Day Trip To Toketee

The other day we went on a little picnic trip to Toketee Falls.  Instead of taking the more direct route we went the back way and stopped at a little place called Medicine Creek Rock Shelter.

On the way there we spotted a very young black bear cub running across the road. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough before he disappeared into the forest. I surely didn't want to run after him in case his mama was about. He was cute though, reminded me of an obese Laborador Retriever huffing along.

There is a small parking lot and a short zig zag trail to the giant boulder. I guess I forgot to take an overall picture of the big rock but you can see it by clicking this link. 

At first I was a little disappointed when we first walked up. That is until I saw the petroglyphs!

Some of them are kind of hard to make out as they are rather old and worn.

Clyde enjoyed them too.

There was a paper pamphlet at the site showing the location of the various petroglyphs but even with that they were kind of hard to figure out. I believe this is the first time I've seen petroglyphs in real life! So that made it extra special for me.

We continued on our journey up through the Forest Service road. We passed through the Boulder Creek Wilderness area.

In 1996 there was a large fire, called the Spring Fire.

It burned 16,500 acres.

We didn't see much in the way of new trees growing but these blooming wildflower shrubs covered the ground.

A little further up and our path was blocked.

Between the two of us we cleared a space big enough for the truck to fit through.

Something I never thought about or knew before was that there are so many wild rhododendrons everywhere. Of course they were all the same color (pink) but very pretty.

Mount Thielson off in the distance.

More proof of bears. Scat in the middle of the road. (Lovely, I know!)

More rhododendrons.

We got to the other side and passed by Toketee Lake. It's not real big, about 76 acres. 

A little further on and we got to the Falls parking lot. This giant wooden flume runs along the road.

The information kiosk at the trailhead.

The trail was actually fairly nice. There were fences and railings and stairs going up and down along the side of the North Umpqua River. Lots of stairs. Lots and lots. 

Finally we got to the falls.

Very beautiful.

Did I mention the stairs?

On the way back to the parking lot a look back at the observation platform.

See, more of the wild rhodies along the trail, though this one is kind of spindly.

One last look at the flume.

It was a really nice day trip. One of the highlights for me was seeing the bear cub since that's so rare. The worst thing was all those stairs. See, I've got the 3 O's.  I'm old, overweight, and definitely out of shape. I think I may have mentioned that in previous posts. Anyway, the next day I could barely walk because my calves were so sore and tender. In fact, my left calf got swollen up. I had to keep my feet up for a few days. The right leg got better after about four days but the left one took a couple days longer. Ouch. 

But it was worth it.