When you’ve climbed Black Butte, made it to the top – the very top – of Upper Chush Falls, notched Black Crater, and want even more, then the 50-minute bucolic ride to Scout Camp Loop Trail will slake your thirst for adventure in Sisters.
Getting there is a fantasy trip itself through pastoral hay and orchard grass fields, and sprawling cattle ranches. You’ll drive past an alpaca ranch with over 1,000 head of the lovable creatures who will come right up to the fence to say hi. Any map app takes you past a vineyard or two, a wildlife preserve, and a 570-acre deactivated diatomaceous earth mine with its otherworldly white crystalline dunes.
The trailhead has ample parking and the locals cannot recall it ever being full. The trail seldom shows up on any “best of” lists for Central Oregon, but once you get into the reviews of the most popular online trail blogs, all at once its prominence rises easily to the top five in all of Oregon.
It’s deceptive at only three miles. It’s not a walk in the woods. The lollipop loop starts out easy enough through generous junipers until you quickly reach the loop. BLM, on whose land it rests, asks that you go clockwise, and for good reason.
Now it’s down, way down — 718 feet — in very short order. Using a series of switchbacks as you wind your way deep into the canyons to the riverbed below, you are treated – make that blown away — by some of the most breathtaking views you’ll find anywhere in Oregon.
The hike follows the upper Deschutes River, full of fish and deep pools punctuated by roaring rapids. The river is walled on both sides by cliffs, some sheer, and many housing raptors and dozens of other bird species.
This is not a hike to take with young children or dogs, or if you are afraid even a little of heights. Poles are helpful. At its closest point to the river, about 50 feet, you will have to boulder twice to continue. This can be a challenge and deal-breaker for some.
It is at this point where the Whychus, which runs through Sisters, now cascading, has its confluence with the Deschutes. It is teeming with birds and beauty. Plan to go early in the day especially in the summer months. For an optimal experience picnic on one of the many dramatic outcroppings.
Then head back to Sisters and revel in the memories that will last forever.
The Waterfall Trail
Make a day outing to the waterfalls trail. Head west on Highway 20, and at the junction with Highway 126 (National Scenic Byway), follow it and the well-marked signs to the pristine McKenzie River’s Sahalie Falls with a spacious parking lot. Sahalie Falls is a mass of foaming white water plunging 100 feet over a natural lava dam. This famous falls can be spotted in Disney’s “Homeward Bound.”
The Sahalie Falls viewing platform is less then 100 feet from the parking lot and is wheelchair accessible. An easy and wildly scenic 2.6-mile roundtrip trail brings you downriver to Koosah Falls, a 70-foot drop into a deep pool.
These falls mark the terminus of two thick flows of basaltic andesite lava that dammed Clear Lake and moved into the McKenzie River 3,000 years ago.
Sahalie, meaning “heaven,” and Koosah, meaning “sky,” are Chinook jargon words — part of a rudimentary trade language that allowed people to exchange news and goods in the area. The Kalapuya, Molalla, Sahaptin, and Chinook peoples traveled and traded here, perhaps on their way to obtain obsidian in the high Cascades or to gather huckleberries.
Both sites feature parking, interpretive panels that tell the story of area geology, restrooms, and observation points.
Next stop is Proxy Falls by continuing down Highway 126 to the junction of Highway 242 (McKenzie Highway). Make the only turn and drive nine miles to the trailhead for the splendid 1.6-mile loop trail.
Proxy Falls is a cascade and plunge waterfall from a collection of springs that plunges into a gaping canyon near McKenzie Pass. The waterfall sports an impressive main drop of 226 feet, which makes it one of the highest plunge waterfalls in Oregon.
Continue the loop by driving Highway 242 all the way back to Sisters with a stop at Dee Wright Observatory.
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