Umbrella & Sahalie Falls Loop Hike 8/29/2014

[forestkeeper]

After having a lot of fun hiking the Jefferson Park Ridge Trail last weekend, it dawned on me that Fall is just about here, so I better hit a few of the higher elevated trails before the white stuff comes down. So this weekend (Friday is actually my Saturday) I decided to hike the Umbrella Falls Loop hike. I learned yesterday from the Field Guide that Hood River Meadow has some pretty awesome wildflower blooms.

I arrived at the Elk Meadows TH just before 10 am, which is located off of Hwy 35 just past the Mt. Hood Meadows exit. There's lots of parking at the TH and there's a porta potty here too.

Getting on the trail, I saw the old Umbrella Falls signpost.

After 1/4 mile from the TH, you get to the Elk Meadows/ Umbrella Falls junction, where I headed west on the #667. The trail throughout the loop is well defined and pretty smooth.

After you get a little ways up the trail, you can see Hood River Meadows below.

And glimpses of the top of Mt. Hood to the north.

These two rocky peaks would look pretty cool under my feet. I'll have to return soon to check them out.

Saw some really big cones.

And a pretty, natural wildflower arrangement.

After about 1 1/2 miles, I finally was getting close to Umbrella Falls.

After a quarter mile west of the sign, I came upon my 1st waterfall, Umbrella Falls. Not quite sure how they named this waterfall, but it looked pretty impressive.

After taking about 30 pics, I started down the Sahalie Trail 667c. Here's a couple nice wildflowers I encountered along the way.

After traveling a mile down to where I thought Sahalie Falls should have been, I found out that the trail that leads down to the waterfall's base was a little more cliffy and steep than I anticipated so I bushwacked down to the old highway and back to an old bridge to capture a few shots of the waterfall.

After about 3/4 of a mile, the trail joins the old highway with just about another quarter mile to the TH parking lot.

Here's a shot of Hood River Meadows with beautiful Mt. Hood in the background.

Hiked 4.91 miles with an EG of 800'. A really fun trail that is easy and children friendly and not too populated on a Friday. After my Umbrella Falls lop hike, I drove up to Timberline Lodge and hiked another couple miles on the Timberline Trail.

[kmcdade]

Okay, I need to do this one before the snow flies, too. Someone else recommended it to me. Great pics!

[Limey]

Love that hike. Check out my post from 8/15, Splintercat gave an explanation for the naming of the falls.

[sprengers4jc]

Yep, a fun one, for sure. My wife and I did that one the first weekend of August and then Elk Meadows the third week. Both were awesome, both were worth doing again at some point. I'm hoping to hit the Mountaineers little loop below the Magic Mile chairlift at some point, too.

[Boozeman]

Great TR and pics!!!

It's funny you mentioned the "trail" at Sahalie Falls. The first time I went out there I was like "Is this a trail? This looks like a cliff???" . Eventually I kind of did the same thing that you did and scramble/bushwacked (Scramblewacked?) my way down to the bottom. I really enjoyed that hike a lot.

[woodswalker]

I really like that hike, wildflowers, little creeklets, nice occasional views to the east and up to Hood and a waterfall surrounded by an alpine meadow! If you like that area I also like the Newton creek trail that heads up from the Elk meadows trail just before you cross Newton Creek. It goes up to the junction with the Timberline trail which you can take just another 1/4 mile to a nice alpine meadow and the views across Newton are fantastic on the way up. I think that's a great destination, but you can also do a longer and more difficult loop over to Umbrella falls via the Timberline as well.
Woodswalker