Page Index

• Route 2: Eagle Creek Bridge
• US 30: Eagle Creek Bridge
• Eagle Creek Lodge
• Columbia Gorge Park: Eagle Creek Campground
• Eagle Creek Trail
• Camp Chinidere at Wahtum Lake

The Sunday Oregonian: Beautiful Columbia Gorge Park Soon To Be Accessible To Autos (July 16, 1916)

Eagle Creek is one of the principal points of interest in the Columbia Gorge Park division of the Oregon National Forest, recently set aside for public recreation purposes. Several trails to neighboring lakes and mountains are planned, and since the first of June the Forest Service has been at work on a footpath leading upstream from the bridge. Several hundred yards are completed already, and visitors will soon be able to reach Eagle Creek Falls, about two and a half miles above.

Here the stream descends in six eccentric jumps from the hanging valley above to the basin of the Columbia.

Further points are to be reached as soon as the trail can be extended. Chinidere Mountain and Wahtum Lake are to be included in the route, and a connection will be made with the Herman Creek Trail, so that trampers will be afforded a 27-mile circuit of rare scenic beauty and interest.

"The Forest Service opened America's first Forest Service campground in 1916 at Eagle Creek after commissioning the building of the Eagle Creek trail. People flocked to it. Soon, scattered along the length of the Scenic Highway there were picnic stops, campgrounds, roadhouses, service stations, etc, etc to entertain and serve the newly-mobile NW public. Everyday-people tourism was born -- now people had someplace really special to drive with their new cars."

Oregon State Archives: A 1940 Journey Across Oregon

EAGLE CREEK PARK (L) [West of Hwy. 730 Junction], 148.7 m., one of Oregon's finest recreational areas and picnic grounds, was constructed and is maintained by the United States Forest Service. On the banks of plunging Eagle Creek are rustic kitchens, tables and extensive parking facilities.

1. Left here on the Eagle Creek Trail, that winds up the mountain side to WAHTUM LAKE, 13.5 m. Construction of the trail presented many difficulties; parts of it are cut through solid rock, and in one place it passes behind a waterfall. Along the trail are GHOST FALLS and the DEVIL'S PUNCH BOWL The latter, a fresh water cauldron hemmed in by pillars of basalt, abounds with steelhead trout.

2. Right across Eagle Creek from Eagle Creek Campground on the WAUNA POINT TRAIL, which leads 5.5 m. through Eagle Creek and Columbia Gorge canyons to WAUNA POINT (2,500 alt.).

Video (By Others...)

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