Mt. Pisgah and Spencer Butte from the Cascadian Thumb Trail, Thurston Hills (bobcat)
Madrone on the Basalt Rim Loop (bobcat)
Basalt columns in the quarry, Basalt Rim Loop, Thurston Hills (bobcat)
The hiking route at Thurston Hills (bobcat) Courtesy: Gaia Topo
- Start point: Thurston Hills North Trailhead
- End point: Cascadian Thumb Loop
- Hike type: Lollipop loop
- Distance: 7.8 miles
- Elevation gain: 1215 feet
- High point: 1,390 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: Yes
Poison-Oak |
Contents
- 1 Description
- 2 Fees, Regulations, etc.
- 3 Maps
- 4 Trip Reports
- 6 Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 7 More Links
- 8 Page Contributors
Description
This natural area just east of Springfield, Oregon, was opened to the public in 2017. The 665 acres was sold to Willamalane Park and Recreation District in 2012 by members of the Gray family. The original patriarch, Frederick Lutanner Gray, came west in 1849 as a wagon train scout. Frederick staked a claim here in 1853. His original house, with the deed signed by Abraham Lincoln, burned down, but the “new” residence, constructed in 1865, remains as the Heritage House. The flat ground down near the McKenzie River was given over to orchards, vegetables, and pasture; the upper heights, now part of the public natural area, were a resource for timber harvesting. Trails in the natural area are shared by hikers and bikers, with some downhill runs for bikers only.
The Mossy Maple Trail, ten feet wide and packed gravel, leads up between the restrooms and the information kiosk. This meadow, with a few old apple trees remaining, has been replanted with oak, ash, and alder. Soon, you’ll enter woods of Douglas-fir and big-leaf maple, with some Oregon white oak, western hemlock, grand fir, and incense cedar, and pass the junction with the biker-only Acer Spades downhill trail. There are distance markers every half-mile, and benches offer a respite. While invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry and Atlantic ivy are rampant in the understory, native species like sword fern, bracken, and hazel, and poison oak also flourish. As you wind up, the invasives cede place to native understory plants, and the mossy boughs of maple and Douglas-fir reach overhead. You’ll see a gravel road to your right which is on private property, and a tie trail leads to it. The trail narrows to four feet in an opening and passes the junction with the Yew Haw downhill bike trail. At Mile 1.5, you’ll go left at the junction with the Mossy Maple Connector Trail.
The Mossy Maple Trail proper keeps rising but with numerous dips. Then you’ll switchback next to a powerline corridor thick with thimbleberry. You’ll pass through a small glade of western red-cedar to reach a gravel road at Mile 1.9 and the upper junction with the Mossy Maple Connector Trail.
Cross the road bed. The trail, as of Fall 2023, is no longer graveled and follow a rocky old road track that is slick in wet weather. You’ll pass through a blackberry clearing and choose left or right where the trail braids. The route continues on a level contour, with some stretches having been graveled in 2023. After a grove of red-cedar, you’ll pass the top of the Yew Haw downhill bike trail. The path, now narrower, drops down two switchbacks in a maple forest, passing a maintenance track coming in from the left. When you reach an old road bed, the beginning of the Basalt Rim Loop, turn left on a gravel tread.
You’ll reach a meadow at a saddle with view towards the Pleasant Hill area. Forested Peak 1630 is to your left. At gravel Cervus Road, bear right past white oaks trees dripping with old man’s beard lichens. After 15 yards, turn left on the signed Camas Crest Trail.
This short graveled trail switchbacks down four times in a woodland dominated by madrones. When you reach Cervus Road again, turn left to get more views of Pleasant Hill and the Middle Fork Willamette valley. After 100 yards, a signpost directs you up the resumption of the Basalt Rim Trail below an old quarry that exposes tall columns of basalt.
The trail heads up through a skirt of large rocks, with the basalt cliff face towering above. Then you’ll hit a licorice fern-lined road bed in deep woods and come to the junction with the Cascadian Thumb Trail, here designated as “Trail 5.”
Turn right on this hiker-only trail. The rocky tread passing a warning sign about dangerous dropoffs and switchbacks up five times. Big rotting stumps are reminders of the magnificent old-growth forest that once flourished here. An opening offers a view north to Camp Creek Ridge across the McKenzie River. Then you’ll reach a junction with the one-way Cascadian Thumb Loop.
Bear right here to follow the trail around the forested summit of this basalt hill. A first clifftop viewpoint offers views across the Middle Fork Willamette to Mount Pisgah, with Spencer Butte behind. To the west, the most prominent summit in the Cascade foothills is Mount June. Another viewpoint looks northeast to saddle-shaped Mount Nebo. Finish the loop, and return down the switchbacks to the Basalt Rim Trail.
Turn right, and keep left at the junction with the Super Maple bike trail. Then cross the Super Maple Trail at a jump and banked curve and gradually descend a rocky tread in leafy maple woods. Stay right at an unmarked junction, leaving the road bed. Soon enough, you’ll switchback up and make a traverse below rugged cliffs and crags. When you reach the loop junction, stay straight on the Mossy Maple Trail.
Follow the trail back about 1.3 miles to the junction, at a gravel road, with the Mossy Maple Connector. Turn left to follow the gravel road down rather steeply to a gate signed “No Trespassing.” The Yee Haw bike trail comes in from the left and continues to the right, but a gravel tie trail also leads right 85 yards to a junction with the Mossy Maple Trail.
Turn left here, and descend 1.5 miles to the trailhead.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Open 6:00 a.m. to dusk
- Restrooms, picnic tables,
- Information kiosk with map
- Share trails with bicycles; some downhill trails off-limits to hikers
- Car clout trailhead: take your valuables with you!
Maps
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Thurston Hills Loop Hike
- Thurston Hills 10-12-23
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Thurston Hills Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 100 Hikes: Central Oregon Cascades by William L. Sullivan
More Links
- Thurston Hills Natural Area (Willamalane Park and Recreation District)
- Thurston Hills Natural Area (Trail Forks)
- Hiking the new Thurston Hills Natural Area (Oregon Outdoor Family)
- Hiking in the Thurston Hills Natural Area Near Eugene (The Intrepid Tourist)
- Thurston Hills Trails (Eugene, Cascades & Coast)
- “Head for the hills: Hike, bike to new viewpoints atop the Thurston Hills” (Register-Guard)
- Thurston Hills Natural Area Trail Project (American Trails)
- Thurston Hills Oak Restoration (Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council)
- Thurston Hills Natural Area (Trust for Public Land)
- An Extended Park for Thurston (Eugene Magazine)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)
