Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls with the PWC

Jay Adventure!, Columbia River Gorge - Oregon, Day Hiking 4 Comments

This would be the 4th time for me to hike Eagle Creek and the third as a Peninsula Wilderness Club hike sponsor. I was pretty excited as I had 11 or 12 people signed up for the trip. Being 3 hours from the Silverdale area, its a big deal (at least to me) to have people willing to travel so far for a hike.

As time for the trip got closer and the weather forecasts for the weekend started coming in, people started dropping out. I can hardly blame them. The forecast was calling for 100% chance of showers. The rain turned out to not be so bad. It briefly rained hard a couple of times and sprinkled a few times as well but it did not rain all day. Rain all day is the worst.

I won't bore you with logistics or trail specifics. For all the info you'll really need about directions and whatnot, check out the Portland Hikers Eagle Creek Field Guide.

Thanks to Steve, Nancy, Margaret, Paul and Linda for attending. It was a lot of fun!

Group shot at the trailhead
About 12 miles round trip to Tunnel Falls
The trail was blasted into the cliffs in the early 1900s
Lots of steep sections
Metlako Falls
Metlako Falls
Group shot at Metlako Falls
I was a little disapointed that all my hard training would be all for naught. There would be no cliff diving on this trip.
Steve ventured out to the middle of the creek to get a river level shot of Punchbowl Falls.
The water was very cold and you could tell by the pained look on his face. He must have been out there five minutes or so. In years past, I have gone out to get the same picture but the water was about half a foot lower when I went out. Also I had the benefit of wearing a spare pair of shoes that I brought along specifically for getting wet. Steve was barefoot out there!
Punchbowl Falls from above
Loowit Falls
One of my favorite spots
The water looked cold!
If the other bridge is called High Bridge, this one must be called Low Bridge?
This trail has a lot of character. I love how it crosses this talus slope.
The trail enters the Mark O Hatfield area about a mile before Tunnel Falls
And finally - Tunnel Falls!
Isn't this just the coolest thing?
This is my favorite part of the whole trail. This is just after exiting Tunnel Falls. Amazing amount of work went into building this trail.
Twister Falls, AKA Crossover Falls.
Twister Falls was our turnaround point for the day.
This is Steve as he exits the other side of the falls.
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

4 thoughts on “Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls with the PWC”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Click here to Subscribe

Thanks for taking an interest in following me on my adventures. Enter your email address below and click the sign me up button. You should receive a confirmation email momentarily.