Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: Portland/Vancouver. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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At 1.6 miles, just as the trail reaches creek level, you cross a good-sized but unnamed side creek. In early spring this crossing can be a bit intimidating, so look for a log just downstream. After the creek crossing, the trail makes a couple of uphill switchbacks and then descends near the base of an old clear-cut before resuming its up-and-down pattern. At 3 miles you make a sometimes tricky crossing of another good-sized side creek, this time in the middle of a steep, sliding cascade that doesn’t quite merit the title “waterfall.”

Black Hole Falls, North Siouxon Creek

More uneventful but attractive forest hiking takes you to 4.5 miles, where you turn right onto a spur trail signed BLACK HOLE. This path switchbacks downhill for 0.2 mile to the base of Black Hole Falls, easily the scenic highlight of the trip. Thundering over a basalt cliff and filling a terrific (but cold) swimming hole at its base, this 55-foot waterfall is an impressive sight. In the spring, when the water is high, the spray from the falls fills the rocky amphitheater here providing constant moisture for the mosses and ferns that cling to the rock face. Expect to see dippers, chunky little gray birds that live along mountain streams, feeding in the creek and tending a nest behind the falls. This waterfall is an ideal lunch spot. Unfortunately, there is no adequate campsite in the area, so hikers must make this a day trip.