- This is particularly steep right here,
so be real careful on your way down.
- [Narrator] Our trek to the Devil's Staircase
began on what passes for a path
in this part of the Oregon Coast Range.
But the path wouldn't continue much further,
and if we didn't keep up a good pace,
we'd never make it to one of the wildest
and hardest to reach waterfalls in the Coast Range,
the Devil's Staircase.
- One of the things that makes Devil's Staircase so unique
is that it is so elusive and remote and inaccessible.
And you don't come here
to just go on a walk through the woods.
You come here to have a true wilderness experience.
(heavy breathing)
- We've been rolling for just under an hour.
We're doing well.
- We'll just wanna make sure we're committed
on the way out to high tailing it to get out
on top of the ridge before it really gets dark.
- [Narrator] Our guide was Josh Laughlin.
He and Cameron Derbyshire have scouted the area
several times with the conservation group,
Cascadia Wildlands.
Kate Ritley has also been here before,
but she's never found the waterfall
that gives the Devil's Staircase its name.
- Can't get ahold of anything.
- [Narrator] Then there's Darrell and Gary.
Two friends who last hiked to the Staircase
by way of Wasson Creek back in the 1960s.
- Nicely done, Darrell.
- Well, you know, I met Darrell back when we were
in college back there in the old days
and Darrell always talked about Wasson Creek.
So we finally decided that we'd try it
and spent three days walking out.
And it was a remarkable experience.
You always had the feeling that
there'd never been anybody there.
- [Narrator] Even today, hardly anyone makes it
to the Devil's Staircase.
Mostly because it's really, really hard to get there.
There's no official trail head,
and the surveyor's path we had been following,
it ended at this sign
which basically said things are about to get ugly.
- I thought I could make the leap.
Oh, yeah.
- We've gotten calls
from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office
about folks going into the woods
looking for this elusive waterfall.
There was one party, actually, that went in
with three GPS units
and, by the end,
none of them were working.
They had lost two of them
and they themselves were thoroughly lost.
- Just looking for the best route here.
- [Narrator] The Devil's Staircase has earned a reputation
as the Bermuda Triangle of the Oregon wilderness,
and it's easy to see why.
- Guys might wanna consider the...
- Other?
- Other way we came down.
- Well, that's kinda ridgy as well.
- I'm thinking, like, we're in
one of these flat parts here.
- Right in here, yeah, that makes sense.
- [Narrator] Even with a guide, we spent hours
breaking through a disorienting green thicket
that grew thicker and steeper with each step.
- Rotten fir.
It's amazing how strong the sword fern is,
to hang onto.
If it wasn't for that, I think I'd have
tumbled a long time ago.
- When you're navigating, you're so focused on
the three feet in front of you
and not hurting yourself on
big hole in the ground and the stick
and the roots and the rocks
that it
is so
easy to just lose track
of where you are in the bigger scene.
- This is a little questionable, right here.
- Yeah, I see it. I'm going further.
- Yeah, tell those guys the same thing.
- We lost our GPS signal.
I don't think we have any signal here at all.
Too many big trees.
- The old school GPS continues to tell us
to go due south.
- [Narrator] GPS doesn't have a prayer here.
The trees are huge, and the trees are huge
because they've never been cut.
That sets Devil's Staircase apart
from most of the Oregon Coast Range.
- You really really get the sense
of how heavily fragmented the Oregon Coast Range is,
and looking right down at the Devil's Staircase area,
you see an expanse of unbroken forest,
no roads, just canopy.
- [Narrator] It's no secret to Oregonians
that the Coast Range is dominated
by clear cuts and tree farms.
It's not a place known for big, rugged wilderness.
Devil's Staircase is the exception.
- Whoa!
Found a hole.
- Well, there are parts of it that's not a lot fun,
there's no denying that, that's for sure.
But most of it, you know, is enough
where you can at least look around you
and see what's going on, and it's a feel,
you know, it's a feel that you just,
you really don't get in other places.
(birds chirping)
- When you actually stop and listen,
first thing that you'll notice is
just the sound of the breeze moving
through the vegetation.
You can hear little trickles of water.
Then you start to hear songbirds.
(birds singing)
- It's a full sensory experience.
- [Narrator] The thing about this area
is that there are no grand vistas,
no beautiful peaks.
This is a place of subtle beauty,
and tricky topography.
- It's kinda dizzying up here.
- Yeah, it is.
A disconcerting part is
the tree gets smaller as you walk.
- All right.
- Up, and down, and up, and down.
- Boy, it's a challenge, it really is.
You know, I can see a person
that wasn't with somebody
that really knew where they were going,
it's really dangerous.
- Don't bonk your head on that.
This is where your long sleeves pay off.
- [Narrator] After five hours,
we could barely mask our pain,
and we had all had more than our share
of blood and bruises.
But just when we'd had about enough,
the Devil's Staircase came into view.
- Whoo!
- Wow! Look at that!
- Actually my first time at the Staircase!
- Is that right? - Nice stuff, yeah!
Great, it's beautiful!
- [Narrator] The Falls were beautiful,
but not in the epic sense.
At least not now, at the dry end of summer.
We'd seen pictures of the falls,
when it looked more like this,
and honestly, that's what we were expecting.
What we found wasn't that kind
of in-your-face beauty.
But then again, everything is more beautiful
when you earn it.
And to just make it here
was something worth celebrating.
- Who's going in?
- Jump!
- I know, it's cold.
- Fun to go into a cold pool
after you've been hiking for hours,
through the brush.
There is nothing that feels better than that.
(laughing) Really cold!
It's sort of this remote paradise.
- Yeah!
- And as you climb around and explore it,
you find all of these little treasures.
- Yeah, the sandstone seems to
take a shape of its own.
- It's kind of like a playground.
- Woohoo!
Whoo!
- That is 54 degrees.
- Now, we've been talking about it for several years.
We need to come back at least one more time
before we get too old to do it.
So we were really glad to have this
opportunity to come back.
It's a magic place. It's a magic place. Still is.
- [Narrator] Not everyone gets
what's so special about fishing a stream
where the fish are few.
Or why napping on a warm rock here
felt better than napping on a soft bed at home.
Those that do get it know that
these are the simple joys that make wilderness
worth the struggle.
- Beautiful, beautiful.
- [Narrator] Now, as for how we got out of here,
let's just say it was no easier than getting in,
and we barely made it back before dark.
- Ugh, he's going straight up the mountainside.
Came down right there.
- We can't be lost yet.
- Wilderness is where you don't find a fire ring.
It's where you don't find a road.
Those kinds of places are becoming
more and more rare today.
It's a place where
one can go
to escape the chaotic nature of everyday,
a place like Devil's Staircase.