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TRIP 5 Bloom Lake

Distance		2.7 miles, Semiloop
Elevation Gain		450 feet
Hiking Time		2 hours
Optional Map		USGS Elsie (trail not shown)
Usually Open		All year (except during winter storms)
Best Times		April and May
Trail Use		Good for kids, backpacking option, dogs OK, fishing
Agency		Clatsop State Forest
Difficulty		Moderate
Note		Good in cloudy weather

HIGHLIGHTS Until recently, the Clatsop State Forest, a major public landholder in northwest Oregon, had no maintained hiking trails. In 2004, however, the forest managers belatedly embraced the idea of “multiple use,” which necessarily includes nonmotorized recreation, and constructed several fine paths for local pedestrians to explore. The most easily accessible of these routes is this trail to shallow but very pleasant Bloom Lake.

DIRECTIONS Drive west on U.S. Highway 26 to milepost 24.5 (exactly 4.2 miles west of the Sunset Rest Area), and park in the large gravel pull-out on the south side of the road.

The trail starts by crossing a wooden hiker’s bridge over South Fork Quartz Creek, whose waters are banked by stands of red alder and a low-growing assortment of ferns, mosses, coltsfoot, horsetails, bleeding heart, and various other water-loving plants. The moderately to steeply graded trail then leads uphill past several old stumps and through a second-growth forest filled with vine maples, salmonberries, and April-blooming wildflowers such as trillium, wood violet, and oxalis. Winter wrens, varied thrushes, and chestnut-backed chickadees bring music to your stroll, helping to drown out the sounds of traffic on Highway 26.

Bloom Lake

At 0.3 mile the path meets and follows a long-abandoned logging skid road, which now serves as a wide trail. Although the surrounding woods contain a few western hemlocks and Douglas firs, deciduous trees dominate, giving this area a pleasant open feeling, especially in winter and early spring. At 0.8 mile, the trail levels off for 0.1 mile and then comes to a junction marked with a small brown plastic post.

The old road goes straight here (a possible return route), but you turn right on a winding trail that goes downhill under the shade of large vine maples. After 0.25 mile you reach the outlet of shallow, 4-acre Bloom Lake. Although not wildly scenic, this pond makes a very pleasant lunch spot, surrounded as it is by white-barked alders and marshy areas that support a profusion of skunk cabbage, which blooms in March and April. The lake is popular with anglers, looking to snag some of the water’s small cutthroat trout. Wildlife enthusiasts will enjoy looking at the old beaver dam on the outlet creek just below the lake.

You can make a semiloop out of this adventure by crossing Bloom Lake’s outlet creek on a log and then picking up a sketchy path above a campsite on the west shore of the lake. Follow this path for 150 yards to a junction with a gravel road. Turn left on this road, walk uphill for 0.2 mile, and then turn sharply left on an old logging skid road. After 0.4 mile this up-and-down road reaches the junction with the trail you turned onto to reach Bloom Lake. Go straight and return the way you came.