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adventure<br />
Sweet Creek Falls is just a short<br />
detour on your way to Florence.<br />
SWEET CREEK FALLS<br />
MAPELTON, OREGON<br />
(56 MILES WEST OF EUGENE)<br />
Sweet Creek is a quick and easy stop on<br />
your next trip to Florence. It’s an 11-<br />
mile detour off U.S. Highway 99. You<br />
can drive an extra mile and go straight to<br />
the main waterfall, but the better option<br />
is to use the Sweet Creek Homestead<br />
trail, which ends on the main falls. The<br />
special part about the 1.2-mile trail is<br />
that you walk against the current and<br />
come up on multiple waterfalls that get<br />
bigger and bigger as you follow the trail.<br />
It gets intimidating.<br />
Much of the trail has metal<br />
reinforcements for hand railings and to<br />
walk on. Some of the areas would likely<br />
never be accessed by humans if not for<br />
the catwalk bolted into the rock wall<br />
next to the falls.<br />
If you choose to drive up, there is a<br />
small parking area about a tenth of a<br />
mile from the falls. Once there, you can<br />
walk to an upper lookout.<br />
TIPS<br />
1. WEAR WATERPROOF<br />
SHOES WITH GOOD<br />
TRACTION: These trails can<br />
get pretty muddy seeing as<br />
how they’re next to fastmoving<br />
rivers, and you don’t<br />
want to have to drive home<br />
with wet socks.<br />
2. LEAVE EARLY: Daylight<br />
savings time means the sun<br />
sets early, and these are not<br />
roads you want to find yourself<br />
on in the dark.<br />
3. PACK A PICNIC: All of these<br />
locations have benches at the<br />
entrance or even on the trail.<br />
JANUARY | FEBRUARY <strong>2018</strong> <strong>1859</strong> OREGON’S MAGAZINE 101
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