Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Discussions and Trip Reports for off-trail adventures and rediscovering lost trails
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bobcat
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Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by bobcat » April 16th, 2014, 4:31 pm

Suffering from a somewhat debilitating bout of late- spring rhinorrhea, I decided on a fairly mild outing to the wild and woolly western marches of Washington County. The trip to both of these features takes you past the Barney Reservoir, Hillsboro’s water source, and through private timberland into the Tillamook State Forest. Neither feature is on the maps.

Ki-A-Kuts Falls is reached via Yamhill: Pike Road to Turner Creek Road to North Fork Trask River Road to Sunday Creek Road to Maple Creek Road, the last three being unsigned. Maple Creek Road has been fairly recently regraveled to aid in the fabrication of a clearcut and you can drive down to a logging landing and park. From there, you hike the old road bed to a slide that puts a section of the track several yards down the slope. From the slide, I took rather obvious elk trails down through the sword ferns to the Tualatin River, here just a stream 2 ½ miles from its source. Heading upstream, I clambered over the usual logjams to get a full-on view of Ki-A-Kuts Falls, a 40-foot drop squeezed between two imposing faces of columnar basalt. Trillium and violets were blooming at the base, and a pair of dippers were flitting about, their nest tucked into the rock face somewhere near the lip of the torrent.
Trailhead, Maple Creek Road.jpg
Maple Creek Road, Tillamook State Forest.jpg
Approaching Ki-A-Kuts Falls, Tualatin River.jpg
Ki-A-Kuts Falls, Tualatin River.jpg
Ki-A-Kuts Falls was only “discovered” in 1993 by a team of Tualatin Riverkeepers as part of their efforts to track the river’s entire course. By the end of the 1990s, the USGS had agreed to lend the falls a name, that of the last chief of the Atfalati Kalapuyans. It is quite likely that others knew of these falls before 1993, but they had never been permanently recorded until then. There is an elk trail before the slide that leads to a clifftop view of the defile at the top of the falls, but there is no view of the falls themselves from above.
Elk trail leading up from Ki-A-Kuts Falls, Tualatin River.jpg
I continued down the mossy, overgrown remnants of Maple Creek Road until its end and then found a vestige of a cat track leading down to the confluence of the Tualatin River and Maple Creek, where I tarried a while in warm sunshine. There are timber sale signs all along the uphill side of this abandoned logging road, so the scenery is due to change fairly soon.
Tualatin River near confluence with Maple Creek.jpg
Confluence, Tualatin River and Maple Creek.jpg
Looking up Maple Creek.jpg
My next destination was farther down the North Fork Trask River Road. I parked about 100 yards above the bridge that crosses the North Fork Trask and headed west on a well-used and very muddy jeep track. Where the track split, the right fork led to a hunter’s camp. The left fork, which is the way I had to go, has been very recently decommissioned, perhaps last fall. It has been bermed and trenched and whole alders, an expendable tree in these parts, have been dragged over it. So what should have been a boggy road walk became a bushwhack until I reached the Middle Fork North Fork Trask River. There’s a 35-yard ford to do here, but it is only knee-deep. Once on the other side, the jeep track, now only blemished by natural reclamation, cut across a wide meander in the Middle Fork North Fork Trask and ended at a steep and unstable bluff.
Jeep track, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Decommissioned jeep track, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Sword fern fiddleheads, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Ford, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Looking back at the ford, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Oregon wood-sorrel (Oxalis oregana), Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
I skittered down the bluff to the river and made my way upstream, usually with one foot in the water as there was no verge to speak of. Stairstep Falls came into view. This is not really a waterfall, but a series of “steps” in the riverbed, maybe about 12 in all, an interesting feature resulting from eroded alternate layers of sedimentary and volcanic rock and breccia, all part of an ancient ocean floor. You can get to about the middle of the “falls” before it requires a dunking to go farther.
Below Stairstep Falls, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Stairstep Falls, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg
Closeup, Stairstep Falls, Middle Fork North Fork Trask River.jpg

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BrianEdwards
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Re: Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by BrianEdwards » April 16th, 2014, 5:44 pm

Nice!

I'd actually never heard of Stairstep Falls til this report. Kinda reminds me of Carter Bridge Rapids on the Clackamas. Great day of off-trailin'
Clackamas River Waterfall Project - 95 Documented, 18 to go.

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Rustygoat
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Re: Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by Rustygoat » May 4th, 2014, 1:49 pm

Wow...I missed this TR! Very cool trip Bobcat, thanks for sharing. :)
Tim

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kidsherpa
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Re: Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by kidsherpa » September 28th, 2014, 5:31 pm

Anyone know if the weyerhauser gate on the way up is open? I'm hoping to do this hike in the next couple of weeks, but have heard that sometimes the gate is locked.

Thanks for the help.

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bobcat
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Re: Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by bobcat » September 30th, 2014, 6:12 am

No idea, I'd just go with a backup plan in case it is closed, but now that it's hunting season it should be open at least on weekends.

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Peder
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Re: Ki-A-Kuts and Stairstep Falls

Post by Peder » September 30th, 2014, 6:25 am

The "Stairstep Falls" look magnificent! I am amazed how you always manage to go to places I have never heard of! I will try to work in a visit to the Stairstep Falls in my lifetime, so I have bookmarked this page. Thank you!
Some people are really fit at eighty; thankfully I still have many years to get into shape…

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