Rock Creek Fish Hatchery

We've always driven by the Rock Creek Fish Hatchery so with the kids here for Easter vacation we took advantage and stopped.  The first thing we did is grab some change from the console so we could buy some fish food and feed the fish.

Feeding in the "big pond".

There were a couple of different holding areas. Each pen held different sized fish. 

Feeding frenzy!

These orb weaver type spiders were everywhere on the rails around the fish pens. Ugh!

This was a chute that ran from/to Rock Creek. I think the fish returning to spawn enter from the creek and run up the chute to a holding pen.

This is the pen that is at the end of the above chute.  I'm sorry but I have to kind of giggle at this point. Many of you know we are looking to buy a house/property. There is some realtor in this area that is advertising a house with an arena and "roping shoot". Interesting. Anyway...

This is part of the grounds of the hatchery. The building on the left is an informational classroom, closed when we were there.

More of the grounds. The chute leading from the creek is on the rightl.

Here you can see the fish trying to swim up the water coming out of the pipe!

The Falls With The Kids

The kids were visiting for Easter week vacation so we wanted to show them around. Of course we had to take them to see Susan Creek Falls and Fall Creek Falls.

Here is a western trillium flower on the easy Susan Creek Falls walk. You can sure see why it's called "trillium".

 And then we drove to the top of Fall Creek Falls and walked down to the bottom of the falls.

This is some sort of violet. We couldn't figure out exactly which one. We think either a round leaf or an evergreen. They both look very similar, though on this particular one the petals aren't as rounded and they are more slender. Anybody know for sure?

We had a picnic at the top, after our little jaunt to the bottom of the falls and the walk back up. We were blessed to have a great day.

Happy Easter!

The kids came up for Easter week vacation. Since they left this morning we did our Easter egg hunt yesterday. 

We visited a few places during the week so I will post those pictures later.

Meanwhile, happy Easter!!

Fall Creek Falls From The Top

When we had hiked up to the observation point at Fall Creek Falls there was a sign that pointed to a continuation of the path to a Forest Service road and it said it was .1 miles from there.  After we got home Hubby looked on a map and found the road. We decided to explore a little further. 

The road that takes off from the North Umpqua Highway that turns into NF-020 road is called Boundary Road. It is not very well maintained and we had to drive very carefully around numerous potholes, fallen trees, and large rocks in the road. But eventually we got to the top of Fall Creek Falls.

Here you can see where the trail goes down to the lower portion of the falls. 

 

This is at the top of the falls, right before it ... falls.

Right at the point where it goes over the first edge it makes a right angle left hand turn through a narrow channel. 

We went down the trail from the top a bit and this is showing the creek shooting out the chute!

Back at the top in a small pool right before the drop off. You can see the drop off at the mid-right of the photo. You can kind of see how after it drops off it makes a sharp left.

Though it was rather damp on this day one of the best things of this was finding a new place to picnic. At the top was a nice green space that would be a great place for a lunch al fresco in the summer!