Hinkle Tinkle Creek

Hinkle Tinkle is merry, burbling, friendly creek likely named back in the 1950's when you could get away with this sort of thing. The creek drains the eastern side of Butter Peak (on the south end of the Tatoosh Range) just above Packwood, WA. Despite it's laughter-inducing name, Hinkle Tinkle is quite the good little canyon descent with great access. It's an ideal creek for beginners & practice, or when everything else in the neighborhood is flowing just too high to contemplate. It's quite a pretty creek with photogenic falls and colorful bedrock.

From the Tatoosh South parking area, follow Trail #161 west for about 1mi. At about 0.7mi, the trail reaches a switchback just above the creek. This is a good place to check the flow before committing to the canyon. If the flow looks good, continue on up one more switchback and drop in the next time the trail nears the creek. A short user trail makes this job easy. You should drop in just adjacent to where a smaller tributary from Butter Peak enters.

DCR - down canyon right; DCL - down canyon left.

From the bottom of the big falls, follow the creek downstream to the road. It may be easier to exit the creek DCR and parallel it on a gentle downhill through largely open forest to the road. Once on the road, turn left and walk back to your shuttle car. Alternatively, exit the creek and thrash northeasterly back up to the trail (+230ft elevation gain).