Thursday, September 4, 2014

Day Trip: Headwaters of the Metolius River

Published from Roxie’s Cafe, on the banks of Lake Simtustus – Madras, Oregon

Judy and I joined with Terry and Rose, the PGE “host” at nearby Round Butte Dam day use park for a day trip to the headwaters of the Metolius River on Tuesday.  Terry drove the back roads that I did not know existed! Many of them were dirt forest service roads.

In route they gave us a tour of “ The Cove Palisades SP”, where Rose worked for about ten years. The next stop was “Balancing Rock” hiking trail. I saw it a week earlier but it was Judy’s first visit. Much of the area still bears the scars of a wildfire in 2002.  After some short distance hiking we continued the drive to Camp Sherman SP where the headwaters of the Metolius are.

Stop at Balancing Rock Trail (click pics to enlarge)

Metolius River From balancing rock trail  Metolius Bal RK

Mt. Jefferson from Balancing rock ( notice wildfire damage from 2002)  Mt Jef frm B RK

What shapes do you see? Bal Rock Shapes

We took a short break at Camp Sherman before we went to the headwaters viewing station.  The view is not very impressive until you consider that the water bubbling out of the ground is the source of a river that flows thirty or so miles to an impoundment that forms the large lake, Lake Billy Chinook.  Some of the best fly-fishing in the country takes place on the Metolius River.  After some relaxing time at Camp Sherman we went to the Wizard Ridge Fish Hatchery. 

Headwaters of the Metolius River

Metolius Marker      MetoliusMap

The Metolius begins here Metolius Spring  

Metolius head waters

 

 

 

 

       It doesn’t take long until a river forms

The proof of being there photo!  Metolius Judy Terry Rose

Chip and Dale  We also crossed paths with Chip and Dale

Wizard Ridge Fish hatchery 

Wizzard Hatchery sign       Wizzard Hatchery fish

That is all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

Next Blog: In a week or so.

1 comment:

  1. It's so fun to explore and see where rivers start. Thanks for a great post.

    ReplyDelete