(4K UHD) HIKING HIGHLIGHTS Upper & Lower Butte Creek Falls Trail Loop! | Santiam Oregon State Forest

This Video is 4K UHD - it is made to watch on a Big Screen Smart TV! Chapters & Timestamps: 0:00 Upper Butte Creek Falls Zone 1:11 Lower Butte Creek Falls Zone 4:36 Final Thoughts 6:28 Rapid Fire Silent Scenery (37 Clips) Please Note that the first 6 Minutes 27 Seconds Narrative Portion is entirely New Footage, 0% of it is contained within the separate FULL HIKING VIDEO of Butte Creek Falls Trail Loop -    • (4K UHD) HIKING Butte Creek Falls Trail Lo...   Nearby Hike HIKING Trail of Ten Falls Loop @ Silver Falls Oregon State Park -    • (4K UHD) HIKING Trail of Ten Falls Loop @ ...   Butte Creek Falls Trail Loop is a hidden gem Hike in Santiam State Forest, Oregon! It is located geographically to the NE of Silver Falls State Park - the most popular State Park in Oregon and a Top 5 Waterfall Hike in America (should be a National Park) - thus it has the same ecological footprint and the same overall epic vibe! While there are 3 Waterfalls you can walk behind @ Silver Falls State Park, you CAN ALSO WALK BEHIND Upper Butte Creek Falls IN A CAVE due to its absolutely incredible Waterfall Basin! It is a 0.7 Miles, ~177 FT Elevation Gain Loop Hike, so it is essentially a glorified Leg Stretcher Hike - given the high quality beauty it is one of the lowest effort to highest reward ratio payoff Hikes in the entire Area and very well worth making a point of stopping at! This was my first time doing it and I absolutely fell in love with the area - if you go in the morning the sun lights up the Trees glowing, vibrant green! For me, this was a classic real world application of what I call "My Own Two Eyes Doctrine".....after researching this Hike on AllTrails, I thought for sure the Upper Butte Creek Falls was more of a token dinker of a Waterfall at 26 FEET DROP, and that Lower Butte Creek Falls was certainly the star of the show with a more impressive 76 FEET DROP. You can do the Hike Clockwise or Counterclockwise - I opted to do CCW thinking I was going to "save the best for last".....while I would still recommend doing CCW, boy was I wrong in my framing which shows research only takes you so far - first off the descent down to the Upper Butte Creek Falls is absolutely LEGEND - you are treated with multiple vantage points of Upper Butte Creek Falls - Turn Right on the Main Trail at the Signed Junction to descend down to the Waterfall Basin of Upper Butte Creek Falls. Down at the end of the Main Trail is a Sign that says "End of Maintained Trail" - a legal liability trick by Santiam State Forest telling you to essentially proceed at your own risk - you can then go down to the Cave Behind the Waterfall or Turn Left and go to the Rocky Shoreline directly across from the Waterfall - I highly recommend doing both - in my humble opinion, this area felt very safe and family friendly to me - of course exercise caution, practice situational awareness, and do so at your own risk! Next is Lower Butte Creek Falls. This one is definitely the more dangerous of the two and is less Family Friendly. The Main Trail is great, but it also has an "End of Maintained Trail" Sign to avoid legal liability just before a Rocky Cliff that is the Lookout Viewpoint for Lower Butte Creek Falls. Please advise, it's more dangerous than it looks - its pretty wide, but there are rocks in the center that are very slippery near a cliff, and once you're doing it you realize there is genuine peril. The Viewpoint is high quality, but once you're there, there is nothing else to do after having just been spoiled by exploring the Vast Waterfall Basin of Upper. So I would say practice discretion and that Cliff may not be for everyone - of course do so at your own risk. About Half Way to Lower Butte Creek Falls on the Main Trail there is a sketchy Side Trail/Climb that takes you down to the Top of the Falls - this is advanced grade only - you essentially climb down the side of a hill using careful hand and foot placement like genuine climbing - you can use some branches to help you - but the real danger is if you fall you could bounce/slide down slick rocks and land in the Water at the Top of Lower Butte Creek Falls and GO OVER THE 78 FOOT DROP. I would not recommend Kids try this - this is for advanced Wilderness Adventurers only and of course do so at your own risk! Critical Note on Driving - I came from the North (S Sawtell Rd), drove by Butte Creek Falls Campground to the East and arrived heading Westward. There were two Gates along the Drive but they were both open. IMPORTANT TO NOTE - Gate towards Abiqua Falls was CLOSED heading further West, so reverse engineering that I would not approach from the West as you may not be able to access Butte Creek Falls Trailhead! The Road Conditions themselves were fine - last few miles was gravelly and a little bumpy, but pretty good - I've driven on far worse, I'd say any Subaru/SUV/Truck should be fine - just drive slowly and avoid the Pot Holes, and do so at your own risk!