The Clackamas River Highway, Hwy 224, partially opened up a couple weeks ago; it’s been closed since the 2020 Riverside Fire. We drove up this past Saturday. It’s only open up to Ripplebrook Ranger Station (can’t get to road 46 to Timothy Lake nor can you get to the Collawash River).

There is a lot of construction still happening due to extreme rock falls and landslide areas, so it’s a long drive due to extended wait times at these areas. They have opened up the spots along the river for dropping off rafters and whitewater-ers.

All the campgrounds are gone (Roaring River, Sun Strip, Fish Creek, etc.). All the side roads are closed off. It’s an overwhelming drive for someone that’s been enjoying the Clackamas Valley for all my adult life.

Years ago, I lost my password and ability to get into my Blogger account.  Finally figured it out today and now I'm back online.  

Now what's been going on?  

Sold my Jeep and now have a 4Runner.  Turns out it's too nice to get scratched up and thus many roads I used to travel I can't without fear of ruining my paint.  Sounds funny to type it out, but 1) it's true and, 2) Jeep paint on a 1999 Wrangler was MUCH tougher than modern Toyota paint.

This weekend's trip was up Canyon Creek in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  It was a weird trip.  The roads up Canyon creek don't really go anywhere, they drive up through a deep narrow dark canyon and sort of peter out.

I started east of Amboy on NF54.  Here's a view from Canyon Creek campground.  It's a beautiful spot, although dark and chilly in mid afternoon as it seems the sun never shines down in this deep canyon.

I came across this German word today, Waldeinsamkeit. 

Waldeinsamkeit consists of two words: “Wald” meaning forest, and “Einsamkeit” meaning loneliness or solitude. It is the feeling of being alone in the woods, but it also hints at a connectedness to nature.

This is a good description of how I feel driving my Jeep around in the woods.  I love exploring new areas and discovering new vistas.

Took a day trip up to the Big Lava Beds in Gifford Pinchot.  At least that was my goal.  I didn't make it as I was stopped by snow at about 3500 feet on the NF60 road, a couple miles short of Goose Lake.  The couple small storms we had the second week of January dumped a bit of snow in the mountains.

Stopped here near the NF60/NF65 intersection to take some pictures.  It was cold here, well below freezing. 

I saw a large herd of elk pass by at this location.

Took a drive up in the woods today towards High Rocks. There was no snow, even as high as 4000' we encountered just small bits of snow.

On the way out of the woods we stopped at Timothy Lake. The lake was snowless and had a 4-6" layer of ice. The kids had a blast walking out on the lake. Usually the roads into Timothy are covered by at least 4' of snow by this time of year, so this is a rare sight.

It's been a weird dry winter so far here in the Pacific Northwest.

Took a trip out to the Merrill Lake area today.  I've been wanting to scout this area out a while and although it was pouring heavy all day I was able to check out a lot of areas for future camping.  I first drove past Merrill Lake itself and checked out several roads in that area. 

Then on to Kalama Horse Camp.  This area is very interesting, it's very flat and has a lot of dispersed camping spots nearby.  I hope to get up here more often.

Then I drove up to the Goat Marsh Research Area.

I decided to go out to the east side of Mt Hood, an area I rarely venture out to.  My destination was Indian Springs.  I followed my GPS and drove out I-84.  Once into the woods I ventured on various poorly marked roads and after several dead ends and a wild ride through a small section of ATV trails I finally ended up at Kingsley Reservoir.  A place I'd never even heard of until I ended up there. 

Back on pavement, I was able to navigate to Indian Springs via Wathum Lake Road.

I took a trip up to the Skookum Meadows area.  I decided to drive around the 3230 road that skirts the north side of the meadows.  It's an interesting drive.  It's characterized by a lot of dense new growth with a few freshly logged areas and some areas of older second growth.  The dense areas have that crazy dark spooky "feel" to them.

Here's one of the open spots on the ridge line of road 3230 that has a great view to the north that shows the upper Lewis River drainage.

Mt St.

I'd been trying to get to this remote lake for a while.  The direct route via the road that parallels the Collawash River has been cut off due to a wash out at Ogre Creek, so I had to nearly drive to Detroit Lake and backtrack to get to this lake. 

You have to park and hike about a quarter mile into this lake.

It's a beautiful small lake.  There were constant "plops" as fish jumped out of the water.
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