Today we’re going hiking just east of Richland Creek Wilderness, in Wild
River Hollow. ‘Wild River’ isn’t
actually a river, it’s a creek and not a very long one at that. I suppose Rick Henry felt obligated to give
this place a name when he documented at least 14 water features. I for one am
glad he did, any place this beautiful, deserves to have a name. Some of his readers are giving him ‘grief’ for
references like ‘un-named falls on an un-named creek’ (yes, guilty as charged).
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tight and rugged Wild River
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Rick points out that Richland Creek is a
nationally designated ‘Wild and Scenic River’ and this little tributary steam
is certainly ‘wild’ in its own right, thus this appropriate name. About halfway between the entrance to
Richland Campground and the concrete bridge over Richland Creek is an old road
to the east. We pull in here and park at
a wide spot off the road, there are a couple more places to park further up the road if your vehicle can handle the ruts rocks and mud.
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small falls on Wild River
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Hiking east from the parking spot on the old road, first down then back
up a little ravine and after that the road levels out. Staying on the old road for almost a mile we pass
a couple nice campsites, with lots of nice views of Richland Creek down below not to mention wildflowers everywhere. Hiking on this old road is easy, wide, clear and mostly level. Along the
way we spot a place or two where access down to Richland Creek doesn’t look too difficult, but we stay up on the road.
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Indian Paintbrush (I think)
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Until we leave the road where the slope
uphill to the south isn’t too steep, we
angle our way upward to the southeast and after 100 yards come to another higher old
road trace. Once on the road we continue
east, this old road is more of a trail, mostly clear of undergrowth and
easy enough to follow but not the nice, wide walkway that was the case down
below. Soon the old road makes a turn to
the south, where we enter the ‘Wild River’ drainage.
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rugged beauty of Wild River
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And here the old road fizzles out, now just a volunteer trail, or
‘trails’ as multiple hiking options appear.
We choose one that angles down toward the creek, the trail soon disappears completely, we bushwhack our way slowly down to the creek. As we get close to the creek, we can hear
splashing water both up and downstream. Wild River is in a tight little canyon, either direction is rough going.
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small falls upstream
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We head downstream as this looks to be easier
and in less than 50 feet come to a nice little waterfall with a twist. It is difficult to get a good straight-on
view, I climb down onto a big boulder perched at the edge of the creek and snap
a couple quick pics before climbing back up. We make our way upstream and cross the creek, slowly I might add,
again, it's rough terrain in a narrow, steep canyon with big slabs of rock wedged
in the creek at all angles.
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'Wild River'
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During the next 100 yards
or less we see many little 2 to5 foot waterfalls and some short cascades. This route upstream puts
us smack-dab in the middle of a big patch of poison ivy with huge vertical
slabs of rock blocking our way further upstream. The canyon walls on both sides of the creek
are too steep for us to try and climb out, we back out downstream the way we
came in. |
Blue Phlox
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Deciding it probably wise to
head out before one of us falls, we retrace our route back up to the upper old
road trace. Back on the old road right
at the turn out of Wild River Hollow we meet a little mouse and her baby right
on the trail. I don’t know much about
mice, but this baby must not be very old as its eyes are still closed. It stumbles around a little then locating
momma follows her into a hollow rotten log half buried on the old road. You just never know what you'll find in the great outdoors. |
Waldo the baby mouse
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Wild River Hollow is a very easy hike getting to the hollow, once in the hollow though, is a different story. Today we didn’t get
far once at the creek, there are many more waterfalls upstream from where
we turned around. When we come back, it’ll be earlier in the year before the poison ivy takes
over and after a good rain when the falls should look impressive. It was still a
great hike and Wild River Hollow is a beautiful little creek, today we hiked 3
miles with just under 500 feet total elevation gain.
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butterflies on the road
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Wild River Hollow: Statistics Chart 46 The old road (FR92089A) with multiple parking
spots spread out over the first quarter mile is about 280 feet north of the entrance
to Richland Creek Campground or 315 feet
south of the concrete bridge over Richland Creek, until you know where it is, it’s easy
to miss. Where you park along
this road largely depends on what you’re driving and how far you want to hike,
and of course you should avoid blocking the road.
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base map before fair use alterations is property of USFS Forest Service-
-licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 U.S. License |
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