This is a beautiful 15.1 mile trail through old forest and past waterfalls. Most people ride this as a shuttle, but for a strenuous day, ride it as an out-and-back or ride up Old Man Pass through old-growth forest, for approximately 25 miles in the saddle. Expect the ride to take 4-5 hours if you don’t shuttle.
The trail cuts through the woods on the right side of the road, giving you about 1.5 miles of singletrack before you ride a mile or two on a gravel road. The trail alternates between short road sections and long singletrack sections. There are lots of turns and two places where the trail runs through campgrounds, and the signage isn’t good. Carry a map or bring someone along who knows the trail.
The singletrack is awesome. Expect lots of fun corners and small root drops and short rocky sections. Any intermediate cross-country rider with a 4″ bike will be fine riding the downhill. Freeriders in jeans and pads are not going to like this trail; there’s just too much climbing, even on the downhill. Most of the elevation drop is in the last few miles of trail, a steep sidehill filled with hikers on their way to Falls Creek Falls.
Directions: From Hood River, cross the Port of Hood River bridge and then head west on highway 14. Just after passing over the Wind River bridge and before you reach Stevenson, head north on forest road 30 toward Carson. Stay on road 30 through Carson to forest road 3062 which leads to the lower Falls Creek trailhead. If you’re shuttling, leave a car here and then head back to road 30 and continue north over Old Man Pass. Park at McClellan Meadows Sno-park on the right (or on the pullout on the left) at the top of the pass. Another way to do this is to hitchhike up the 30 Road to Old Man pass. Secret tip: turn your bike upside down next to the road and people will stop for you, thinking you have a flat tire.
5 replies on “Falls Creek”
Went alone Yesterday. Parked at FR-30 and FR-3062 thinking I was going to ride up to the trail head. I was lucky however and got a shuttle ride to the top by a nice lady waiting at te bottom for her husband and sons to finish the ride. Once I finished the trail I felt as if I should have ridden the road and done the entire loop because this trail isn’t much work if you shuttle. It gradually assends to the middle and is down hill the other half.
You can find great directions at (http://evergreenmtb.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trail:Falls_Creek).
When I got to the caves I found three girl riders sunning them selves. They had ridden the trail many times but didn’t know there were caves so we explored them together. Very cool feature of this ride. I ran into some other riders at the falls who didn’t know about the caves either LOL. The trail is great shape, not dusty, and from the caves on down is fast and fun. After the falls there were many hikers so be careful. I ran a couple off the trail because I couldn’t slow down fast enough and the exposure left me no where to turn out.
Jared reports Falls Creek is in epic condition. As always.
Probably one of the most fun downhills around. Great shuttle – trail is amazing right now. Beautiful scenery; lava tubes are cool. Don’t forget a headlamp to check out the ice caves and as Chris said there are a lot of mosquitos! I am paying for it today but it was well worth it. Repellent is probably a good idea.
Fall’s creek is completely clear of snow and debris from Old Man Pass. Trail is in epic shape! don’t stop though, LOTS of mosquitos!
Falls Creek is reported as open and snow-free from Old Man Pass as of Sunday, June 14th, 2009.