Maple Creek Marsh

maple creek begins high in the hills of the siuslaw national forest and flows through green pastures cleared and tamed by hard-working pioneers back in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

before it comes to rest in siltcoos lake, the largest lake on the oregon coast, maple creek flows through many acres of marshlands dotted with bogs and populated by willows, cattails, tules, skunk cabbage, yarrow, scotch broom and mostly reed canary grass.

its inhabitants include beavers, muskrats, bobcats, cougars, black bears, coyotes, raccoons, rabbits, weasels, minks, river otters, bald eagles, osprey, red-tail hawks, peregrine falcons, turkey vultures, great blue herons, egrets and now that i'm identifying them, much too many to list here.

oh, and the occasional human.

in the distance stretches the central oregon and pacific railroad's trestle over the creek and between the marsh and the maple creek arm of siltcoos lake. the trestle was built in 1913.