Join us on the spectacular hike to the Blue Pool in Oregon, one of the world’s weird and wonderful places. In today’s video, we’ll share 10 things you must know about the Blue Pool, from understanding its origins to how to hike to the Blue Pool yourself.
#1: The Blue Pool has a fascinating volcanic story. It was formed when Belknap Crater erupted 1600 years ago. The lava flowed right over the McKenzie River. Now the river runs underground for a few miles, beneath the lava rock!
A lot of the hike to the Blue Pool winds through the lava fields, now beautifully carpeted in moss.
At the Blue Pool, the river resurfaces, the water gushing from the rocks. It looks really cool to see water apparently rushing from the rocks themselves without a visible source.
#2: The Blue Pool is incredibly clear. This clarity is due in part to being so cold. Many organisms that would typically cloud the water can’t survive at temperatures this low.
The full name of the Blue Pool, “Tamolitch,” is the Chinook word for “bucket,” since the pool is like a bucket of clear water.
#3: The Blue Pool is on the McKenzie River Trail, a 26-mile spectacularly scenic hiking trail along the McKenzie River in central Oregon. Along its full length, the trail travels past other amazing sights, including old-growth forests and past two huge waterfalls, Koosah Falls and Sahalie Falls. The McKenzie River Trail also showcases the aptly named Clear Lake, a lake of stunning clarity that actually contains an underwater forest, preserved from when the lake formed 3,000 years ago when lava flows dammed the river. The wood is preserved due to the incredibly low water temperature.
We’ll cover more about these other highlights of the McKenzie River Trail in future videos. For now, let’s focus on the Blue Pool.
#4: How to get to this awesome place! It’s about an hour and 15 minutes’ drive east of Eugene, or 3 hours southeast of Portland. Since it’s along a 26-mile trail, there are many options for where to start your hike. One of the most popular approaches is to do it as a 4.5-mile day hike from the Tamolitch Trailhead.
#5: Parking at this trailhead is of course crowded! We went on a weekend afternoon, and all of the street parking was taken, but we found a spot in the overflow lot down the road.
#6: This is one of those hikes where the journey is as stunning as the viewpoint at the end. The trail travels through quintessential Pacific Northwest old-growth forest draped in moss. We did our hike on the last weekend in May, and the ferns were at their spring best.
#7: Make sure to stop along the way to appreciate the river views! If you hike from the Tamolitch Trailhead, the river is above ground the whole way. The river itself is beautiful, with its blue-tinged water tumbling over mossy boulders.
#8: Part of the McKenzie River Trail was impacted by wildfires in recent years. When we visited in spring 2022, a 4-mile section of the trail was still closed. Luckily, the rest of it is largely unaffected. There are some burned sections visible across the river on the hike to the Blue Pool, but most of the forest is intact.
#9: Wear good footwear, and ideally waterproof shoes or socks, because hiking over the old lava flow makes for a pretty uneven surface, and as you can likely guess from all that moss, it rains a lot here!
I forgot my waterproof shoes and socks at home, so I just got wet feet. To learn about waterproof socks, check out this video, where we test out waterproof socks on a different trail!
• Can Waterproof Socks K...
My mom and brother opted for hiking poles, which can also help with the uneven terrain.
#10: While the Blue Pool is beautiful, I would not recommend jumping in or swimming. People have died at the Blue Pool over the years, largely because of the shock of the extremely cold temperatures. Enjoy this incredibly beautiful hike, but stay safe!
Reference:
www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/willa...
6 июн 2022
