Fern Rock Falls

Today's adventure takes us out to Fern Rock Falls in the Oregon Coast Range along Highway 6. The name may be unfamiliar, but if you've ever driven Highway 6 to the coast you've probably glimpsed the falls for a split second. Twenty-nine miles east of Tillamook there's a large gravel parking lot on the westbound side of the road, and the falls are right at the far end of the parking lot. Yes, this is that waterfall. I was always kind of curious about it and wanted a better look, but it was only recently that I figured out exactly where it was. And more importantly, how to stop there without becoming a statistic.

There are small, unobtrusive road signs right at the parking lot that simply say "FALLS". There aren't any of the usual helpful "Fern Rock Falls, 1/4 Mile" signs letting you know you're almost there, so you have to be on your toes if you don't want to miss the place. GPS helps, of course, but it's still kind of tricky.


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If you're coming from the west you'd have to turn across oncoming traffic, which you probably don't want to do. Highway 6 has enough trouble with people crossing the center line accidentally, and that rarely ends well, so doing it on purpose is probably a bad idea too. Needless to say there isn't a turn lane, so traffic behind you could also be an issue. So instead of rolling that particular pair of dice, I hit the falls on the way back from Tillamook, a day trip that also included a visit to Munson Creek Falls. Going eastbound, it's shortly after milepost 29. The road bends to the right and suddenly it's right there. I knew I was almost there, thanks to GPS and what I hoped were accurate coordinates I'd found on the internet somewhere. But I still had to brake quickly to make the parking lot entrance. It helps to have nobody tailgating you while you're looking for the falls parking lot; nobody's expecting you to hit the brakes and turn off the road in the middle of the Coast Range, and they may not necessarily be ready to brake as quickly as you are. There are a couple of slow vehicle turnouts between Tillamook and the falls, which is a good opportunity to let any impatient drivers behind you pass and go on their merry way.

One thing I haven't been able to figure out is who owns the place -- and by extension, who's responsible for the poor signage and so forth. There aren't any signs at the falls that give any clue, and Tillamook County doesn't have a lot of freely available GIS data on the net so I can't figure it out that way either. It's not within the Tillamook State Forest boundary, and there aren't any state or park signs to be seen. I've come across the occasional unsigned state park so I can't rule out that possibility, but if I had to guess I'd say it's probably either part of ODOT's Highway 6 right of way (but not an official highway rest area, since it's not on the list), or it's on private land.

One other fun detail is the name "Idiotville" on the map just west of the falls. Wikipedia insists there was once a town around here, or more precisely a logging camp, said to be so remote at the time that only an idiot would work there. Hence the name. I haven't checked extensively, but as far as I know there's absolutely nothing there anymore. Despite not actually, y'know, existing outside of the USGS official list of geographic names, Idiotville has its own Facebook page, a semi-official Chief Idiot (currently Charlie Sheen), and a Yelp page (not an actual review, but still). And the aforementioned Wikipedia page obviously. Plus now it's even got an entire paragraph about it on an Important Local Blog Of Note. So there's that.

Sunset Falls

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The fourth and final stop on the Lewis River waterfall excursion is Sunset Falls, several more miles upstream from Moulton & Yacolt Falls, just inside the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. The Forest Service's Sunset Campground is located right next to the falls, so parking is still pretty convenient even though we're way out in the middle of nowhere at this point. However since it's National Forest land you're going to need to buy a day pass in order to park legally. I seem to remember it was about $5. Because of that I stayed and watched the falls longer than I otherwise would have, in order to feel like I'd gotten my money's worth.



There's also one more twist to getting to the falls: Shortly after Moulton Falls, Lucia Falls Road veers away from the river and becomes Railroad Avenue, the road to the town of Yacolt. If you want to continue upriver, you need to turn right onto Sunset Falls Road, which will take you the rest of the way.

After Sunset Falls the road continues on into the forest as National Forest Road 42, but I don't know what condition the road's in or whether there's anything interesting up that way. Besides more forest, obviously.

Yacolt Falls

The third stop on our East Fork, Lewis River waterfalls tour is Yacolt Falls. It's on a tributary of the main river, a short hike from Moulton Falls. Tributary or not, this is far more photogenic than Moulton Falls if you ask me. A post about Yacolt Falls at Wild About the Northwest expresses much the same sentiment.



While I was here, an older gentleman who was visiting the falls saw my camera and decided he really needed to convince me to start taking photos of trains. There were railroad tracks somewhere nearby, apparently, and trains occasionally rolled by carrying stuff, and apparently the process was so fascinating and needed to be documented meticulously, and I ought to drop everything I was doing and go wait an open-ended amount of time for the next train to rattle past.

Needless to say, I passed on his proposal and hit the road for the next waterfall.

Moulton Falls

The next stop on our tour of Lewis River waterfalls is Moulton Falls, about 4.5 miles upstream of Lucia Falls. Moulton Falls is in Clark County's Moulton Falls Park, and like Lucia Falls, it's a short, easy walk from the parking lot right off of Lucia Falls Road. Rather than include another Google map this time, here's a photo of the official park map:



Moulton Falls is the one on the left on this map. The map shows another waterfall just upstream (to the right), but it was more of a ripple, a rapid at most, and I didn't bother taking any photos of it. The waterfall on Big Tree Creek is Yacolt Falls, which is really the park's main event if you ask me. We'll get to that one in a subsequent post.



The "no touching the river" rules apply here too, just so you know. I don't find these rules particularly onerous, I have to say; when I go somewhere like this, generally I'm lugging a camera around. So going in the river and getting wet is pretty much the very last thing I want to do. Ok, meeting up with a cougar would be worse, as would a Deliverance-style run in with hostile locals (which could be a serious possibility, if the belligerent Tea Party-type political signs I kept seeing along the road are any indication). But getting the camera wet would be right up there behind those.

Lucia Falls

Today's adventure takes us north a bit, to Lucia Falls on the East Fork of the Lewis River, NE of Battle Ground, Washington. This is the first of four Lewis River waterfalls you'll encounter while driving east/upstream on Lucia Falls Road. Three of them are pretty much right next to the road, too, so there's barely any hiking involved. This stop on the tour is clearly marked as Lucia Falls Park (operated by Clark County), which consists of a parking lot, a short, easy loop trail, and the falls.



Oh, and a bunch of signs explaining firmly that you are not supposed to go swimming, or diving, or rafting, or inner tubing here, and there's no fishing allowed, and, in short, you're not permitted to so much as touch the water, ever. And it's not for your protection, either, but for the endangered salmon. Which sounds kind of ridiculous and draconian until you realize there are no dams between Lucia Falls and the ocean. So the thinking is that the salmon on this branch of the Lewis River are maybe not quite as doomed as most salmon populations are, and they're going to great lengths to keep it that way. There may actually be a court order to that effect; I haven't been keeping track that closely, but it wouldn't surprise me.

One upside to the falls being a protected place is that at the right time of year you can come and watch salmon try to jump the falls on the way to their spawning grounds. There are a lot of other places you can go to fish or ride an inner tube down the river, but far fewer places -- at least accessible ones -- where you can see salmon doing their thing. So there's that.


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If you're unfamiliar with the area and need to find Lucia Falls Road first, it's reasonably simple. First go to Battle Ground, either SR 502 east from I-5, or SR 503 north from Vancouver. SR 503 is also known as 10th Avenue within Battle Ground, so you either stay on it, or turn left onto it, depending on which way you're coming from. After you're out of town, SR 503 also goes by Lewisville Highway. Drive north until you get to Rock Creek Road and turn right. It curves south & becomes 152nd Avenue. The road then curves right and becomes Lucia Falls Road (although a dead end part of 152nd also continues south). Once you're on Lucia Falls Road, all you need to do is watch for signs that say "Falls" on them.

tecotosh - 8mm

Continuing with assorted test shots with the shiny new lens, here are a few of TECOTOSH, my friendly neighborhood civil-engineering-themed modern sculpture. The link goes to an old blog post of mine with more photos, so you can get an idea of what it looks like in real life, when you aren't seeing it through an insanely wide angle lens.