Today’s hike was one we had been trying to do for a couple of weeks. Nicholas and I had the last part of the year off work, so we wanted to do a hike with Sadie somewhere. We decided on the Tamolitch Falls trail since it seemed relatively easy. We wanted a day with reasonable weather, and the last day of the year was the only day that seemed to fit the bill.

This trail is a pretty heavily used trail and it is a pretty long drive but it sounded really interesting. We decided to head out early – it was about a 2 hour drive from Nicholas’ house. We met there about 8 and headed out. Thankfully, the roads were in good shape and we made good time. When we arrived at the trailhead, I was pleasantly surprised to see only one other car there:

We got ready and headed down the trail. It was cold, but it was dry and we were prepared for the cold. The trail basically follows the river although at points it veers away from it. It wasn’t too long before we got a good look at the McKenzie river and it was running high and fast – pretty angry:

Here is a video I took of the river:

We we progressed down the trail in the first area, there were some ENORMOUS trees:

These trees remind me of two similar trees on the MP3 trail:

As we got to the end of the first segment of trail, we crossed this neat bridge – it was over a side channel of the river:

It was about this point where the trail started changing a bit. We went from the heavy forest, to a lighter forest. At some point we got this good view of a neat rock outcropping on the other side of the river:

Shortly, the trail gets into a pretty flat area and it goes thru lava rock:

The lava rock pretty much continues until you get to the blue pool (our objective for the day).

As we went down the trail, there were a lot of wet areas that had puddles in them that were frozen. Since only one couple had gone in before us, all of these puddles were still mostly frozen:

On the way back most of the puddles had been broken up since we encountered over 20 people on the way out.

As we worked our way up the river, as we were nearing the blue pool, we got our first glimpse of the pool along the trail:

We walked a bit farther and found the common area that provided a pretty good view of the pool – it appears this area gets a LOT of traffic, especially in the summer:

Here is a video I took of the falls entering the blue pool:

We stopped here for lunch and to enjoy the blue pool. We were fortunate that we got to enjoy the area to ourselves most of the time we were there. I attempted to fly my drone but the GPS reception was really bad in the bowl of the pool. I did get some video but I’m not sure how good it is. If anything turns out, I will post a link here.

As we were looking at the pool, I kept commenting how unusual it was for the water to literally be coming out of the side of the hill – there wasn’t a waterfall falling over the edge like most you see. I was a bit confused but once I read this description from the USFS trail page, it all made sense:

A lava flow from Belknap Crater 1,600 years ago buried a 3 mile (4.8 km) stretch of the McKenzie River between Carmen Reservoir and Tamolitch Falls. The river resurfaces at Tamolitch Pool at the base of dry Tamolitch Falls, seeping up to the surface through the porous lava, creating a pristine turquoise blue colored pool. The water, a chilly 37 degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 C) on average, reflects the surrounding cliffs covered with alder and evergreen trees. While the falls are dry the majority of the time, during wet winters the river can flood over the lava bed and Tamolitch Falls will flow.

We finished our lunch and looked at the pool a bit more and then decided to head back. Towards the end of our lunch, we noticed another group in the viewing area down lower. They were the first of the people we would encounter on our way out – most of them with dogs (which is a problem for Thor – he doesn’t do well with dogs he doesn’t know)

As we headed out, we encountered 5 or 6 groups of people – I had to corral Thor when we encountered another dog, but it went pretty well.

There were several spots where Sadie found old burned out or rotted trees and she had to play in them:


The trip out (other than the encounters with people hiking in) was pretty uneventful. It felt like it took less time to hike out than it did to hike in. Maybe because hiking out was mostly downhill?

We got back to the truck and headed out. Since we had little to no snow on the hike, we decided we’d stop at one of the sno-parks and play in the snow for a little bit. We decided to leave the dogs in the truck since there was another dog off leash playing chuckit and we knew Jet would have a hard time with that – let alone that Thor would have a problem with a dog he didn’t know.

We played in the snow for a while and then headed out. On the way home, we stopped for some ice cream in Idanha which tasted really good!

It was a good day of hiking – it was great to see Sadie complete almost 4.5 miles and do really well! I think we all had a good time and the Tamolitch pool is a pretty unique thing – I think we went at the right time of the year to see the water coming out of the amphitheater wall – that is a very unique feature!

A great day in the woods and a great way to end 2024!