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Gales Creek Hike

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

TKO put tools to trail here.png
Gales Creek at the Gales Creek Forest Camp (bobcat)
Gales Creek near the Storey Burn junction (bobcat)
Salal-covered stump, Gales Creek Trail (bobcat)
Waterfall near the source of the creek, Gales Creek Trail (bobcat)
Gales Creek Trail route to Bell Camp Road (bobcat)
  • Start point: Gales Creek TrailheadRoad.JPG
  • End point: Bell Camp Road Trailhead
  • Hike type: In and out
  • Distance: 13.6 miles
  • Elevation gain: 2040 feet
  • High point: 2520 feet
  • Difficulty: Difficult
  • Seasons: All year
  • Family Friendly: No
  • Backpackable: Yes
  • Crowded: No

Contents

Hike Description

Gales Creek was the origin of the first two Tillamook Burns of 1933 and 1939, both initiated during summer logging operations. The burns (there were two more major burns in 1945 and 1951) have defined the current ecology of this part of the Coast Range, with nitrogen-fixing alders seeding naturally on the slopes and millions of conifers, mainly Douglas-firs, being hand-planted. Other natural events have taken place since. The central portion of the Gales Creek Trail, in the heart of the Tillamook Burn, was closed for five years between the Winter of 2007-08 and Summer 2012 so that the part of the trail that ran along the east bank of the creek could be rerouted to the west bank. Numerous slides and washouts in the 07-08 winter necessitated three miles of new trail and, during construction, a trail worker was killed by a tumbling boulder after dynamiting a rock face, thus prolonging the project. Nowadays, hikers can enjoy a gradually ascending walk in and out of small gullies as they follow the course of Gales Creek almost to its source. After crossing Gales Creek, the trail ascends to Bell Camp Road and then drops to reach Reehers Camp (described in the North Gales Creek Trail Hike).

In the winter months, the road down to the Gales Creek Trailhead may be gated. In that case, use the Gales Creek Winter Trailhead: park at (but do not block) the gate right off Highway 6. Note that while you could backpack this trail, there are no established campsites along the route.

From the Gales Creek Trailhead, walk left to the trail sign where the Gales Creek Trail resumes. This is just before Rogers Road crosses the bridge to the campground area. The sign tells you that Bells Camp Road is 6.0 miles from here. A plaque on a mossy rock honors Randy Hodges, the contracted trail builderwho was killed. Head up the trail under Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and alder. Soon you are looking down on Gales Creek, with its many log jams. The campground area is across the creek. Large stumps with springboard notches attest to the logging of massive old growth before the Tillamook Burn. Keep traversing up and then drop past a large Douglas-fir, the lone old growth tree on this hike, and one that survived the conflagrations. Reach a bridge over a tributary and then the footbridge at the Gales Creek-Storey Burn Trail Junction.

Go right here and walk down towards Gales Creek under cottonwoods and alders. The trail ascends west of the creek up an old road bed bulldozed during salvage operations after the Tillamook Burn. Look to the left for the bullet-riddled remains of a washer and dryer that were dumped here. The tread leaves the road bed and soon drops to rejoin it. Traverse gradually up and cross a creek below a slope of Douglas-fir, hemlock, alder and some western red-cedar. Then the trail undulates above an alder bottomland where Gales Creek braids. A clearcut is visible through the trees on the opposite hillside. In a gully, a waterfall gushes behind a thicket of young big-leaf maples. Soon the trail drops above another alder bottomland and begins to rise and fall on a road bed. Look across Gales Creek to see a tall waterfall tumbling down the creek's steep east bank. Cross more creeks as the trail rises in a carpet of oxalis and sword fern. Traverse a massive slide created during the Winter 1996 floods and now cloaked by a dense growth of young red alder.

From here, step over a creek in a gully, and keep ascending high above Gales Creek. Then the trail drops and crosses a bouldery creek bed and debris flow, also from the 1996 floods. Rise again above another alder bottomland on Gales Creek. After you come to another creek, switchback up twice before crossing an old road bed. Then the trail heads in and out of a gully with a rushing stream and rises above a campsite from the salvaging days. You'll pass under big-leaf maples into another gully and, as the trail rises again, step over several small streams. Eventually, the trail drops to a road bed, leaves it, and then rejoins it. Switchback off the road bed, and make another switchback in a carpet of salal and Oregon grape. You cross over a much smaller Gales Creek now at the base of a pretty waterfall, head steeply up, and then traverse through salal under a canopy of second-growth Douglas-firs that have been thinned. The trail rises in an eroded gully, crosses a spur of Bell Camp Road, and heads gently up a road bed to the signed Bell Camp Road Trailhead. There is parking to the west of the trailhead sign. The short, sharp mountain biking descent known as Ravens Ridge begins past here.

Cross the road and shortly come to another spur road, which you cross to begin the descent to Reehers Camp, 3.4 miles from here (see the North Gales Creek Trail Hike).

This is the central, and longest, section of the Gales Creek Trail. The three sections are:

Maps

Fees, Regulations, etc.

  • Share trail with mountain bikers
  • Seasonal campground with restrooms and picnic tables

Trip Reports

Related Discussions / Q&A

Guidebooks that cover this hike

  • 25 Hikes on Oregon's Tillamook Coast by Adam Sawyer
  • Hiking from Portland to the Coast by James D. Thayer
  • Afoot & Afield: Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
  • 50 Hikes in the Tillamook and Clatsop State Forests by the Sierra Club, Oregon Chapter
  • 50 Hikes in the Tillamook State Forest by the Tillamook State Forest Committee, Columbia Group Sierra Club
  • 100 Hikes: Oregon Coast by William L. Sullivan
  • Kissing the Trail by John Zilly

More Links


Contributors

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