We've driven over 900 miles in three days, and we are ready to enjoy the first real day of our vacation. We have a huge campsite, and the sunshine is streaming through the trees that provide a giant canopy over the entire campground. I took a quick inventory around our campsite and found alder, Douglas fir, blue spruce, incense cedar, and a type of fir that I didn't recognize.
We spent most of the morning moving gear out of the Explorer and organizing it in its "permanent" location for the next seven weeks in the motorhome. We re-packed camera gear for hiking, set up our daypacks, and tried to figure out where we were going to put all the clothes we brought along.
Watson Falls
Our plan was to explore the North Umpqua River and photograph Watson and Toketee Falls. Both waterfalls are afternoon shots, so we didn't feel any pressure to get an early start. We left camp in the mid-afternoon for the 70-mile drive to Watson Falls. As soon as we left the campground, we realized clouds were streaming across the sky from the west and northwest, and were heading right for our destination.
Watson Falls drops 293' off a cliff and is the third tallest waterfall in Oregon. It's impressive, but our favorite part of the hike was Watson Creek below the falls. Smaller waterfalls and cascades competed for attention with the rich green colors of the grasses and bushes as the creek tumbled down the mountainside. We photographed Watson Creek for nearly two hours before we realized it was nearing 6:00, and we still wanted to hike to Toketee Falls.
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We drove to Toketee Falls and hiked about halfway up the trail before we decided it was getting too dark to shoot the falls. Clouds had rolled in, and we lost the bright overcast light that had worked so well at Watson Falls. We reluctantly hiked back to the car and drove the 70 miles back to Roseburg. We felt so badly we had to drown our sorrows in KFC chicken for dinner.
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