Trail map and footbridge near the trailhead, Clay Creek Loop (bobcat)

Oregon flag (Iris tenax), Clay Creek Loop (bobcat)

Old-growth Douglas-fir on the Clay Creek Loop (bobcat)

The loop hike at the BLM's Clay Creek Recreation Site (bobcat) Courtesy: Caltopo

• Start point: Clay Creek Trailhead
• End point: Clay Ridge Summit
• Hike Type: Lollipop loop
• Distance: 2.1 miles
• Elevation gain: 500 feet
• High Point: 930 feet
• Difficulty: Easy
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: Yes
• Backpackable:No
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

Like the Bureau of Land Management’s Whittaker Creek Recreation Area, the same agency’s Clay Creek Recreation Site offers camping, day use facilities and a short loop trail that leads up a ridge of old-growth Douglas-firs. The trails at Whittaker Creek and Clay Creek were both constructed in 1991, with the Clay Creek Trail recently refurbished and restored to its original loop layout.

From the parking pullout, walk 50 yards down the road to a trailhead sign and map fashioned by a Cole Spring Eagle Scout troop. You’ll immediately cross a footbridge over Clay Creek, which runs under rustling red alders, big-leaf maples, and drooping salmonberry bushes. A trail register post no longer sports a register, so continue to the right to pass your first big Douglas-fir. You’ll also get a glimpse of the confluence of Clay Creek with the Siuslaw River. The trail switchbacks up twice in a mixed forest of big-leaf maple, vine maple, Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and western red-cedar. You’ll pass through a cutting in a massive fallen Douglas-fir and then through the same tree again where it’s six feet in diameter. A few steps set in the trail take you up to the loop junction, where you can keep left.

The trail immediately switchbacks up twice and makes a traverse in more open woods with some madrones and spring-blooming iris. Four more switchbacks take you up to a large bench on the ridge crest. From here, you’ll hike up to the high point of the hike, where there’s another bench under a big Douglas-fir. The trail then descends past more large Douglas-firs and also a few madrones before switchbacking off the ridge to reach the loop junction, where you’ll keep left to descend to the trailhead.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Oregon Central Coast

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• $5 day-use fee or BLM Northwest Oregon Pass or America the Beautiful Pass required
• Picnic tables, restrooms, campground
• Campground closed and gated Labor Day to Memorial Day

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Clay Creek Loop Hike

• Central Coast Range 06-15-21 and 06-16-21

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Clay Creek Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• 100 Hikes: Oregon Coast by William L. Sullivan
• 75 Hikes in Oregon's Coast Range and Siskiyous by Rhonda & George Ostertag

More Links

• Clay Creek Recreation Site (BLM)
• Clay Creek Recreation Site (brochure) (BLM)
• Clay Creek (Oh Ranger)
• Clay Creek Trail (All Trails)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)