29 min
Overview
In recent years, the Salem Area Trails Alliance, a mountain biker group, and the professional trail building company, Dirt Mechanics, have collaborated to construct a set of trails in the Silver Falls State Park “backcountry” near the southern border of the park. The trails are also open to hikers, and this loop takes you on a beginner biker trail through a skills section to the heavily switchbacked Rabbit Hole Trail, which connects you to the Smith Creek and Howard Creek trails. You’re under the forest canopy the entire time, some of it impressive old growth, so this route is a good rainy day choice, shorter than the Smith Creek Loop Hike. You have less chance of running into bikers in the wet season. Cross Lookout Mountain Road, and switchback down in a Douglas-fir/hemlock woodland with an understory of sword fern and vine maple. At the junction with the Newt Loop (and signed for the Catamount Trail), turn right to pass through a horse gate and reach a kiosk with a map of the biker trails in the area. Bear right here to follow the south section of the Newt Loop, a flat beginner’s trail. Large snags attest to a burn over a century ago. You’ll pass a six-foot diameter nurse log and then meet a big old-growth Douglas-fir. The trail enters a thinned, younger forest with bracken in the understory, crosses an old fire road, and reaches the junction with the Catamount Trail, where you’ll stay left. The Newt Loop stays under the canopy to skirt a clearing and recross the fire road and pass above more large Douglas-firs. When you reach the Rolling Drop Skills Station, turn right and keep right all the junctions to pass a rock drop and then the Rock Up & Over Skills Station. When you come to the fire road, turn left to descend to a gravel plaza, where you can pick up the top end of the Rabbit Hole Trail. The Rabbit Hole Trail has thirteen numbered switchbacks – keep your ears open and alert for bikers that may be coming behind you. The slope is dominated by maples and alders, resulting in much leaf litter in the
Trail Stats
0.0 km
143 m
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Photos
400px-RabbitHoleLoopMap
400px-RabbitHoleLoopMap
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160px-Big_Douglas-firs%2C_Newt_Loop%2C_Silver_Falls_State_Park
250px-Smith_Creek_swamp%2C_Howard_Creek_Trail%2C_Silver_Falls_State_Park
250px-Smith_Creek_swamp%2C_Howard_Creek_Trail%2C_Silver_Falls_State_Park
250px-Avenue_of_hemlocks%2C_Howard_Creek_Loop
250px-Avenue_of_hemlocks%2C_Howard_Creek_Loop
400px-Vine_maple_arch%2C_Rabbit_Hole_Trail%2C_Silver_Falls_State_Park
400px-Vine_maple_arch%2C_Rabbit_Hole_Trail%2C_Silver_Falls_State_Park