Salmon River (Clackamas County, Oregon)
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The Salmon River is a river in the
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in the
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of
Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
that drains part of southwestern
Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...
. The entire length of the river is a protected
National Wild and Scenic River The National Wild and Scenic Rivers System was created by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-542), enacted by the U.S. Congress to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-f ...
. Several portions are in protected
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. It is affluent to the Sandy River, a tributary of the
Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...
.


Course

The overall course is
sickle A sickle, bagging hook, reaping-hook or grasshook is a single-handed agricultural tool designed with variously curved blades and typically used for harvesting or reaping grain crops, or cutting Succulent plant, succulent forage chiefly for feedi ...
-shaped with the point facing north at
Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...
and the handle facing west. The headwaters are on the Mount Hood's south face at the foot of Palmer Glacier east of Silcox Hut. The river, which crosses the
Pacific Crest Trail The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...
at , continues directly southward for a few miles and remains east of Timberline Road. As it descends below , it turns southwest, and continues under Oregon Route 35, elevation , just east of the junction with U.S. Route 26, and crosses under Route 26 as well. The map includes mile markers along the Salmon and Sandy rivers. The West Fork Salmon River begins in the Timberline Lodge ski area under the Pucci
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. It flows south-southwest and is joined by natural cold springs at the level, continues south-southwest and crosses under Highway 26 just west of the Highway 35 junction. Just after they cross Highway 26, the West Fork and Salmon River join, and a half mile (1 km) later, the Salmon is joined by the East Fork Salmon River which comes out of a steep valley just north of, and below, Barlow Pass. The combined river flows directly south through Red Top Meadow for about and begins meandering slightly through Salmon River Meadows, elevation . At the south end, the river is joined by Ghost Creek, which enters from the
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and turns west-southwest for about before receiving Mud Creek, which flows from Trillium Lake and enters from the
right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
. About downstream from Mud Creek, it receives Fir Tree Creek from the right as it enters the eastern boundary of the Salmon–Huckleberry Wilderness. A steep east–west
gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...
captures the Salmon River and collects several creeks—Wolf from the right; Inch, Draw String, and Linney from the left. The river turns northwest and in the next , flows over a series of six waterfalls ranging from high. These include Stein and Split (before Iron and Swift creeks enter from the left and Kinzel Creek from the right), then Little Niagara (before Goat Creek enters from the right), then Vanishing,
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, and Final Falls. Iron Creek, near its confluence with the Salmon River, flows over Hideaway Falls. A half mile below Final Falls, Copper Creek joins from the left and, a mile later, Bighorn Creek joins from the left and the river leaves the wilderness area. About later, the South Fork Salmon River—which drains about of rugged mountains northeast of Squaw Mountain—enters from the left about a mile above Green Canyon Campground. From here the river flows on a comparatively level grade, receiving Cheeney Creek from the left just above Welches. The river then flows roughly parallel to Route 26 past Wemme, then goes through Wildwood Recreation Site near Wildwood. Receiving Boulder Creek from the left, it crosses (again) under Route 26 and merges with the Sandy River near the community of Brightwood. This is upstream of the Sandy's confluence with the
Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...
.


Flora and fauna

The lower canyons have black bear, blacktail deer,
cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
,
badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...
, fisher, and
marten A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on ...
. Dense
western hemlock ''Tsuga heterophylla'', the western hemlock or western hemlock-spruce, is a species of hemlock native to the northwest coast of North America, with its northwestern limit on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and its southeastern limit in northern ...
,
Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...
are mixed with western red cedar,
red alder ''Alnus rubra'', the red alder, is a deciduous broadleaf tree native to western North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana). Description ''Alnus rubra'' is the largest species of alder in ...
, and vine maple. The rare Alaska cedar is found in patches around the Salmon River Meadows. The upper reaches of the river support
cutthroat trout The cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus clarkii'' clade) is a clade of four fish species of the Family (biology), family Salmonidae native to cold-water Tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. ...
. Downstream of the waterfalls, the river has excellent
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habitat for
steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...
,
Chinook salmon The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...
, and
coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon (or "silvers") and is often ...
. The river is named for the fish (salmon).


Recreation


Boating

Whitewater Whitewater forms in the context of rapids, in particular, when a river's Stream gradient, gradient changes enough to generate so much turbulence that air is trapped within the water. This forms an unstable current that foam, froths, making t ...
enthusiasts sometimes run a stretch of the lower river that begins downstream of the Salmon–Huckleberry Wilderness boundary. The run of "fairly continuous class 2 rapids with great wilderness scenery" begins at a bridge near a wilderness trailhead and ends at the Arrah-Wanna Road bridge. This stretch of water is rated class II+ to III (intermediate) on the International Scale of River Difficulty. Hazards include logs along the banks and a stretch of boulders ending in a ledge. Expert kayakers have rarely completed runs in the Salmon River gorge further upstream. Oregon Kayaking says, "The Salmon River Canyon may just be the Mount Everest of Oregon Kayaking. Huge, marginally portageable waterfalls combined with crumbly, near-vertical canyon walls and questionable rescue possibilities make this a very serious venture indeed." These gorge and waterfall runs have been rated class V to V+ (expert, extreme).


Camping

Alpine Campground lies to the east of Salmon River about halfway between it and the West Fork. The highest campground in the Mount Hood National Forest, it is near Timberline Lodge and offers access to trails for hiking and mountain biking. It has 16 sites for tent camping. Amenities include picnic tables and potable water. Open from early June through early September, the campground sometimes has snow in mid-summer. Trillium Lake Campground, along Trillium Lake, west of the Salmon River and at the head of one of its tributaries, has more than 50 sites for tents and trailers along a forest road connecting to Route 26 near Government Camp. Amenities include drinking water, picnic tables, toilets, and access to lake and pond fishing, hiking and mountain biking, and non-motorized lake boating. Green Canyon Campground, about by road from Wemme, is along the Salmon River about a mile downstream of the mouth of the South Fork. Open from late May to late September, the campground has sites for tents and recreational vehicles (RV)s, picnic tables, and access to hiking trails and
rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
fishing. It has vault toilets but no drinking water. Wildwood Recreation Site is a day-use area along the lower river near Wildwood and Route 26. Overseen by the
Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...
, the site has a variety of picnic tables, shelters, and kitchens, playing fields and courts, a wetland boardwalk, underwater viewing chamber, and an interpretive trail, as well as access to fishing, swimming, and other trails.


Hiking

The Salmon River West Trailhead, along Welches Road upstream of Green Canyon Campground, provides access to the Salmon–Huckleberry Wilderness via the Salmon River Trail. This trail, long, generally runs along a forested bluff above the north side of the river. At its eastern end, the Salmon River Trail connects to the Pacific Crest Trail via the long Jackpot Meadows Trail. Between the end points, connecting trails such as the long Kinzel Lake Trail, make a variety of hikes possible in combinations. This system of trails, collectively known as the Salmon River National Recreation Trail, totals about . Down river from Salmon River West Trailhead, Old Salmon River Trail travels to Old Salmon River Trailhead.


See also

* List of National Wild and Scenic Rivers *
List of rivers of Oregon This is a partial listing of rivers in the state of Oregon, United States. This list of Oregon rivers is organized alphabetically and by tributary structure. The list may also include streams known as creeks, brooks, forks, branches and prongs, as ...


References


External links

*
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System
{{authority control Rivers of Oregon Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States Mount Hood Rivers of Clackamas County, Oregon Mount Hood National Forest