Wenaha River Hike and Troy

April 12-14, 2019

We spent the weekend with our friends in Troy and hiked the Wenaha River Trail:

Wenaha River Trail

Troy is a long way from nowhere. We headed east on Interstate 84, then north. The mountains had fresh snow on them:

Snowy mountains

From Highway 3 we got onto Flora Lane, which changed to Redmond Grade. This is what it looked like as we descended down to Troy:

Redmond Grade Road

Redmond Grade is a dirt/gravel road and steep in spots. I wouldn’t want to do this in wet weather:

Redmond Grade Lane

I get carsick easy so I was very glad when we finally arrive in Troy. Our accommodations for the weekend was a cabin once owned by John Fogerty and now available to rent through Airbnb. The setting is quite beautiful, and the Grand Ronde River is just a few feet away from the cabin. This was a bit of a concern because the area had been pounded by rain shortly before our trip and the river had risen quite a bit. But the water didn’t reach the cabin.

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin956

The decor was very 1970s:

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

John Fogerty Cabin

Cool old sign in the garage:

John Fogerty Cabin

You can see the high water line in the foreground of this shot:

John Fogerty Cabin

There was still some standing water in a low spot of the driveway but we were able to drive through it:

Wet driveway

After getting settled we decided to take a walk. The cabin is on the opposite side of the river from Troy, so we walked over this historic 1910 bridge, only open to pedestrians these days:

Troy bridge

From the bridge we could see where the Wenaha River flowed under Troy Road and into the Grand Ronde River:

Wenaha - Grande Ronde Confluence

This building is a place of many names: Troy Resort, Wenaha Bar & Grill, Shilo Inn Lodge & Cafe. It’s under new management according to this 2017 article:

Troy Store

We could see our cabin across the river:

Cabin across the river

As we walked north along lonely Troy River Road we spotted some deer up on the hillside:

Deer

And then we spotted some elk:

Elk

Back at the cabin later we decided to drive up to Grouse Flat a wide plateau high above Troy and the Grand Ronde River. We made our way up there via Bartlett Road. On the plateau we passed Bartlett Union cemetery:

Barlett Union Cemetery

Then we went north on Grouse Flat Road, passed into Washington state, and turned left on Sheep Creek Area Road. We entered Grouse Flat Wildlife Area:

Grouse Flat Wildlife Area

There wasn’t much to see there, plus we encountered some snow, so we turned around. On the way back down Bartlett we saw some white tailed deer:

Grouse Flat

As we descended back down to town we had a view of the river and hills:

Evening light over Troy

Saturday morning was beautiful because we had some brief sun breaks. This was our view across the river from the cabin:

After breakfast we set off on a hike down the Wenaha River Trail:

Wenaha River Trail

We got lucky with the wildflower timing! We saw lots of balsamroot:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

The trail traverses the slope high above the river in a really pretty canyon:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Then we descended to a flat area with burned trees from the 2015 Grizzly Complex Fire that swept through here:

Wenaha River Trail

We saw signs of recent trail maintenance, including sawed trees that had fallen across the trail:

Wenaha River Trail

And cut brush:

Wenaha River Trail

The trail rose back above the river again:

Wenaha River Trail

Looking back from whence we came:

Wenaha River Trail

We were now below an old decommissioned road and started seeing old car parts that had been tossed from that road a long time ago:

Wenaha River Trail

We passed through a gate:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Then we spotted a herd of bighorn sheep high on the canyon wall across the river. Cool!

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

We saw quite a lot of ball-head waterleaf:

Wenaha River Trail

And dutchman’s breeches:

Wenaha River Trail

And some shooting stars:

Wenaha River Trail

This fallen tree was a bit tricky to navigate around:

Wenaha River Trail

Such a pretty canyon!

Wenaha River Trail

We crossed that old decommissioned road. It descends from above and continues to a nice-looking flat area down by the river:

Wenaha River Trail

The views up the canyon were really pretty:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Looking back at a spot where the trail is carved out of the cliff:

Wenaha River Trail

We spotted another herd of bighorn sheep, this time on our side of the river:

Wenaha River Trail

At 2.7 miles we reached the Umatilla National Forest Boundary. The sign was weathered and fallen down:

Wenaha River Trail

We could see across where to water was flowing out of Dry Gulch (not so dry today!):

Wenaha River Trail

The trail switchbacked down to river level again where we had a bit of flooded trail:

Wenaha River Trail

We hiked through a flat area of scorched trees:

Wenaha River Trail

We reached a point where we were ready to turn around so we found a flat area by the river:

Wenaha River Trail

Had a nice view across:

Wenaha River Trail

Heading back:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Hikers heading in told us about a rockslide that had just had occurred on the trail, and indeed as we approached the section where the trail is carved out of the cliff we could see it. Here’s the photo from earlier when we were hiking in:

Wenaha River Trail

And here is how it looked on the way out:

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Wenaha River Trail

Home stretch:

Wenaha River Trail

What a pretty hike! The trail is 31 miles long, but about 6.5 miles from the Troy Trailhead (where we started), there is no longer a bridge over Crooked Creek thanks to the Grizzly Complex Fire in 2015. I later called the Pomeroy Ranger District to ask them if there were plans to replace the bridge. They said they want to, but the funds aren’t there. Because it’s in wilderness, the bridge has to be constructed off-site and then helicoptered in. They hope to get a grant, but predicted it would be 5-10 years before the bridge is replaced.

We packed up and headed back Sunday morning. As we drove back up out the canyon we saw a huge herd of elk on the hill above Troy:

Elk

And we got a nice view of the Grand Ronde River:

Grand Ronde River

We saw some white-tailed deer:

White-tailed deer

And wild turkeys:

Wild turkeys

We stopped at the Joseph Canyon Viewpoint and took in the view. The snow has only just melted here:

Joseph Canyon Viewpoint

Fun weekend! Troy is a long way from nowhere but it’s a really pretty area. I’d like to visit again.