Well, Chad and I decided to go check out Drift creek Alsea yesterday to see if it would be worth a trip once steelhead opens up. We did not get to actually scout much water, but did learn some valuable information. First of all, unless you want to fish tidal water, there is no public access for the lower 10 miles of river. Second, the only public access to the river is down a trail called Horse creek trail. Don't know why they named it that? It is in a wilderness area, so no bikes or horses and such. Also, once you start down the trail be sure and stick to the trail where the road and trail split. There are a series of large ditches dug in the road to keep vehicles out, just before that the trail goes left, stay left. The road dead ends about 2.04 miles down. Don't ask how I know that The elevation at the head of the trail is 1442 ft or so and the creek is between 125 ft and 300 ft above sea level, so you are in for a serious hike if you do decide to go in there. On the plus side, I'm sure it wouldn't be very crowded down there, and what we did see of the lower river looked very nice.

Thanks Daniel. Good info

H

I have been down into drift creek a hand full of times, never for steelhead or salmon. Its a lot of fun for sea run cutts. There is actually two trail heads, I believe the one you're talking about is the far less used one anymore. Fishing in the winter could be extremely challenging because there is no trail that boarders the actual river and with water levels being seasonaly higher there may be no real way to access fishing holes. The trail comes to a direct T with the river and is extremely brushy. When we fish it for blue backs during the summer we have to wade up and down in the river to move from hole to hole because of all of the stream side vegitation. The trailhead that is most west might have easier contact with the river since its most popular, but i have never used that one.

Thank you for the info, we could't find the other trail head when we were there.