I didn’t have high hopes for the South Breitenbush Gorge hike. My main reason for going there is because the drive along forest road 46 is pretty. It’s part of the West Cascades National Scenic Byway. I wanted to get off the road and this seemed like as good a spot as any.

It turns out that this is one of those river trails that has almost no river access and hardly offers even limited views through of the water through the trees. It was a pleasant enough trail through the forest as long as you’re not expecting to reach some specific destination. Although in this case there is, in fact, a specific destination. My hiking guide described a sign for the gorge and a path to the right of the trail. I was feeling kind of stupid for missing those things by the time I reached Roaring Creek. But that’s okay. I was going to continue a way on the trail and then I could search more carefully on my way back. By the way, the view from the trail bridge over roaring creek is a very nice cascade through mossy rocks. It would have been very photogenic if patches of sun had not been on it.

On my way back I once again knew that I was in the gorge area. I could hear the water below. For the second time I went down a hill to a bit of a clearing, but I don’t think that I was going to attempt to scramble down any farther than that. Besides, where is this side trail described in the book? Once I was obviously past the gorge area for the second time I decided that the author’s pleasant lunch spot was not likely to be visited by many of his readers.

It’s kind of sad that my upload was the best picture I could get. That was right near the start. There were also some unique and interesting bridges in that area.

So to summarize my day:
I didn’t find the gorge.
It was too sunny for the kinds of forest shots I like.
I didn’t get access to the river shore, but that didn’t matter because of the sun.
I enjoyed the day.
This list is probably grammatically incorrect, but I don’t care because I didn’t have to go to school today.