Since the Forest Service recently opened Catherine Creek to recreation again after the Burdoin Fire in July 2025, we hiked the Catherine Creek Arch Loop to check out the fire impacts.
As soon as I got out the car, I could smell the smoky scent of burned ground and trees despite four months having passed since the fire.
Some areas of ground still were black and bare where the fire had burnt most intensely. Much of the burned area has greened up with introduced non-native grasses.
We noticed burned Oregon white-oaks resprouting from their roots. Some shrub species, like ocean spray, also were sprouting new growth from their roots.
The trailhead kiosk survived the fire. We passed it as we set off on our hike. We hiked the loop clockwise, hiking first on the Atwood Road to the spur where the BPA powerline maintenance road crosses Catherine Creek.
An oak tree has fallen across the "trail gnome"-built footbridge, but we didn't need it since Catherine Creek was dry and we could walk across at the vehicle ford.
We approached the Catherine Creek Arch, where a new buck-and-rail fence replaced the fence that burned and a new interpretive sign explains the arch is sacred to the Yakama Nation and is closed to the public.
The old corral and remnants of ranch structures burned in the fire and nothing is left.
We birded and botanized as we hiked, so our pace was slow. We saw about a half dozen acorn woodpeckers and a large convention of Stellar's jays convening in a tree next to Catherine Creek. Many juncos, kinglets, chickadees and brown creepers flitted among the oak trees.
A prairie falcon flew low overhead while we were eating lunch.
We looked for signs of returning wildflowers; we saw grass widow stems only about an inch out of the ground, small lupine starts, and bitterroot, micranthes species, and western buttercup leaves.
Along the eastern part of the loop trail, several pine trees killed by the fire have fallen across the trail. We were able to go around them.
The WTA-built log bridge across Catherine Creek survived the fire, with only a scorch mark on the underside of the log to show that the Burdoin Fire had passed through here.
We completed the loop and returned to our cars.
NOTE: a portapotty is available at the trailhead.
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