Sweet Creek Falls, Oregon

Travel inland from the town of Florence along Oregon Hwy 126 to the town of Mapleton.  Cross the bridge and make an immediate right onto Sweet Creek Rd. Follow this road about 10 miles and you'll come to the trailhead to Sweet Creek Falls. This trail will take you along and above the banks of Sweet Creek. It's an easy to moderate hike and a 2.5 mile roundtrip to the main falls. Along the way, you are treated to a series of smaller waterfalls and great swimming holes.

This trail follows an old wagon trail along the creek. It starts out easy and gradually becomes more difficult. While some of the trail is uneven it's well worth the hike. The scenery is beautiful, the creek is refreshing, the trees and flowers are wonderful and the falls are awesome!

The valley here was settled in 1879 by the Zarah T. Sweets, a family of Oregon Trail pioneers, hence the name of the creek.

While enjoying these pictures, a little history of this area.  The land is this area consists of mudstones, sandstones and an occasional lava flow. All of this rock belongs on the seafloor of the Pacific Ocean. It was brought to the surface only by a quirk of nature. 

The North American continental plate has been advancing westward across the Pacific at the rate of about an inch per year.

About 30 million years ago a chunk of Pacific seafloor buckled up in front of the advancing continent and decided to become land, creating Oregon's Coast Range and the terrain you see here along Sweet Creek. 

These falls are created by the movement of these rocks and plates. The creek is an annual creek.

Jasmine and I went ahead for a bit while Debi stopped for some pictures with her phone to send to the kids.

Here you can see more of the trail.

Another of the many falls along the trail. I can't imagine a wagon being pulled by oxen or horses traveling along this creek.

All along the creek we saw Alder and Maple trees. Above us Douglas Firs, some four to five feet thick stood as silent sentinels watching us as we wandered through this magical place.

Falls can be spectacular whether they are falling hundreds of feet down a sheer overhang or simply dropping four or five feet. The sound the smaller falls make is soothing and relaxing.

Because of the sheer number of falls in this area, you'll be treated to all sizes and shapes of falls. This one had only about a 15' drop.

Jasmine loved exploring this area. Leashes were optional and since she minds very well we had no issue allowing her some freedom. She enjoyed her freedom immensely. 

As with any hike or strenuous activity it's important to rest and drink lots of fluids. Debi and Jasmine found this to be the perfect spot to do just that. Even though the weather was a bit on the cool side, one can become dehydrated very easily without realizing it.

This, we called our Aborigine Chief. We loved his headdress. He wouldn't stop looking at Debi.

Even though we brought fresh water for Jasmine, she thought it would be best if it came straight from the source. After drinking her fill, she decided she'd swim a bit before getting back on the trail. She sure loves the water.

A drink and a swim and it's back to business. We've got another waterfall to see just up ahead. Adventure waits around every bend in the trail.

We were almost to the end of the trail when the creek smoothed out and we were treated to a tiny series of falls. We spent some time here resting before heading up the slope to the final falls.

 SWEET CREEK FALLS

Height---------------70 feet

Drop-----------------30 feet

Number of Drops---4

Average Width-----10 feet

Pitch-----------------81 degrees

Run------------------50 feet 

Form----------------Tiered Plunges

Watershed----------Suislaw River

Stream--------------Sweet Creek

Volume-------------150 CFS

Best Flow----------Spring-Winter

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the full picture of the falls from our vantage point. We are at the top of the falls and to photograph the falls in it's full splendor I'd have to crawl out onto the slippery rocks in the foreground. I've learned some things over the years and putting caution ahead of foolishness is one of them.