I think that this is the place to be. That is if you have any sort of mobility challenge. I’m pleased to report that the forest service has built new accessible platforms at both Clearwater Falls and Whitehorse Falls. The trail to Susan Creek Falls has been wheelchair accessible for years. It’s nice to know that they’ve creating opportunities for everyone to get out and enjoy nature. Not everybody is disabled, but we’re all going to get old some day.

The forest service has also been busy building some bridges. They built a huge hiker bridge over the North Umpqua near Susan Creek and have built a new bridge to Umpqua Hot Springs.

I had planned to drive east to Lemolo Falls and then work my way back west. The weather forecast was for periods of heavy rain around here and snow in the east. I changed my plans. I figured that I would start off closer to Roseburg and work my way east. Even though it has never impressed me a great deal, I started off at Susan Creek Falls. I see that they’ve barricaded the trail to the Indian mounds. It’s not as though that would be a huge hindrance if I wanted to go there, but I never felt the need even when the trail was open.

My next stop was at Watson Falls. I don’t know if others would find it as impressive as I do, but I’ve always loved Watson. It doesn’t have a large flow, but it’s tall and flows into a huge amphitheater.

As I drove west there was snow on the ground, but the road had been plowed. I stopped at Clearwater. There wasn’t any color there and I was getting pelted with snow falling from the tree branches. Sometimes if fell as flurries. I considered uploading a picture of my palm. A few times I had my camera timer running but had to place my hand over the lens as snow was about to hit it.

Whitehorse Falls was probably the waterfall that I was most looking forward to seeing while I was in Roseburg. I seem to remember some vine maple in the area, but there wasn’t any color today.

The sun was out when I was at Surprise Falls and Columnar Falls. The last time we were at Columnar Falls there was a pool at the base enclosed by huge tree roots. Now that pool is mostly gone. The water didn’t find another exit that I could see. It flows down the wall of columnar basalt and most of it disappears right at the base. If Surprise Falls wasn’t higher I might think that the water was coming out there. You see Surprise Falls flows out of a spring right below the trail.

Since the sun was sometimes out I decided that it might not do me a lot of good to hike to Toketee Falls. I’ll leave that for another day. I finished up the day at Little Falls, which is nice, and at nearby Steamboat Falls, which looks terrible unless Steamboat Creek is running very high. They’ve completely destroyed it with a huge fish ladder. Well I suppose that if I happened to be a fish I might feel that they were mighty accommodating.