We drove to Sisters this morning to hike the Tam McArthur Rim Trail located just outside of the town off of Elm Street in The Sisters Wilderness. The Trail started from Three Creek Lake at 6,550 feet elevation, it was a winding switch back single track trail to begin but the views were well worth the hike the higher we went. However, the snow was still present on the trail and we struggled to keep going. The Rim is at 8,000 feet and usually the snow does not melt until Aug so we were a little early and were not going to make it to the top. The views of Three Creek Lake, Mt Jefferson and Broken Top were beautiful as the weather was crystal clear. After enjoying the views we headed back to the Jeep and went to see Tumalo Falls, near Bend.
Another obstacle faced us, this time the road was closed to the Falls so we had to hike the 3 miles along the Tumalo Creek to see the Falls. It was a flat well-maintained trail with mountain bikers passing us along the trail. Once we arrived at the Tumalo Waterfalls we were amazed by the 97 feet of water cascading down into the Tumalo Creek below. We hiked along the edge of the Creek below the falls and I stood under the raging torrent of water that was so loud it was hard to hear anything else but the power of the water. The volume of water, mostly from snow melt, was very impressive as it tumbled over the 97 foot drop to the creek. Then it was the long 3 mile hike back to our car and a drive to Bend where we stopped at the Broken Top Bottle Shop for dinner and tasty micro beer. Great reward for a long day of hiking.
