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| My husband enjoying the peace and quiet before my son joined him.... |
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| Nothing more fun than walking on a log.... |
The trailhead for the Old Robe Canyon Trail is on the Mountain Loop Highway about 7 miles East of Granite Falls. You will see a big brick marker that says Old Robe Trail....but the words are a little worn and hard to see....it is also right across the street from Forest Road 41. Parking is on the shoulder of the road. There were 3 other cars parked when we arrived about 2pm.
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| You can see that the kids can hardly contain themselves... |
The trail is closed 1.2 miles in....so the hike is about 2.4 miles round trip. There is a bad rock slide that closed the trail before you get to the railroad tunnels.
The trail starts off through the forest and goes into a series of switchbacks that take you down about 350 ft. This is the only portion of the trail with any elevation change. About halfway through the switchbacks, if you look back off the trail you will see a wrecked car....it looks older and like it was rolled a few times....we all speculated as to how it came to rest there.
Remember whenever you are hiking, please stay on the trail! Don't cut across switchbacks as it causes erosion and ruins the trail! There are a number of areas on the switchback portion of this trail that are eroded. They have placed wooden fence pieces to try to stop hikers from using the shortcuts.
After you come down off the switchbacks you get into the wetland portion of the trail....at this time of the year (late March) it was quite wet with lots of pond/marsh areas. We could hear frogs croaking as we walked.
This beautiful flower was growing in the water next to some skunk cabbage...it was really pretty, but I can't figure out what it is...does anyone know?
The trail was wet and muddy in places and there were several areas that needed to be crossed on logs or rocks
You follow the river for most of trail after you come down from the switchbacks. The river was running a lot higher than it was the last time we hiked the trail and there is a lot of new erosion, water damage and mudslides. There are also numerous trees down along the trail as well. It is quite obvious that winter took it's toll on the trail!
As you near the end of the trail, the old railway becomes more visible. The pieces of stone and wood that made up the tracks are still visible as well as metal spikes and a lot of old bricks.
There is a really pretty waterfall that runs across the tracks just before the trail is closed.
There is a railroad tunnel that is just visible from where the slide has closed the trail. There are some people that pick their way across the slide area to get to the tunnels and the trails beyond. We have never tried as we felt it was too dangerous.
If you are hiking with children or pets or both I would make sure that they stay close. Keep your pets on a leash. I remember reading about someone who lost a dog over the edge on this trail several years ago.
Yes, I'll admit it.....I have a fungus addiction....here is the proof:
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| I think this may be a polypore of some type |
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| Some sort of cup fungus or lichen |
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| Golden Jelly Cone |
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| Some sort of shelf fungus... |
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| I think this might be Turkey Tail |
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| Not sure about this one...it's covered with green algae because the area is so wet....I thought it was pretty though! |
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| Another cup fungus... |
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| I'm thinking this might be a tooth fungus of some sort... |
It was a great hike! I'll leave you with this picture of the river....until next time....
