We’ve been having such beautiful weather lately that we just had to get out for a few hours this past weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, our hiking habits have changed since Evan came along. Lately, we’ve been visiting sites that are closer to Eugene and offer shorter hikes. In the past, we’d passed up many of these locations, such as Alsea Falls and Mary’s Peak, for more remote hiking destinations with longer, more challenging trails. Things change.

So, this weekend, we made the 20-or-so mile drive out to Shotgun Creek. This would be a great park for group activities — lots of picnic tables, shelters, some play equipment, areas for softball and volleyball, etc. — and I imagine it is very popular during the summer months. Fortunately, though, we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves. There was one couple leaving as we arrived, and another couple arrived as we were leaving. We didn’t see a single person while we were on the 2-3 mile loop trail.

Per Sullivan’s recommendation, we did the trail in reverse. We parked at the normal trailhead but then walked to the other side of the park and found where the trail normally ends. (It’s not well-signed, by the way! If you’re going, look for the horseshoe pits on northwest side of the open space.) Hiking it in this direction, the trail begins by following Shotgun Creek upstream. It then turns away from from the stream and climbs gently into a second-growth forest before descending back to the parking lot. There are still a handful of old growth trees remaining along the trail, and their presence is amplified by the much smaller second growth specimens surrounding them.

As a pure hiking destination, Shotgun Creek leaves a little to be desired. It offers a decent “walk through the woods,” but there aren’t any scenic vistas or even much variety in the scenery for that matter. Also, a road, visible during the portion along the creek, is a distraction. That being said, it is close to home and apparently not very crowded in the off-season.

This entry was posted by Steve on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 8:50 am and is filed under Dog, Family, Local/Regional, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.