Elevation change: 841 feet according to RunKeeper, but you'll read--we also go lost so that's not entirely accurate
Distance: 5.52 miles--but we got lost. So it's probably closer to 4?
Difficulty Level: Just Right
I thought I'd get outside and try a new (to me) trail. I'd heard about Tiger Canyon and according to AllTrails there's several trails up that area, but one is a 19 mile loop--NOPE. The other is a 4 mile out-and-back that's pretty steep.
Then I found this old blog post from a gal named Heather. She describes a nice loop, 5-ish miles. She gives much clearer driving directions than USFS. So I thought I'd check it out. I talked my friend Rachel into joining me, I don't like to do new trails alone.
We got the ultimate Eastern Oregon experience. Up in the Blue Mountains, in the Umatilla National Forest, there were trees! And SO MANY DIFFERENT WILDFLOWERS! It is a pretty exposed trail so lather on your sunscreen, bring LOTS of water, rest in the shade when you can.
Oh, and don't get lost. I was going off of Heather's description (take a left at every fork in the road). However, there was no fork where there was supposed to be one. We didn't pay attention because we were looking for the fork. It's not Heather's fault, her blog post was from years ago and it seems huckleberries and other nature has simply grown over the path. Or there was no path and we're idiots, something. Who knows. Heather, if you read this, I don't blame you.
It starts out gradually going uphill. I like gradual. The first like 2+ miles are old forest service road (Road 40 on Google Maps). It's pretty rocky.
Hard to see how rocky, but trust me. As someone with a leg brace for an ankle that doesn't work, rocky is slow going. But it doesn't stay like this.
This is around the 2 mile mark, roughly. The rockiness is smoother and it ends. We decided to rename this Lupine Lane.
Aha! There is a fork! This one we expected and we stayed to the left like Heather suggested. This was around 2.2 miles in. As you can see, a lot of open spaces. As nauseous as we felt when we made it back to the car, we're sure we had heat exhaustion. I dunno, drink lots of water, wear tons of sunscreen, maybe don't go right smack dab in the middle of the day...
Ugh, you can *barely* see it in the back because it's so hazy, but there's the WW valley in the distance. You get to this trail heading out of Walla Walla, but the road swings back south to Oregon so we think this is looking toward Milton-Freewater. ish.
Another sweeping vista. It was really pretty up there.
A road block. We went off the path (sorry nature!) to go around the stump.
After a while, the path narrows considerably. I can't tell if this photo was taken before we missed the non-existent fork, or after, but regardless, this is what the middle portion of the trail was like. Rocky in some spots, just dirt in others, but narrow.
Another amazing meadow area, covered in different wildflowers, I wished they all showed up better in the photo.
This is one I hadn't seen before and they aren't in my William Sullivan book so I don't know, but they're small, speckled, and pretty.
Ok, if you reach several boulder-y areas in the trail, you've gone too far. We crossed several of these precarious areas before actually checking the map. We hadn't seen any forks in the road! So we backtracked to where Google said the fork would be. Seriously, no fork. We cut through about 20 feet of huckleberry bushes and other nature to find the right path (FS 41).
Take a left at this tree to go through to FS 41. Apologize to nature for going off the trail.
The nature you have to cut through and Rachel at the other side.
You'll come out of the huckleberries here, and it's I don't know how far to loop back to FS 65 which is where you want to me. Best guess 1000 feet but I'm totally making that up.
You'll come back out to FS 65 which is a well maintained gravel road. Some motorcyclists we met on the trail called it Skyline Road. Forest Service lists it also as Tiger Canyon Road.
From here it's 1.5-ish miles back to the trailhead. I mean, there isn't really a trailhead. At least, not well marked.
From Heather's excellent driving directions:
Drive down Mill Creek Road until you reach Oregon. You’ll know it’s oregon because it’ll go from a paved road to a dirt road and there will no longer be a divide in the road. There’s also a weird, confusing caution sign about “high traffic area” or something, which is totally a lie. Keep going down this road for awhile. You’ll pass a blueberry farm, the Whitman wilderness campus and some cool dinosaur sculptures made out of old machinery parts. At some point you’ll see a right turn that requires making your car go down a slightly steep mound and you’ll cross a bridge. Within 5 minutes you’ll see a “Umatilla National Forest” sign and you’ll know you’re on the right road. Slightly past that is a gate, which should be open if all is well. Keep driving on this road (NF-65) for much longer than you expect, a good 20-30 minutes. When you see what looks like a road to the right (it should be road NF-6512), you’ll know you’re almost there . You can hike down that road, but it’s like a 28 mile loop, so I wouldn’t suggest it for your first time. The loop you want to take (or I recommend) is the next road that you come across on the right (NF-40). It’s rocky and looks like a trail, and you’ll know its a trail because it has a little wooden sign pointing to OTHER trails very close to the start. Follow this trail and keep turning left when you come across forks in the road. If all goes well, you’ll end up back at your car.
Here's what the "entrance" to FS 40 looks like. It's not marked and the sign is further in than you'd think.
Tiger Ridge is there to the left, up past my car.
It was definitely an adventure. We are a couple of out-of-shape gals who went in the middle of the day. Elevation, exertion, and exposure got us pretty good. We were both feeling pretty weak and nauseous but survived. I've never been so happy to see my car!
I would do this trail again, especially now that I know where to veer off the path, so to speak. If you love wildflowers, this is the hike to do. Or maybe we just went at the right time of year.
On the drive home we saw a little bear! I've never seen one in the wild, it was so cute but scary because I knew mama had to be nearby, I was glad for the safety of the car. Course my adventure partner's body decided she needed to vomit right then so I was super vigilant that they wouldn't come back out by the road!
One last shot because the views were spectacular--I love where I live so much!
