Elk Creek Falls

Located near Alleghany, on the Millicoma Tree Farm. From downtown Coos Bay, follow Highway 101 south to the signed turn for Eastside and the Coos River. Follow this road for about 15, one mile past the town of Alleghany, to a funny intersection. The main road, leading to Golden and Silver Falls State Park goes left, another road takes a hard right, and immediately, a third road goes off left, paralleling the road leading to Golden and Silver Falls. Take this road, marked for Weyerhauser's Millicoma Tree Farm. Follow the Weyerhauser Road, #100, for 9.5 miles to a major junction. Turn right, and proceed another 1.6 miles. Turn right here (I think it was road # 500), follow what looks like the main road for another 2.8 miles to a fork. Turn right, and proceed another 7/10 of a mile, staying left at all major junctions, to the crossing of Elk Creek. The falls can be seen above the road at this point. Best views are had by continuing down the road for another 500 feet.This is the lower of two large waterfalls on the headwaters of Elk Creek. Located on Weyerhauser's Millicoma Tree Farm, the falls are, unfortunately, surrounded on all sides by massive clear cuts. A buffer zone was, however, left around Elk Creek, so the clear cuts don't detract from photographs of the falls. The falls drop about 150 feet in a veiling horsetail before cascading through thick brush towards the road. The falls can't be seen very clearly up close, especially when the surrounding trees are in leaf. The best view is from about 500 feet down the road, as illustrated in the picture above. This perspective, unfortunately, only allows for the top 2/3 of the falls to be seen. I suspect that Elk Creek may run dry, or very close to dry late in the summer, so expectations should be adjusted accordingly depending on the season. This waterfall lies on Weyerhaeuser's Millicoma Tree Farm. As of 2014 Weyerhaeuser now requires an annual recreation permit for public access to this area. They only make approximately 1200 permits available each year, at a cost of $350 each, and are specific to the Millicoma Tree Farm, so it won't be transferable for other Weyerhaeuser properties elsewhere in Oregon.