Trail in good condition with a few minor creek crossings. We did find ticks on both of our dogs afterwards.

We had a nice two-night backpack trip at Douglas Creek Canyon (North) over Memorial Day. To build on other trip reports:

• If you drive into the canyon from the north (taking H Road south off of Highway 2), the road to the first turnout (west side of the road) leading to the east-west portion of Douglas Creek Canyon is suitable for all vehicles. You descend from farm fields into the canyon and the turnout is to the right (west) and clearly visible from the road once you enter the canyon. 
• The BLM map describes this area of Douglas Creek Canyon as being closed to motorized use, whereas the southern section is open to 4x4s. The sign at the parking area says the section is closed to motorized uses. But this is confusing because the majority of the trail after the first quarter mile is clearly designed for motorized use (it is an old railroad bed), and indeed two groups of side-by-sides and dirt bikes passed through on Sunday. So it may not be totally closed but seems less popular for motorized use. 
• The tall grasses in the first quarter mile from the parking area and the grasses around the creek crossings are prime tick areas this time of year. We removed more than a dozen from our dog and several from each member of our party. The rockier areas of the trail away from the creek are tick-free. We didn't encounter any other bugs.  
• The creek is accessible from the trail in only a handful of spots, so if you are planning to camp and need to utilize the creek as a water source, you might want to set up camp shortly before or after one of the creek crossings. We liked our spot along the trail about a mile in from the parking area, but it was about 1/3 mile back to the creek for water runs. There are nice flat spots along the rocky trail above the creek on both sides of the first creek crossing that we would probably use if we did this hike again.
• We saw two day-hiker groups on Saturday, two groups of 4x4s that came through Sunday, and no one on Memorial Day Monday. 
• For wildlife, we saw one deer, two marmots, one 6'+ bull snake, and many birds (this is a great hike for birders: many goldfinches, spotted towhee, cedar waxwings, wrens, bluebirds, ravens, raptors). One of the day-hiker groups reported seeing a rattlesnake along the trail so be rattler-aware.    

A friend, my dog and I hiked part of the Douglas Creek trail yesterday. The weather was pretty good -- comfortable temperature, just right for hiking, and very high, thin clouds most of the day. Every once in a while there was a stiff breeze that was cold, but the breezes didn't last for long.

I didn't see any wildflowers in bloom, but everything was budding out (see photos). There were small patches of snow in the shady parts of the north-facing slopes of the canyon, but nothing on the trail. We had to cross the stream four or five times, but crossings were easy, as the water level was low, so all of the crossing rocks were above the water level.

The trail was very nice to walk on, mostly crushed rock/soil mix, with of places were there were large cobbles when you crossed dried upon stream beds. Most of these places were not too wide, so overall, it was very easy going, with minor elevation gain and loss overall, and occasional humps to go over entering and exiting the stream beds. There were parts of the trail that were actually a gravel road that passes through the canyon, but mostly we were on actual trail.

Someone had recently driven a 4-wheel drive vehicle on the trail, so there were tire tracks from that and from mountain bikes, but no rutting of the Traill anywhere to speak of.

The canyon walls are very high and steep on both sides. They are made up of layers of volcanic rock. columns are interspersed with layers of pancaked volcanic rock mixed with soil (see photos). The rocks were covered with lichens in many places, sometimes covering entire walls of rock (see photos).

Douglas Creek canyon is really beautiful. It has many twists and turns, with narrow defiles opening out to expansive amphitheater-like walls, probably about 300'-400'+ high, with the base of the canyon widening out to lush vegetation from side to side (see photos). The colors of the rock and vegetation were really varied and blended together into very sublime landscape that was a real joy to walk through. Everywhere you looked there was some unique combination of pastel colors made up of the vegetation and surrounding rock. It was a very serene place.

We didn't see anyone else all day, our car being the only one at the trail head. We went north to south, for about three miles or so, and then turned around, due to time constraints. It took us four hours to get there.

We saw several birds, including two grouse that we startled into flight. They were fun to watch fly, as they are such fast flying birds, that stay very low to the ground in flight. They stayed in perfect formation, wing tip to wing tip, for as long as we could see them, which was probably about 100 meters, until they entered a copse of willows and ret-twig dogwoods. There was lots of fresh deer scat along the trail, too, but we didn't see any. There were trout about 6" to 8" long in the creek. We saw about 8-10 of them.

There are also a lot of remnants of past human activity in the canyon, with old telegraph poles, pilings and logs protruding from the sides of the creek crossings where there used to be bridges. We say some old rails (I think) sticking out of the bank of the creek in one place, too, as well as a thoroughly rusted 55 gallon tank.

We stopped in Cashmere on the way to Douglas Creek to let my dog Tika walk around for a while, then on to Wenatchee. From Wenatchee, we went north along the Columbia River to Waterville. Eight miles from Waterville heading east we turned right (south) on Road H. We took Road H, a dirt road in good condition (well graded) another eight miles to the parking area.

The canyon/creek is on BLM land. It is well marked and maintained. Douglas Creek is a very pristine feeling, like it doesn't get many visitors. It is similar to Cowiche Canyon, but in my opinion, much prettier. Too bad it's such a long drive, but I guess that's what makes it such an "untouched" place.

Warm fall day (77oF) was perfect break for road trip with dog. Trail brush was well maintained and trail easy to follow. Several spots allowed dog access to creek for a cooling dip. Encountered two, gentle, Black Angus range cattle. Twice they moved on, but the third time they stood their ground. So dog and I turned around at that point ~ 1 mile into trail.