall of columnar basalt. You'll soon come to an abandoned corral filled with miner's lettuce that blooms in April. The Catherine Creek Arch looms over the corral high above a talus slope made of fallen rock. In times past, visitors could scramble up and through the arch to the bench above, but now it is fenced off by pole and rail to protect it as a significant cultural site for Native Americans. Past the corral, on your left, are the collapsed remains of a shed: Rattlesnakes take cover under the planks here, so be careful if you're poking about! The road leaves the valley and reaches the Catherine Creek Arch-Catherine Creek Pinnacles Trail Junction, where it veers right in a ponderosa pine/oak parkland. Look for dark Lewis' woodpeckers swooping from tree to tree. Make a left at the junction, and reach the grassy
Trail Stats
0.0 km
423 m
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0 m
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Photos
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