MUNSON CREEK FALLS

Distance: 0.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 50 feet

Season: all year

Best: all year

Pass: None needed.

On the traditional lands of: the Nestucca people

Directions:

• From Portland, drive US  26 west for 20 miles to a junction with OR HWY 6.

• Following signs for Tillamook merge onto OR 6 and drive 51 miles to Tillamook.

• At a junction with US 101 in downtown Tillamook, turn left and drive south on US 101 for 7 miles to a junction signed for Munson Creek Falls.

• Turn left and drive up a gravel road for 1.5 miles to a parking lot at the end of the road.

Hike: Shockingly few people have heard of Munson Creek Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Oregon Coast Range. Just 9 miles from Tillamook, the falls tumbles 319 feet into an old-growth forest. Make this a stop on the way to other destinations in the Tillamook area!

The trail departs from a small parking lot at the end of the gravel road. Follow lovely Munson Creek for a quarter mile into the canyon holding the falls. Quickly you gain views of the uppermost tier of the falls. Climb a set of stairs to arrive at the “viewing area”, a muddy flat with a view of the upper half of the falls. There is a trail that continues upstream that is unofficial and is not recommended; perhaps fortuitously, this trail is blocked by a very large fallen Douglas fir.

I advise coming in winter when the deciduous trees in the canyon are bare as the falls is barely visible during the summer. Perhaps one day Tillamook County will build a trail with a better view of the falls. Until then, enjoy the view you have, one of the Oregon Coast Range’s tallest falls. Return the way you came.