Oregon’s Coast Range, which runs south from the Washington border, is home to what many consider the single most remote location in the entire state. Wassen Creek flows between the Smith and Umpqua Rivers and boasts the remarkable Devil’s Staircase. The area's relatively few visitors are routinely shocked to discover that such isolation exists in the largely developed mountain range.
In the 1970s, the very existence of the Devil’s Staircase was hotly debated. Some thought the rumors of a staircase of waterfalls with plunge pools as large as bathtubs carved into the sandstone bedrock was only wilderness myth. Others were convinced the waterfall existed, but didn’t know where along the miles of unbelievably rugged and inaccessible creek it would be found.
Hiker ponders giant Western Redcedar; © Dave Tvedt
The search for Devil’s Staircase by Survival Center students and volunteer activists of the now-defunct Siuslaw Task Force went on for several years. The bushwhacks down cliffs and into impenetrable vine maple thickets as they searched to find Wassen Creek and the Devil’s Staircase are legendary. The searchers' goal was to find the creek and follow it downstream hoping the elusive falls were just around the next bend. Many rainy nights were spent lost at the bottom of Wassen Creek’s steep and remote ravines that lie so precipitously close together as to be unmappable.
They never did find the Devil’s Staircase, but others eventually did. And nearly three decades later there is still no route — not a single trail — into the area. To get there one must try to follow elk and deer trails, hike the creek bed, or go overland through nearly impossibly rugged and brushy terrain. Typically, the trek requires a combination of all three and more.
Wassen Creek flows over four or five sandstone steps as it tumbles down about 50 feet. Into each step, the creek had drilled round plunge pools, perhaps using hard, igneous pebbles to scrape away the softer sandstone. The pools range in size from those large enough for several people to bathe in to thimbles that have just begun their erosion journey.
This is the Devil’s Staircase, and it and the surrounding area should be protected as wilderness.
Congressman Peter DeFazio at
Devil's Staircase; © Dave Tvedt
Wassen Creek runs through public land, managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Logging and road-building have been prohibited since adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994. Today it remains one of the finest stands of old growth ancient forest in Oregon’s Coast Range, and is home to the coast’s highest density of spotted owls. Wassen Creek supports healthy runs of Chinook and Coho salmon, and steelhead, up to Devil’s Staircase’s impenetrable barrier. It’s also home to robust populations of elk, black bear, mountain lion, otter, and mink.
The proposed Devil’s Staircase Wilderness would be approximately 27,000 acres in size, with all 7 miles of Wassen Creek protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. In October, 2008, Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) became the first member of Congress (and one of few people ever) to make the 8-mile bushwhack to the Devil’s Staircase. The Staircase, and the arduous trip to locate it (even while aided by two federal wildlife biologists and GPS equipment) lived up to its reputation. So impressed was Congressman DeFazio that he declared his intention to protect the area with federal legislation. One day we can all rest assured that this outstanding area with be forever protected—even if some of us may not be able to find it.
Adapted from a column written by Andy Stahl and published in the Eugene Register-Guard, November 12, 2007.
