Rock Creek Wilderness

Rock Creek Wilderness


	Courtesy of EatStayPlay.com

The Rock Creek Wilderness (7,486 acres) is one of three small wilderness areas established on the Siuslaw National Forest by Act of Congress in 1984. The Rock Creek Wilderness is located in the Oregon Coast Range south of Waldport and north of Florence, Oregon. Pristine rain forest canyons run with crystalline water pouring into either Rock Creek itself in the heart of the Wilderness or Big Creek on the southern boundary. Mossy bigleaf maple and red alder hang suspended over both creeks as they make their way toward the salty waves of the Pacific Ocean. Look carefully for Oregon silverspot butterflies on the tall ridge between Rock and Big Creeks; these orange-and-brown butterflies live only here and in two other places on earth. Near the coast, tremendous old-growth Sitka spruce sometimes reach nine feet in diameter, giving way to old Douglas fir farther inland. Pink-blossomed rhododendron bloom in May, joining salal, salmonberry, and swordfern in their efforts to keep the ground perpetually shaded. Salmon, steelhead, and cutthroat trout migrate upcreek to spawn in vast numbers. Fog cools the area almost all of every summer; and winters are snowless. There are no Forest Service developed or maintained trails in the Rock Creek Wilderness.