6.2 hr
Overview
NOTICE: Trails in this area have been affected by the 2021 Bull Complex Fire. Please check current closures in the Clackamas River Ranger District before planning an outing. The Dickey Creek Trail heads into the heart of the Bull of the Woods Wilderness and provides access to secluded Big Slide Lake, nestled in an almost totally encircled bowl. There are no high viewpoints on this hike, but the route takes you through leafy woods, including some spectacular glades of old growth, across pristine Dickey Creek and up slopes of trademark Bull of the Woods talus. Big Slide Lake itself is a convenient base camp for many other destinations in the wilderness and this northern section has as yet been unmarred by the forest fires that have devastated other parts of the wilderness recently. Note that the round-trip distance on the hike has increased by about one mile as a section of the approach road was decommissioned in 2011. The Dickey Creek Trail can be accessed earlier in the season (late spring) than most of the other Bull of the Woods trails as it does not travel on high ridges. Hike up the old access road, which has been dug up and strawed over, to the old parking area. Alder, hemlock, Douglas-fir, cedar, silver fir, and rhododendrons line the road. The old trail information board is still there. Take trail #553 into the woods, pass the Bull of the Woods Wilderness sign, and sign in at the Wilderness Permit Station. The trail is on an old road bed which descends to an old bridge. This can be crossed at your own risk on the last remaining sound log. You can also take a detour to the right to the edge of a bog, cross a small creek, and head back to the trail, which now heads up in an area where there was logging at some time in the past. The trail leaves the road bed and drops steeply in a rocky area; steps have been created here to allow a more stable descent. Wind up in mossy woods and then down among old-growth Douglas-firs, the woods carpeted with moss and Oregon grape. A trail maintenance crew has sawn throu
Trail Stats
19.3 km
512 m
1343 m
0 m
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