Wylie-Coyote Trail

10.1 miles from Georgetown. Steep 4 miles round trip.                             MAP

Downstream from Kelliher Trail the Otter Creek can be accesd by a virtually unknown trail that once was a maintained F.S. trail (blazes), dropped from maintenance and forgotten, and then resurrected with the ambitious efforts of local logger, Butch Wylie. Butch had dreams of finding gold at the bottom of Silver Falls. With the help of a helicopter and a crew of men he flew in much equipment to divert the creek, crane out the rock, and claim the treasure at bedrock. The crew discovered however that earlier miners (probably Chinese) had already been there a century earlier. Remnants of the newer, abandoned quest, can be found at this site decorating the surrounding landscape.

Silver Falls is a gorgeous 30’ waterfall that has carved a 75’ deep “glory hole” at its base. The flood of 1986 refilled the hole with large rock and gravel. Old blazes can be seen along remnants of the original trail that parallels the newer trail we use today.

You may wonder how trout ever got upstream from here.

Directions: Go 3 miles east on Wentworth Springs Rd to a L on Breedlove. Go 2.2 miles to go L on Bottle Hill Rd. Then follow B.H.R. 3.9 miles to a 5 way road situation where you go R on F.S. road 13N58. Follow this approx. 1 mile to park at a wide landing. From the landing, take the downhill road straight ahead about half a mile looking for the trail cutting off to the right. Follow the trail 1½ miles down to Otter Creek. The trail is very steep the last ½ mile, expect to fall in rainy weather! (see map)

The trail goes almost level until it crosses a year-round creek where it becomes steeper the closer it gets to Otter Creek. At Otter creek you can scramble on slippery bedrock going upstream for about a quarter mile to reach the waterfall. There are many old tailings in the area of Otter Creek telling of all the mining toil that occurred here long ago.

This area of Otter Creek gets very few visitors and is ideal for fishing and gold panning.