Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

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trekkerdave
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Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by trekkerdave » December 25th, 2012, 4:50 pm

I’m fairly new to this forum so I hope posting reports from not quite so recent trips is OK. I have several “off-trail” trips from the past year or so to areas that do not appear to have been previously discussed in this forum.

Our goal on this May 2012 trip was to find two Tualatin River waterfalls high in the steep and densely forested canyons of the Coast Range. The first was Ki-a-Kuts Falls, a spectacular 45 foot waterfall that plunges through a very narrow cleft in a basalt rock cliff. The second was Upper Tualatin Falls, whose only reference I could find was on the Northwest Waterfall Survey web page. Although finding Ki-a-Kuts Falls was fairly easy, the Upper Tualatin proved to be a little more challenging.

The starting point for finding Ki-a-Kuts Falls was at the end of a newly constructed logging road. Shown are Michael and Ryan, my bush-whacking partners for the day.
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The route follows the remnants of a very old but easily walkable logging road.
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We jumped a single cow elk in this area. Unfortunately I could not get the camera out in time to get its picture.
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Just before the falls we found a fairly clear path that descends down to the bluffs above the falls.
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View upstream, just above the falls.
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Turns out there was no view of Ki-a-Kuts Falls from the bluff. To get the falls we worked our way downstream to a point where it was safe to descend to the river, crossed to the far bank, and then followed it back upstream. The area below the falls is thick with downed timber.
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Working our way back upstream, we finally reached the base of Ki-a-Kuts Falls.
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The route to Upper Tualatin Falls began at the end of a different logging road (dead ended by a large berm). From there we started down yet another old and overgrown logging road.
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The Upper Tualatin Falls coordinates on the NW Waterfall Survey web page were just upstream from the clearing in this picture.
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Obviously there was no waterfall there. However, the Tualatin forked at this point, with a branch coming in from the left, and a waterfall could barely be seen up its canyon and through the trees (look close in the middle of this picture).
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There were a number of old-growth stumps in this area, probably logged in the early 1900’s.
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Finally, after a fairly difficult bush-whack up the canyon we reached the falls. There is not a lot of water, but the way it flows across the wide rock out-cropping makes it appear to be a little larger than it really is.
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View down the canyon, Ryan is standing at the top of the falls.
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At the end of a great bush-whacking day.
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trekkerdave
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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by trekkerdave » December 25th, 2012, 6:21 pm

Video of Ki-A-Kuts Falls...


Video of Upper Tualatin Falls...

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Rustygoat
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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by Rustygoat » December 25th, 2012, 11:49 pm

Dave...Nice report on those falls. I was out at Lee Falls last month trying to get up to Haines Falls but the road was closed and had no trespassing signs about a half a mile from Haines Falls. I noticed that the Ki-a-Kuts Falls are up stream from there and I was wondering what direction you approached them from? Thanks
Tim

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BrianEdwards
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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by BrianEdwards » December 26th, 2012, 6:00 am

Nice! That's quite an introduction. Ki-a-Kuts is rather unique in its stature, flowing through a narrow chasm in the basalt. Some of those bushwacking conditions look rather time consuming as well. Feel free to post any other waterfall endeavors you have.

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trekkerdave
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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by trekkerdave » December 26th, 2012, 11:39 am

In doing some research on how to actually get up there I found that the only open route was from the south starting at the city of Yamhill. At a gas station at the north end of town you will find Pike Road, follow it in a NW direction out of town. Pike Road eventually turns into Turner Creek Road, which remains paved until the area near Menefee County Park, then it becomes a gravel road. You will follow Turner Creek Road most of the way to Barney Reservoir. There are lots of intersections, but just watch for signs and keep heading in a generally NW direction. Note that there are several gates, but typically they are kept open. You will eventually come to an intersection with Flora Mainline and North Fork Trask River roads. At this point take a right and you will soon come to Barney Reservoir. Continue to follow the road around the reservoir. At the north end of the reservoir the road starts to head a little downhill, passing several logging road intersections. Stay on the main road until you come to an intersection with Sunday Creek Road. Take a right on this road. One of the first roads to the left heads up to where you would start the hike to the Upper Tualatin Falls. Past that, I think (can’t remember for sure) the first road to the right will take you to where you would start the Ki-A-Kuts falls hike. Having a Tillamook State Forest Map or a GPS that shows the logging roads is quite useful. You should also be able to map the route out using Google Earth/Maps.

The GPS location of where we started the Ki-A-Kuts falls hike was N45.46729 W123.39335, for Upper Tualatin Falls it was N45.47680 W123.40523.

As far as degree of difficulty of the hikes to the falls there were some portions that were steep and/or lots of timber to navigate through, but overall it was not that bad (I have done lots harder).

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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by Sore Feet » December 26th, 2012, 2:41 pm

This is great information. I think, however, you guys stopped short of finding the main part of Upper Tualatin Falls. The first documentation of that one was from some of the people who were responsible for documenting Ki-a-kuts Falls back in the late 90s before it was submitted to the Board of Geographic Names and made official. I recall they found two sets of falls along the Tualatin, and I think the smaller (and lower) of the two was probably the one you found. The bigger one is a two-stepped fall and each drop is nearly vertical, and the stream bed around the falls had been scoured out to bedrock when the photo I saw was taken (probably 15 years ago, so it could be nice and messy again). I suspect it's probably not more than 500 feet upstream from where you turned around.

Do you happen to have coordinates of the Upper Tualatin Falls that you found so I can update the location on my website?

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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by trekkerdave » December 26th, 2012, 8:45 pm

Bryan, thanks for the additional information. The coordinates of the falls I assumed to be the “Upper Tualatin Falls” is N45.47953 W123.40667. In the map below the “nwwfs location” is the coordinates I originally got off your web page, and it was at this point that I spotted the waterfall through the trees from the creek coming in from the left. Once we spotted the waterfall we went no further upstream the main trunk of the Tualatin, but instead just headed up the left fork to the falls. From the map the main trunk does later enter several steeper canyons, so maybe the actual “Upper Tualatin Falls” is up there. Sounds like a good excuse to head back up there and find out.
tualatinrivermap.jpg

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trekkerdave
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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by trekkerdave » December 26th, 2012, 9:06 pm

Just looked at Google Earth, from the picture below you can see the location of the falls I found, and the route of the main trunk of the Tualatin further north to where it again forks. Looks like fairly recent logging beyond that.
tualatinrivermap3.jpg

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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by Sore Feet » December 26th, 2012, 11:50 pm

Ok, that all makes sense now. I couldn't quite visualize your route just looking at the map. I suspect the bigger falls is on the left fork of the main stem of the river, just above where the obvious "Y" split is upstream from where you bailed off to go up the tributary. That or its just upstream of the one you found on the trib.

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Re: Upper Tualatin River Waterfalls

Post by Rustygoat » December 27th, 2012, 2:14 pm

Thanks for the info Dave. :)
Tim

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