Wilhoit Springs Park
At Wilhoit Springs, I was met by the longtime caretakers. Deborah has been there 45 years, and Steve 27. They gave me the grand tour of the small property, first directing me to the TKO trail, which they called the “birdwatcher’s” trail. This short lollipop runs along Rock Creek under tall Douglas-firs and loops around near the edge of a large meadow.
Then we visited the soda springs themselves. Wilhoit Springs was part of John Wilhoit’s land claim in 1866. Wilhoit sold to Frank McLaren, who developed the site into a mineral spring spa and resort. Between about 1890 and 1915, the rustic attraction, with its two mineral springs, was a very popular tourist destination, with its own 40-room hotel, restaurant, store, post office, bathhouse, separate cottages, and bowling alley. For a time, Wilhoit Springs mineral water was bottled and sold throughout the Pacific Northwest. The hotel burned down in 1916, but McLaren quickly replaced it with a large log structure; however when this replacement also burned down in 1928, the resort was closed. A later owner, the Schoenborn family, constructed a few cabins, but these were destroyed in the Columbus Day Storm of 1962. Clackamas County Parks took over administration of the site in the 1970s. None of the buildings remain except for the house of the former owner, constructed in the 1950s, which now is Deborah and Steve’s home.
We remove the cover of the bubbling spring, and Deborah scooped out three beakers before dipping her cup in and taking a long swig. Both Steve and I followed, and then we drank again. Apparently the taste varies from day to day, with that day being more of a soda flavor than metallic. Steve informed me that below the spring conduit is an 8’ x 8’ x 8’ reservoir. Near the soda spring was a second spring, more heavily laden with minerals and reeking of sulfur. This source now has a concrete cap. Then we walked around to Rock Creek again. A rusting waterwheel lies draped by blackberries. I was told it was brought here from the Mangones Coal Mine, about half a mile upstream on Rock Creek. The mine was protected in the 1940s, but the coal was low grade and the extraction not worth the effort.
Our walk ended at a red hand pump on Wilhoit’s old main street, where the hotel and post office once stood.
Metzler Park
This is a full-service park with many amenities, including seasonal campgrounds, a disc golf course, and a ball field. Across a suspension bridge over Clear Creek, however, is a natural hillside of mature Douglas-firs, hemlock, and maple. Probably the star of this area is the swimming hole in Clear Creek, which I visited via a shoreline trail.
Then I went up the Swagger Creek Loop. TKO is constructing a connector from here down to the swimming hole trail. Higher up, TKO’s new trail branches off into the north part of the property. This route traverses the slope before switchbacking down near a clearcut. Then it works its way south near the brushy rim of Clear Creek’s mini-gorge. I thought maybe it would connect to the swimming hole, but it loops up to the traverse section, and I returned to the original loop.
TKO has done a good job refurbishing this loop. On the descent near Swagger Creek, the trail has been rerouted closer to the creek and its lovely cedars.