Palisades, Little Ranger Peak via Ranger Creek — Thursday, Jun. 16, 2022

Parked at the trail head for Snoquera Falls (Camp Shepard). The restroom is in good shape.

I did the Palisades - Ranger Peak loop in clockwise direction. Leaving the parking lot, I headed up to White River trail and went left. After a mile or so, I reached the Palisades trail. There is a stream crossing that may look a little scary, but rocks are nicely placed in the stream. With a little care and the use of a pole for balance, the Dalles Creek was not hard to Cross.

Another half mile up the trail is the base of Dalles Falls. The very short side trail is well worth the visit. Following the falls, continued on up to the stairs. Following the stairs and a few steep switch backs, I crossed the Dalles Creek on a 2 x 8 board.

The trail heads to the first of several viewpoints. After the 3rd viewpoint, the trail runs along the ridge line. After reaching Little Ranger Peak, I entered the burn zone. Between Little Ranger Pean and the junction with Ranger Creek trail (where the old cabin once sat), there are many downed small trees. I took my saw along and cleared many of the branches to make it better. There is still a lot of work to do in this section.

All the downed trees on the Ranger Creek trail have been cleared. Looks like the cutting just happened today. i did hike down Ranger Creek trail, stopping briefly at Little Ranger viewpoint.

My hike was 13.5 miles and about 2800 feet total altitude ascent, per my gaia gps tracker