La Pine State Park, Oregon

This state park in La Pine, which is south of Bend, it is one of the few that are not only free, no park pass required, but except for a couple of small areas, horses are allowed throughout the entire trail system, AND there is more than one parking area big enough for trailers.

The Deschutes River at La Pine State Park.

The largest day use parking area is just as you enter the park on the left. There is another smaller one just before crossing over the bridge, but although I have parked there in the past, it's probably best to leave it for cars, and lastly there is a decent sized horse trailer area at McGregor Point. 

Parking at the paved day use area.

There are about 14 miles of easy designated trails, but there are also occasional dirt roads and other short detours off the beaten path to explore. These trails are shared with cyclists, but I haven't run in to very many when I have ridden there, at least during the week.

On the Deschutes River Loop.

Junctions are marked and many of them have a map.

The Deschutes River.

One of the longest rides is the Fall River Loop, you start out riding beside the Deschutes, but then continue along the crystal clear spring fed Fall River, which also has a side trail to a small waterfall. 

Fall River.

Fall River.

The waterfall at Fall River.

McGregor Point.

Views of Paulina Peak from McGregor Point, along the Deschutes River.

One of the short trails that you are no longer allowed to ride on, (this changed in 2020) is the Big Tree Trail which features Oregon's largest Ponderosa, which is supposed to be over 500 years old. 

The Big Tree.

Crossing the bridge at La Pine State Park.

The park is open all year, but it's a pretty snowy area in the winter, so spring and fall is when I usually visit. There is a people campground, with no horse camping, but luckily just 19 miles away, and a lot higher in elevation, is the Newberry National Volcanic Monument, that has a horse camp by the name of Chief Paulina. 

Happy Trails!

GPS COORDINATES TO LA PINE STATE PARK

LA PINE STATE PARK TRAIL MAP

Sevenmile Marsh Equestrian Trailhead, Oregon

This was one of the only trailheads that I had not yet visited in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. I've always liked this area because there is a lot of really nice scenery, without the trails being especially difficult.

 Not to be confused with another horse camp in Oregon, also called Sevenmile, this trailhead is located outside of Fort Klamath in Southern Oregon.

Devil's Peak.

There was a fire burning to the south, and also to the north, but right in the middle was actually smoke free, at least for the short time that I was there. 

The gravel road to get to Sevenmile Marsh is in good shape. This is just a very large trailhead with ample parking for many rigs. There is a bathroom, a couple of picnic tables and one fire ring, and it is free to park or camp. But there are no other amenities, corrals, or water. This equestrian trailhead is located 1.6 miles before the hiker trailhead, and so that adds 3 miles to the rides. You could drive up the road to the hiker trailhead, but it gets a lot steeper, and once you arrive, there is not a lot of room for parking trailers, hence the reason they built a separate lot.

The equestrian parking area.

Huge parking area for equestrians.

When I do these shorter trips, I leave home early, so I have time to do a ride the same day. I had the choice of riding the equestrian trail that switchbacks up and over a butte, or just riding up the road. So since I had to do this section more than once, I chose the trail this time and the road the following day. Once at the hiker trailhead it is another 1.8 miles to the junction with the PCT. I rode north on the PCT, with a detour on a side trail to check out Ranger Spring.

I continued on the PCT until I got up on a hill, with a very limited view. It was a very hot day, so I didn't mind that this was mostly a forested ride with not much to see. In fact at Ranger Spring I doused my shirt with the ice cold water to cool myself down.

On the PCT.

Ranger Spring.

The next morning a strange thunderstorm rolled in very early. I was in the bathroom when I saw a lightning flash under the door and then an unholy loud gunshot/cannon noise. I had visions of exiting the bathroom and finding my truck/trailer with a large smoldering hole in it, but luckily it was intact. The strike must have happened on the ridge above me. The weather stayed a little cloudy and gloomy at first, but I had a long 20 mile loop to do into the Seven Lakes Basin, so I started riding and eventually the weather cleared.

On the Sevenmile Trail.

I reached Grass Lake first, and I rode across the slightly marshy ground towards the water, where I learned that this area, and it turns out, any other area that I passed with water on this loop of lakes, had a zillion little Cascade Toads underfoot. The ground was literally alive!  We took a brief break and while my horse ate some of the grass, I ate some of the copious amounts of bilberries (similar to a blueberry) growing in this area. Then I continued on to Cliff Lake which is very beautiful. There were also some side trails that led to a couple of other lakes, but I did not follow them, so I only saw five of the seven lakes in the basin, however once I was on the upper part of the loop on the PCT, I could see an amazing view of Alta Lake from afar. There are designated horse camps near the lakes for packing in, but they don't seem to get much use.

Grass Lake.

Cliff Lake.

Cliff Lake.

On the PCT.

The view of Alta Lake from the PCT.

The loop continued around Devil's Peak, which is the mountain you see as the backdrop of Cliff Lake, and then back to the junction with the Sevenmile Trail. It was not a busy area, no hunters, even though it was bow season, and I only saw one hiker all day, near the end of my ride.

Skirting Devil's Peak on the PCT.

Devil's Peak.

On the way back I had to cross a bog again that I had already done that morning. It is right on the PCT and the spot I chose to cross was not great, two of my horse's legs sunk up to the hock and knee. So this time I found a better way, off to the left, to skirt the entire water area.

The bog on the PCT.

The next day I had planned to do a ride in Chiloquin, on the way home, but once I got out of the mountains and back over to the highway, I changed my mind pretty quickly. I had left the clear blue skies behind and encountered nasty thick smoke all the way until I reached La Pine, where I stopped and did a quick ride at the state park. I guess I can count myself lucky I did not end up having to camp in that kind of hazardous air.

 GPS COORDINATES TO SEVENMILE MARSH

Sahara Creek Horse Camp, Elbe Hills State Forest, Washington

This is a continuation of my 10 day Washington trip that was in the freakishly warm month of October. I drove to Sahara Creek after leaving Margaret McKenny. To read about the first part of the trip click on this link. Margaret McKenny

On the Lower Elkspur Trail at Sahara Creek.

My GPS took me slightly past the entrance, there is not much along the highway, just an easy to miss, small brown sign that says Nicholson Horse Trails. A third name for this area is Elbe Hills, and this state forest is DNR land, which means it is free to park and camp, with a Discover Pass.

This is a big camp, and when I drove in on a Monday there were quite a few people there, although none of them with horses. I drove around the entire big loop but did not want to be jammed in next to the RVers or hunters, so I picked spot #10 which is across from the day use area.

Site #10 at Sahara Creek Horse Camp.

That evening a man was walking around the camp blowing on his elk caller thingamabob, which was a little annoying. Also, just like when I was at Margaret McKenny there were shooting noises periodically, from a gun range nearby.

This is a really nice camp and it was obviously made with a lot of attention to detail for horse people. There are 30 spots all together, but 8 of them are in a separate loop that is gated and has signs saying it can be reserved. While I was there, there were some hunters camped in the smaller loop, which has a bathroom, and two frost free water spigots you can attach a hose to. 

The larger camp loop is set up so that on the left all of the sites are pull through, and on the right they are back- in. There are high line posts arranged in a row all around the entire perimeter of the camp so if you are in a back-in spot they are directly behind you, but if you are in a pull through, they are across the camp loop road. At the end of the loop there are some more smaller spots, as well next to the day use area, which is where I ended up. There are two bathrooms, a mounting ramp, lots of mounting blocks, hitching rails, and two manure bins. There are two frost free water spigots you can attach a hose to, on either end of the camp, and one behind a large picnic pavilion. Some of the sites, but not all, are reserved for horse people M-F until 8:00pm. Apparently you can only stay 7 days in a 30 day period. Not sure how they can tell who's actually abiding by that...? Pretty much any sized rig could fit into the majority of the spots. Update: Just recently things have changed and camping in Sahara Creek Campground will now be by RESERVATION ONLY. Reservations will be made by emailing: saharacreekcampreservations@gmail.com. See the bottom of the blog for all the info.

I had pretty bad cell service in camp, I was able to sporadically get texts, sometimes just walking a short distance away from my truck, sometimes in my truck, but never in my trailer.

The day use area at Sahara Creek.

High lines line the perimeter of camp.

I had a map from the DNR website and I knew ahead of time that some sections of the trails were closed. So the first day I started on the Lower Elkspur Trail, continuing to the bottom of  Rosie's Hill, where the trail started to look a little less used. I turned around, climbed back up the steep hill and took the Buck Crossing Trail up to the Upper Elkspur Trail. The trail system consists of the Lower and Upper Elkspur and then there are quite a few ways to do long or short loops with other trails and /or old roads that are interspersed between the two.

On the Lower Elkspur Trail.

I came across the Valley View Picnic Area, which has a bathroom, and then as I was on the Upper Elkspur, on a switchback section heading back downhill, and almost at Beaver Creek Trailhead, I ran into a couple of people on horseback. They told me exactly where the trail was closed but I knew I could ride the 8 Road about a mile, and get back onto the trail past the closed section. They said the closure had really screwed up their ride, they had been forced to turn around, since they did not have shoes on for road riding. The trail sections that are closed are because of logging, so they are impassable, for now. At one point I encountered a hunter stealthily creeping along looking for his prey, I said "hello" and scared the crap out of him, I guess a large horse coming right towards him escaped his notice!

At the Valley View Picnic Area on the Buck Crossing Trail.

 

On the Buck Crossing Trail.

I actually wasn't sure I even wanted to try to ride again the next day, with all of the closures, but I managed to figure out a way to only retrace my steps a little bit, and do another loop.

I started on Lower Elkspur again, but this time I went up Doe Crossing, (yes, most of these trails are named after elk), to Holly Connector Trail, which clearly was named after me, but from there I had to back track because Fawn Crossing had a closure, then I got back on 8 Road from the day before, and once I was back at Beaver Creek Trailhead, I took the 6 Road that parallels the Upper Elkspur until I could get onto the Anvil Loop. Sound complicated? Not really, the DNR website has a map and all of the junctions are well marked. 

The Anvil Loop was nice and a little more open, so I was finally able to get an unobstructed view of Mt. Rainier. On the way back I went down the Bull Run Trail and coincidentally ran into a bull elk hanging out amongst the foliage.

Big Bridge on the Lower Elkspur Trail.

The Holly Connector Trail.

On the Anvil Loop.

Rainier views from the Anvil Loop.

My horse hears the elk.

Bull Run Trail.

That concluded my visit to Sahara Creek, doing two rides of just over 7 hours each, I covered everything on the east side. There is another trailhead on the west side of the Elbe Hills that a person could trailer over to, but since there were even more trail closures over there, it wasn't worth the effort on this visit. Instead I drove over to Rock Creek Horse Camp on my way home, to do a long loop, that I had not done on my previous visit last year. I have already written a blog about that camp, so I will update it with the new info.

GPS COORDINATES TO SAHARA CREEK

New Sahara Creek rules:

Sahara Creek Campground Management Change (Effective 11/01/2022)

Due to multiple factors including: Inadequate law enforcement coverage, overwhelming non-recreational camper misuse, trash dumping, vandalism, and chronic overstaying,

Camping in Sahara Creek Campground will now be by RESERVATION ONLY.

Reservations will be made by emailing: saharacreekcampreservations@gmail.com

Reservations are available with a minimum of 3 DAYS and a maximum of 3 MONTHS notice. Requests outside of those parameters will not be considered.

RESERVATIONS ARE NOT AVAILABLE OVER STATE HOLIDAY WEEKENDS. ALL CAMPSITES WILL BE OPEN THE THURSDAY BEFORE TILL THE MONDAY AFTER THE HOLIDAY ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS.

All MOTOR VEHICLES and TRAILERS must have valid DOL registration.

All LICENSED MOTOR VEHICLES must display a DISCOVER PASS to camp in Sahara Creek Campground (towed trailers do not require a Discover Pass to be displayed).

Sahara has 30 campsites. Sites 1-20 are Equestrian Camping ONLY. Sites 21-30 are open to non-motorized campers (including equestrian campers). Site 28 is a designated ADA campsite which requires a differently-abled DOL placard to camp in.

Stay limit in Sahara is 7 DAYS IN A 30 DAY PERIOD.

When making a reservation, please send the following information:

First and last names:

Phone number:

Start and end dates of reservation:

Site number requested:

Total number of vehicles:

Total number of campers:

Primary vehicle license plate AND STATE:

Primary vehicle Discover Pass number:

It can take up to 48 hours to process a request.

NOTE: DNR Recreation Permit Event Holders will automatically get their permit dates reserved for the entire campground, unless they indicate that they do not want DNR to do so.

DNR is making this management change to improve the recreation user experience at Sahara Creek Campground, driven by feedback provided by multiple users and stakeholders.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns regarding this, feel free to contact myself at joe.chavez@dnr.wa.gov

Joe Chavez

Elbe Recreation Manager

WA DNR

 

Fall Creek and Margaret McKenny Horse Camps, Capitol State Forest, Washington

80+ degrees in October...I'll take it!

I was finally able to leave home for more than a week, so I headed over to Washington for a 10 day trip to three different camps.

On the Greenline Trail, from Fall Creek Trailhead.

I started at Margaret McKenny, outside of Olympia. When I arrived I saw that there were two other people campground loops and then the B Loop, which is the horse camp. No one was there and it stayed empty the entire four nights, including over the weekend, except for one non horse person who had not registered, and got booted out by the camp hosts.

One of the camp hosts came by that evening, she was very friendly and wanted to make sure I was clear on certain things, and was happy to answer any questions. She also mentioned that I should tell all my friends, ( little did she know! ), and that she really hoped more horse people would use the camp, because they are vigilant about making sure no one breaks the rules, and that they keep the spots free for horse people.

I told her I was going to trailer out the next day to ride at Fall Creek, and she had no problem with me stringing up a baling twine "gate" so that no one would potentially take my spot while I was gone. She also did not bat an eye at the fact that my horse was meandering around loose!

Fall Creek Trailhead is not too far of a drive from Margaret McKenny but it is on a slightly washboard gravel road that climbs up a hill, and then back down the other side. It has a very large parking area, a mounting block, a bathroom, a picnic pavilion with an oversized fire ring, a ping pong table, of all things, and a map of the trails. Off to the side is another smaller parking area with a picnic table, 5 sets of highline poles, and a mounting ramp. BUT there is a separate campground just before you get to the trailhead with corrals and supposedly stock water. Unfortunately while I was there, there was no signage or indication that that was a horse camp, and I could not see it from the road or the trailhead, so I assumed it was a regular people campground and I did not go over and check it out.

 I did not have cell service at this trailhead.

Fall Creek Trailhead.

The start of the Greenline Trail.

On the Greenline Trail.

I started out on the Greenline Trail which is popular with cyclists, one of the reasons I decided to ride it on a week day, and looped back down the Wedekind Trail. I saw no cyclists on the way up, but on my way down I almost had a head on collision with one. In my opinion it's the bikers wearing earbuds that bother me, I have literally yelled at people at the top of my lungs, and they still don't hear me. After the ride, back at the trailhead, a trail runner guy came over and asked me whether I thought all the cyclists should at least have bells, and I agreed that would help significantly.

A lot of bridges on this trail system.

Riding in the fog, on the Greenline Trail.

The old man in the tree!

One of the only views on the Wedekind Trail.

Margaret McKenny has 6 spots with a single corral except for #4 and #6 which have a double corral.

There is also a 7th spot without a corral, it is obviously a recent addition, and it is numbered.

The corrals have a concrete floor, which is good as far as lack of mud, but is not awesome for your horse. Bringing bags of shavings would be a good strategy.

There is a bathroom, and each spot has it's own individual manure bin. Most of the spots are long enough for big- ish rigs, (the sign says the max trailer length is 34') but it's a small camp loop, and trying to get maneuvered in can be tricky. # 3 has the most room for manuevering because it is across from the bathroom, and # 1 is the smallest site. This camp is on DNR land and so it is free, with a Discover Pass. They want you to register when you arrive, just fill out a form with your info, at the entrance to the camp loops. The B Loop has a gate across it stating that M-F this camp is reserved for horse people until 7:00 pm. There is no garbage service, so pack it in and pack it out. There is great cell service, at least with Verizon. 

Spot B4 at Margaret McKenny Horse Camp.

The large paved day use area has it's own mounting block, manure bin and a map of the trails. You can also get maps on the DNR website for Fall Creek, and Mima Falls, which has Margaret McKenny on it. There is a frost free pump that you can attach a hose to, but be prepared to haul water into the camp loop. Site #6 is the closest to the water source. 

The large day use area at Margaret McKenny.

The next day I did a big 18 ish mile loop, along the McKenny Trail, which heads all the way back uphill to the Fall Creek Trailhead where I was the day before. I added in the Lost Valley Loop Trail, and lastly I headed back down the West Mima Falls Trail. While I was still on the McKenny Trail I heard a strange high pitched noise that sounded like it was about to come right at me from around a corner. I finally realized it was a drone, it had a different sound than ones I've heard before, but there are logging roads interspersed throughout this area, and the drone flyer must have been on a road not too far above the trail.

Starting off on the McKenny Trail, the first of many bridges.

Views of Capitol Peak from the McKenny Trail.

On the Lost Valley Trail.

Lots of horse friendly signage.

The final day was a shorter mish mash of a few loops on the remaining trails, closer to camp. I started on the Equine Loop which is the only trail in this area not shared with bikes, then I got onto the East Mima Falls Trail. This time I actually rode over to Mima Falls as well, since the day before I had passed it, but didn't actually stop to look. Then I took the Mima Falls Tie Trail to the Campground Trail and back along the rest of the Equine Loop. This was about 8 miles. While I was on the Campground Trail, a cyclist snuck right up on me from behind, startling my horse. He was apologetic, and most of them that I encountered were used to seeing horses, and asked me what I wanted them to do, as far as passing, getting out of the way, etc.

At the Mima Falls day use area.

Mima Falls, not much to it, but probably has more water in the spring.

The majority of this trail system is open to hikers all year, but closed to bikes and horses during the winter, and the campgrounds are closed from Nov.1st to April. 30th.

There are a few areas, especially on part of the McKenny Trail and the East Mima Falls Trail where you will hear gunshots, that is because there are two shooting ranges nearby. I could also hear the shooting, while in camp, although it's not close, it echoes off the hills and periodically disturbs the peace and quiet.

The next day I packed up and drove over to Sahara Creek, pretty much a straight shot due east over by Mt. Rainier.... but it shall have it's own separate blog!

GPS COORDINATES TO FALL CREEK

GPS COORDINATES TO MARGARET MCKENNY