$3.4 million Blue Pool trail project aims to ease crowding, improve safety

Blue Pool is heading into another crowded season east of Eugene, where families and day-trippers have long been squeezed by a small parking area, shoulder parking on Highway 126 and repeated emergency access problems. The U.S. Forest Service says visitors should plan ahead and arrive early or late in the day because the Tamolitch Falls trailhead is heavily used in spring and summer, and parking fills fast.

A $3.4 million trail and parking project now under construction is designed to change that experience. The plan calls for a parking lot on about 3 acres, a rerouted section of the McKenzie River National Recreation Trail, new recreation amenities and a closure of Tamolitch Pool to swimming. The project is expected to open in 2027.

The Forest Service has tied the redesign to years of crowding at one of Lane County’s best-known summer destinations. In 2018, the agency said visitors were parking along Highway 126 and in the small existing lot, blocking access for emergency vehicles. By 2023, the problem had become even harder to ignore, when five people were rescued in three days at Blue Pool, underscoring the safety concerns that helped drive the new management plan.

The current trailhead remains open while work continues, but the Forest Service warns visitors not to park on Highway 126 or in front of Eugene Water & Electric Board facilities when the lot is full. For hikers looking for a different approach, the site can also be reached from Carmen Smith Reservoir by hiking south on the McKenzie River Trail. The current trailhead has vault toilets, but no potable water or picnic tables.

The redesign is also part of a broader effort to manage public use in the McKenzie River corridor, where Blue Pool has become both a major tourist draw and a recurring source of emergency calls. A 2025 Forest Service notice described the trailhead as a heavy-use area, and EWEB has said nearby work around the Blue Pool trail area matters not just for recreation but for cold-water habitat and climate resilience.

The project area covers roughly 3 acres between Highway 126, Trail Bridge Campground, road 2672-655 near Smith Reservoir and road 2600-740. The new route is expected to shift visitors away from the current trailhead and toward redesigned viewpoints of the McKenzie River, changing how many Lane County residents first encounter the site.

Blue Pool’s name also carries local history. The basin was renamed Tamolitch in 1933 by William Parke, a recreational engineer for the Willamette National Forest, after a Chinook jargon word meaning bucket.