Category: Columbia Gorge North

Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 5, 2023
No Comments on Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Nestor Peak – 06/03/2023

We have really come to enjoy spending time at wildlife refuges and have been looking for more to visit. I’d noticed Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge on maps when looking at the Mt. Adams area so I dug a little deeper to find that there is a trail there, the Willard Springs Trail. The refuge webpage describes the Willard Springs Trail as a “two-mile loop” then lists the trail length as 3.79 miles. The Oregonhikers.org field guide entry shows 2.3 miles as the hike length. No matter which length was correct, on it’s own the hike would be too short to warrant the 2:30 hour drive from Salem. I went looking for a way to fit a visit in and looked over my map of future trailheads and saw that the trailhead for the Nestor Peak hike was located on the way to the refuge. The Nestor Peak hike was just over 8-miles so adding the Willard Spring Loop would put the day around 11 miles which sounded manageable.

Our plan was to visit Conboy Lake first since it was the furthest from home, and an earlier start there might provide a better chance at spotting wildlife. We parked at the refuge headquarters and made our way to the historic Whitcomb-Cole Hewn Log House.

The path to the cabin on the right.

Built in 1875 the cabin was moved from its original location in 1987.

The snowy top of Mt. Hood from the cabin.

After exploring the cabin we set off on the Willard Springs Trail only we briefly went the wrong way. A grassy track lead north directly across the gravel road from the path to the cabin and we took it.

We got about 250′ before realizing that this path was just going to take us back to the parking lot so we backtracked to the gravel road and followed it toward the lakebed across a small canal. (The Garmin named this Cold Springs Ditch.)

We turned left on a wide grassy track along the ditch. Numerous colorful birds were flying in and out of the bushes and trees along the ditch, most of which would not sit still long enough for me to photograph.

There was a lot of monkeyflower in and along the ditch.

Lupine along the ditch.

Lazuli bunting

Robin

Yellow warbler (according to the Merlin app).

Red-winged blackbird

The top of Mt. Adams above the trees.

We followed the ditch for a third of a mile then crossed over it to a field with bird houses and more birds.

Swallow

Western bluebirds

We stayed right at a junction near the corner of the field following the trail through the grass then into a mixed forest.

Honeysuckle

Columbine

Rose

The lakebed was often visible through breaks in the trees.

Through one such gap in the trees we spotted a pair of greater Sandhill cranes. The refuge is the only place in Washington that supports breeding pairs of the birds.

Approximately 1.4 miles from the trailhead we came to a 4-way junction. To the left was a “shortcut trail” and to the right a viewing platform with the Willard Springs Trail continuing straight(ish).

Continuation of the Willard Springs Trail behind the sign.

More often than not on our hikes we strike out with viewing platforms/bird blinds. (We’d have better luck if we sat and waited for the wildlife to come to us.) It was a different story today with a deer making its way across the lakebed and an excellent view of Mt. Adams.

We hung around long enough that this warbling vireo came to check on us.

After a nice break at the platform we continued on the Willard Springs Trail. After another 0.5-miles we came to a signed spur trail to Willard Springs.

We followed this spur 0.2-miles to its end at a couple of benches near the springs.

Willard Sprins hidden in the vegetation. We could hear them better then we could see them.

A healthy lupine near the springs.

We returned to the junction and continued on the loop which now turned back south. It was interesting to see the change in the forest along this section that was further from the lakebed.

Cat’s ear lily

Hitchhiker

Lupine along the trail.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Swallowtail

Lorquin’s admiral

Arriving back at the refuge headquarters.

Two interesting things to note about the hike were that the Oregonhikers.org Field Guide mentioned a trailhead 0.2-miles from the HQs along the entrance road but we passed no trails coming from the road and there appeared to be a no parking sign on the side of the road near where we expected to see this other trailhead. Our guess is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department decommissioned the alternate trailhead at some point. The other oddity was that while we did pass the other end of the shortcut trail neither of us noticed another trail joining from the left closer to the headquarters which would have been the other end of the trail that had split off at the edge of the field with the bird houses. There was even a map at the trailhead showing such a trail. Possibly another recent change (or we both just missed the connector trail).
Trail map at the trailhead.

The Garmin map shows the shortcut, spur to the old trailhead, and the other connector as well as some different locations for the trails.

Between exploring the cabin and briefly going the wrong way our hike here came in at an even 4-miles with only 50′ of elevation gain. Given the 4-mile figure the 3.79 miles listed on the refuge webpage for the Willard Springs Trail is probably the most accurate of the distance we came across. We didn’t see any other people, just a lot of wildlife which made for a great first stop of the day.

After finishing at Conboy Lake we drove back south to the Buck Creek Trailhead #1.

This is one of several trailheads located along the roughly 21-mile Buck Creek Trail loop. We had hiked a segment of the Buck Creek Trail in 2020 on our Monte Carlo – Monte Cristo Loop (post). Today’s segment would be a roughly 4.2 mile climb to a former lookout site atop Nestor (Nester) Peak. We picked up the trail on West side of N-1000 across from the trailhead.

It was later in the morning than we usually get started due to visiting Conboy Lake first and even though it was a little before 10:30am it was already feeling a little warm. The trail made a steep initial ascent before leveling off a bit.

There were lots of phantom orchids blooming along the lower sections of the hike.

Thimbleberry

Spotted coralroot was also plentiful.

Wallflower

Near the 3/4-mile mark we recrossed N-1000.

The trail actually lost some elevation here as it descended toward N-1300.

The trail ran parallel to N-1300 for a mile before again turning steeply uphill.
One of only two trees that were down over the trail, both were easily manageable.

The one small stream crossing.

There was enough sunlight getting through to really heat up the trail.

While there wasn’t much there we did occasionally see poison oak throughout most of the lower 2/3rds of the hike.

After the trail steepened we passed a spring on the right at the first of three switchbacks.

Sign above the switchbacks warning mountain bikers that they were ahead.

Following a fourth switchback the trail came to another dirt road which we jogged slightly right on before finding the continuation of the Buck Creek Trail.

Buck Creek Trail to the left near the roads end.

For the next half mile the trail climbed at a healthy pace. Heather hadn’t been feeling well and the heat wasn’t helping things. We talked it over and she told me to go ahead and she would go at her own pace so we split up for now.

More spotted coralroot.

Just over a half mile from the road crossing the trail crossed another road.

After another initial steep climb the trail relented a bit as it traversed around a ridge before gaining a ridgetop and following down to a saddle below Nestor Peak. Along the way were a couple of openings hosting bright wildflowers.

Vanilla leaf

Queen’s cup

Anemone

Lupine

Mt. Hood from the Buck Creek Trail.

Mt. Hood

Cedar hairstreak on yarrow.

Paintbrush, lupine, penstemon, and balsamroot.

Moth

Penstemon

Gaining the ridge.

Paintbrush

Showy phlox

The trail dropped off the ridge and started another good climb along a hillside to a ridge end where it turned steeply uphill climbing to road N-1600 a tenth of a mile below the summit of Nestor Peak.
Approaching the start of the final climb.

Sub-alpine mariposa lily

Showy phlox

Road N-1600.

A right turn on the road led past more wildflowers with a view of Mt. Hood to the remains of a shed on top of Nestor Peak.

At the summit Mt. Adams came into view to the NE.

I took a break at the summit and followed some butterflies around trying to get pictures. While I was busy chasing butterflies Heather messaged to let me know she was at the start of the final climb so I waited for her at the summit.

Unfortunate amount of graffiti on the old shed.

Mt. Hood and balsamroot.

Mt. Hood

Oregon sunshine

Boisduval blues

Duskywing

Balsamroot

Moths

Moth

Lupine

Butterfly on cat’s ear lily.

Woodland stars

Paintbrush

After Heather got a break too, we headed back down. There was a little bit of a breeze as we went down which combined with going downhill instead of up helped it feel cooler on the way down.

Blue-head gilia

Ookow

Winecup clarkia

Mountain lady slipper

The hike here would have been between 8 and 8.5 miles but I wandered around the summit area enough to log 8.9 miles on the GPS unit.

We passed 8 others on the trail (3 hikers and 6 mountain bikers) and saw another mountain biker on Road N-1600 from the summit. It was a nice hike but it would have been a little more enjoyable in cooler temperatures. The views and wildflowers were great though. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Conboy Lake WLFR and Nestor Peak

Tags Buck Creek Trail, Buck Creek Trailhead #1, Conboy Lake, Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge, hiking, Mt. Adams, Nestor Peak, Sandhill Crane, Washington, Whitcomb-Cole Cabin, Willard Springs, Willard Springs Trail

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge – 05/20/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 22, 2023
No Comments on Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge – 05/20/2023

For the second week in a row, we turned to a National Wildlife Refuge System as a hiking destination. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service currently manages 568 wildlife refuges throughout the United States with the primary statutory purpose being the conservation of native species. Where and when appropriate the refuges offer access to the public for activities such as photography, wildlife viewing, hunting, fishing, paddling, and of course hiking. We have really come to enjoy our visits the various refuges, so we were looking forward to exploring a new one to us, the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Situated just East of Washougal Washington along the Columbia River, Steigerwald Lake is part of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Complex. In addition to Steigerwald Lake the complex also includes the Franz Lake, Pierce, and Ridgefield refuges. Of those Ridgefield (post) is the only one we’d previously visited. We had hoped to visit this refuge a couple of years ago, but the refuge was undergoing an extensive restoration that kept it closed until May of last year. The refuge hosts roughly 5-miles of crushed gravel trails. Two of the trails, the Mountain View and the Refuge River, are open all year. A third trail, the Wildlife Art Trail, is partially closed October 1st through April 30th. The Refuge River Trail is open to pedestrians, bicycles, jogging, horseback riding, and leashed dogs which is rare for a refuge while the other trails are hiker (pedestrian) only. To use the Refuge River Trail joggers, cyclists, equestrians and leashed dogs enter the refuge from the West via the Captain William Clark Park Trail by either starting at Steamboat Landing or Captain William Clark Park.

Our plan was to start at the refuge trailhead and hike the trails then then take the Captain William Clark Park Trail to Steamboat Landing and back. We opted for this approach because online information showed 7am and 8am as the opening times for Captain William Clark Park and Steamboat Landing respectively while the refuge website reported that it’s gate opened at 5:30am and we’d be arriving shortly after six.
The Mountain View Trail is named so because of the view of Mt. Hood, which on this morning was hiding behind the clouds on the left side of the photo.

Map and information at the trailhead.

We followed the wide gravel trail as it climbed atop a levee separating the wetlands to the east from industrial lands to the West.

View to the East.

Looking West toward Washougal.

We followed the trail atop the levee watching on both sides for wildlife.

Mallards

A duck and a goose sharing a log.

A mallard and an egret in a channel to the West.

Ducks flying over the wetlands casting clear reflections.

Water dripping from a mallards bill.

One of several rabbits we spotted to the West.

Deer across the wetlands. (The young buck may have been sticking his tongue out at us.)

Families of geese.

Wood duck mallard

When the trail split just prior to reaching the Refuge River Trail we stayed left.

Trail sign at the junction with the Refuge River Trail.

We turned left onto the Refuge River Trail following it for 0.3-miles to the Wildlife Art Trail where we again turned left.
Sparrow

Coming in for a landing.

Red Tail Lake to the right of the Wildlife Art Trail.

Pretty sure these are the same three we saw from the Mountain View Trail.

This deer laying along the shore of Red Tail Lake was new though.

Common yellow throat

One of many great blue herons that we watched fly overhead throughout the day.

The Wildlife Art Trail passing around Redtail Lake.

Gibbons Creek is in that grass somewhere with at least one deer.

Killdeer along Redtail Lake.

Turns out the deer laying on the lake shore wasn’t alone.

Roses

Purple martins

Just beyond the Cottonwood Bridge the trail forks. To the right is the seasonal section of the loop open May 1st through September 30th. The left-hand fork dead-ends in a tenth of a mile overlooking the wetlands.

We headed left to the overlook before continuing on the loop.

Egret at Scaup Pond.

Egret with a frog meal.

Mushrooms

We got a kick out of the “Birds Only Beyond This Sign”.

Kingfisher

I had been watching a kingfisher as we arrived at the overlook and after it flew off I turned to my right and thought that there was a bittern standing just a few yards away. Then my eyes adjusted and I realized it was one of the art pieces and I’d been fooled.
We’ve only seen two bitterns on our hikes and both times we only spotted them as they flew off from the grassy cover that they’d been hiding in so I was pretty disappointed when I realized I’d been duped, but kudos to the artist because it looked real at first glance to me.

We returned to the loop and passed through the seasonal gate.

The wetlands were pretty full of water to our left but between the trail and the water was a fair number of bushes and grass which was apparently popular with the deer.

You have something in your teeth.

Spotted towhee

At least two deer in the grass.

Another American goldfinch.

We left the seasonal section of trail near the junction with Refuge River Trail where we again turned left, promptly crossing a creek on Dragonfly Bridge.

Spotted sandpiper

We followed this trail to its end at the refuge boundary.
Oregon sunshine and yarrow

The Columbia River ahead.

Viewpoint along the Columbia River.

Approaching the Lampray Brdige.

Looking back from across the bridge there was a bald eagle in the dead snag along the river.

There were lots of geese along this section of trail.

Red clover in some Oregon sunshine

Another spotted sandpiper

Steigerwald Lake in the distance with a family of geese and crow on a log in the near channel.

End of the trail.

It was about 8:15am when we turned around and it was already feeling fairly warm, but there was relief on the way in the form of some clouds coming in from the Pacific.

Savannah sparrow

Here come the clouds.

Double the eagles.

For the second week in a row we got to watch an American Kestral on the hunt.

Arriving back at the Dragon Fly Bridge and the junction with the Wildlife Art Trail.

We had planned on following the Refuge River Trail all the way to the western end of the refuge but just 500′ beyond the trail junction we rounded a corner to find the trail flooded.

Since neither of us was interested in finding out how deep the water was we turned around and simply took the Wildlife Art Trail back.

Red tailed hawk

Geese nesting atop a snag.

More deer in the grass along Gibbons Creek.

Egret at Redtail Lake.

Great blue heron at Redtail Lake.

We followed the Refuge River Trail back past the junction with the Mountain View Trail and continued West.

Purple martins

When the light catches the feathers right it’s obvious where the purple martin’s name comes from.

Common yellowthroat

House finch

A mile from the Mountain View Trail we arrived at the refuge boundary with Captain William Clark Park.

The trail follows a dike to Steamboat Landing.

The main attraction at Captain William Clark Park is Cottonwood Beach where in 1806 Lewis & Clark established a camp while they secured provisions for the return trip through the Columbia River Gorge. The Provision Camp Trail leads down to the beach and picnic area.

The Provision Camp Trail

While there had been quite a few people on the Captain William Clark Park Trail there were just a few people in this area.

While the beach is extremely popular in the Summer and especially on weekends it became evident why we weren’t seeing folks today when we reached the “beach access”.

Northern flicker

Having the beach be underwater was fine with us, it meant fewer people, but the water level became an issue when the Provision Camp Trail turned back inland toward the dike to complete its loop.
Flooded trail ahead.

With the loop cut off we went back the way we’d come and returned to the dike where we turned left to continue on to Steamboat Landing.
Black headed grosbeak

Osprey

Back on the dike.

At the other end of the Provision Camp Trail was an interpretive display with replica canoes.

The flooded section of trail from above.

It was another mile from the interpretive display to Steamboat Landing. The trail was pretty busy, and we were now in the city, but we were still managing to see a good deal of wildlife.

Turtles!

Another turtle

Common merganser

Great blue heron

Steamboat Landing

At Steamboat Landing we turned down to a viewpoint along a fishing dock.

After a brief break we headed back.
A family of geese out for a float.

While it had clouded up overhead the morning clouds that had blocked any view of Mt. Hood had given way. Unfortunately, there was enough haze in the air to essentially wash the mountain out.
The large “hump” ahead is Larch Mountain (post). Mt. Hood is a little further to Larch’s right.

Grainy proof of Mt. Hood’s existence.

Silver Star Mountain (post) to the North.

We turned left onto the Mountain View Trail and headed back to the trailhead feeling really good about the amount of wildlife we’d seen although I was still a bit bummed about being fooled by the bittern art. As we neared the end of the wetlands that changed as a pair of bitterns got into a dispute over territory. The victor landed along the water below the levee.

The American bittern in the grass.

I had the chance to take way too many pictures as the bittern posed for the people on the levee.

It was an exciting ending to a great wildlife hike. We made our way down to the now nearly full trailhead. Happy Trails!
We’d been the first car in the lot that morning.

Having to retrace our steps a couple of times due to flooded trails put our hike at 12.4 miles for the day with minimal elevation gain.

Full album (Flickr): Steigerwald Lake Wildlife Refuge

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Balfour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails – 04/02/2022

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 5, 2022
2 Comments on Balfour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails – 04/02/2022

We have spent much of our hiking “off-season” addressing long overdue house projects including replacing siding, windows, floors, and now countertops. Hopefully the projects will be done shortly after our official hiking season starts. In the meantime we welcomed the start of a new month with an outing to Lyle, WA for hikes on a pair of trails along the Klickitat River. Our first stop, on the west side of the river, was at the Balfour-Klickitat Trail. The site of a former ranch this day-use area includes a short interpretive loop, picnic tables, and a wildlife viewing path.

Rowena Plateau and Tom McCall Point (post) on the Oregon side of the Columbia River

We headed counter-clockwise on the loop which provided views of the Columbia River and across the Klickitat to Lyle.

The trail then turned inland along the Klickitat where a noisy group of domestic geese drew our attention to a pair of common mergansers and great blue heron.

A blurry heron along the river.

We spotted a number of smaller birds in the bushes and trees as we made our way around the loop. We also took a quick detour downhill to a picnic table overlooking the river.
Acorn woodpecker

Scrub jay

View from the picnic table.

A short time after returning to the loop we came to a sign for the Wildlife Viewing Area near a bench where we made another short detour.

This trail was not paved.

Woodland-stars

View from a bench at the end of the trail.

Mallards on the water below.

After checking out the wildlife viewing area we completed the 0.75 mile loop which brought our stop here to a total of 1.3 miles. We hopped in our car and drove across the river on Hwy 14 to the Lyle Trailhead. Here the 31-mile long Klickitat Trail begins. This Washington State Park trail follows the historic rail bed of the Spokane, Portland, Seattle Railway (SP&S). A 3 mile section of the trail north of Klickitat, WA is currently unhikeable due to a missing bridge over the Klickitat River effectively splitting the trail southern and northern sections of 13 and 15 miles respectively. We hiked 3.8 miles along the end of the northern section from Harms Road in 2014 (post).

Starting at mile 0.

The trail starts by passing some private homes in Lyle but soon provides views down to the Klickitat River. Across the river we spotted a number of deer working their across the hillside and a bald eagle surveying the river below.

Keep your eyes out for poison oak which was prevalent along the trail. Luckily the trail is nice and wide so avoiding it was easy enough.

Heather spotted these three deer across the river.

Another group of deer.

Bald eagle

We had chosen this hike based on Matt Reeder’s entry in his “PDX Hiking 365” guidebook where he recommends a late March visit for wildflowers. We kept our eyes out for flowers as we went and were not disappointed.
Larkspur and woodland-stars

Buttercups

Pacific hound’s tongue

Milepost 1

Saxifrage

Balsamroot

At the 1.7 mile mark we crossed the river on a Fisher Hill Bridge. The view was great and included a series of small cascades on Silvas Creek.

Silvas Creek

We continued north on the trail passing some nice views of the river which were briefly ruined by the smell of rotting flesh (fish?) which brought back memories of the decomposing whale we passed several years ago on our Floras Lake Hike (post).

Blue-eyed Mary

At mile two we passed the Lyle Falls Facility which is a fish monitoring station.

Beyond the fish facility the gap between the trail and the river closed and the views become even prettier.

Seasonal pool along the trail.

The only mountain view of the day was along this stretch with Mt. Hood making an appearance to the south.

Common mergansers

A short distance upstream we passed a screw trap, an instrument used to trap and count young fish.

We continued upriver until we reached milepost 6 where we called it good and turned around. I had gotten myself confused by misreading Reeder’s hike description and thought that there was another bridge around the 5 mile mark and had originally planned to turn around at that but since it didn’t exist (and we didn’t realize that until after passing MP 5) we made MP 6 the turnaround marker.

Popcorn flower

Columbia desert parsley

Lupine

Balsamroot

Shooting stars

Buttercups

Waterleaf

A balsamroot amid pungent desert parsley

Big-leaf maple trees lining the trail.

Big-leaf maple blossoms

Gold stars

Larkspur, poison oak, and buttercups

Spotted towhee

Squirrel

Dillacort Canyon

Red-stem storksbill

After turning around we took a brief break on a rocky beach near MP6.

On our way back it had warmed enough for the butterflies (and moths) to come out and we watched for them along with anything we’d missed on our first pass.
Couldn’t get a good look at this small moth but it was pretty.

Anise swallowtail

Sara’s orangetip

Grass widow

Slender phlox

Heading back.

Immature bald eagle

Propertius duskywing – Erynnis propertius

The mergansers had moved to the near bank.

Hood behind some clouds.

Ground squirrel

Mourning cloak

Lizard

View from the Fisher Hill Bridge in the afternoon.

Arriving back at the Lyle Trailhead.

Some backtracking and detours brought our hike to a little over 12.5 miles here giving us close to 14 miles on the day with only a couple of hundred feet of elevation gain.

Rattlesnakes and ticks are present in the area but we encountered neither on this day. It was a nice break from the projects at home and a good way to end our off-season. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Blafour-Klickitat and Lower Klickitat Trails

Tags Balfour-Klickitat Trail, Balfour-Klickitat Trailhead, Dillacort Canyon, Fisher Hill Bridge, hiking, Klickitat Rail Trail, klickitat river, Lower Klickitat Trail, Lyle Trailhead, Lyle Washington, Silvas Creek, Washington, wildflowers

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Washington

Hardy Ridge Loop

For the third hike in a row we found ourselves headed to Washington. Our destination this time was Beacon Rock State Park for a hike to Hardy Ridge. We’d been to the park twice before with Hamilton Mountain being our goal each time (on our second visit we also hiked up Beacon Rock (post)). For each of our hikes to Hamilton Mountain we had started at the Hamilton Mountain Trailhead but for today’s hike we parked at the Equestrian Trailhead.

There is a gated road and a trail that begin at the far end of the parking area which meet after a few hundred feet.
Equestrian Trail at the trailhead.

On the old roadbed/Equestrian Trail.

We followed the Equestrian Trail uphill through the forest and past a number of wildflowers for 1.2 miles to a 4-way junction.
Vanilla leaf

Fairy bells

Violets

Star-flowered false solomon seal

Youth-on-age

Possibly a cinquefoil

Thimbleberry

Fringecup

At the 4-way jct the Equestrian Trial continued straight with the West Hardy Trail to the left and Lower Loop Trail to the right.

We turned left on the West Hardy Trail which followed an overgrown road bed along the west flank of Hardy Ridge. A brief appearance of blue sky gave us a moment of hope that the mostly cloudy forecast might have been wrong but the blue was quickly replaced with gray clouds.

Salmonberry

False solomon seal

Bleeding heart

Here come the clouds.

After 1.3 miles on the West Hardy Trail we turned right onto the Hardy Ridge Trail.

This hiker only trail climbed approximately 800′ in 0.8 miles to a junction at a saddle on Hardy Ridge.

Baneberry

Trillium

Paintbrush

Red flowering currant

Chocolate lily

Anemones

Looking across the Columbia River into Oregon.

Horsetail Falls (post) in Oregon.

Field chickweed and Oregon grape

Junction at the saddle.

At the junction we turned left onto a well worn trail (not shown on maps) that led north along Hardy Ridge. This trail followed the spine of the ridge 0.8 miles to the ridge’s highest point at an elevation a little under 3000′. On a clear day Mt. Hood and the tops of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier would have been visible from the high point, but on this day the sights were limited to the various flowers blooming along the ridge. As we approached the high point we were greeted with a few snowflakes.

Glacier lily

Trilliums

Glacier lilies along the trail.

Another hiker caught up to us at this rock field not far from the high point. It looked like the trail was going across the rocks for a bit and she decided to turn around but after just a few feet the trail resumed behind a bush.

Phlox

Paintbrush and glacier lilies.

The high point.

Glacier lilies at the high point.

We didn’t stay long at the top, while we were fortunate to not be dealing with any of the winds the Columbia Gorge is known for it was chilly (as evidenced by the snowflakes) so we headed back down. Along the way we met a spotted towhee that wasn’t the least bit bothered by the weather.

As we made our way down the clouds began to lift a bit and by the time we were approaching the junction we were under them which gave us a nice view of Hamilton Mountain.

Hamilton Mountain (high point to the right) and the Columbia River.

Bonneville Dam and the Hamilton Mountain Trail crossing The Saddle.

Upper McCord Creek Falls (post-partially closed due to fire damage as of writing)

The only snowy peak we could see though was Larch Mountain (post) to the SW.

When we reached the junction we turned left onto the East Hardy Trail and began a mile long descent to another junction.

Squirrel

Snail

At this 3-way junction we faced a choice. Most descriptions of the Hardy Ridge Loop (including Sullivan’s) would have sent us straight on the East Hardy Trail for 0.8 miles to the Equestrian Trail then right on that trail 1.7 miles back to the trailhead for an 8.5 mile hike. We opted to extend our hike by turning left instead on the Bridge Trail.

Bleeding heart along a little stream.

False lily-of-the-valley getting ready to bloom.

Possibly a Dictyoptera aurora (Golden net-winged beetle)

A little over three quarters of a mile we arrived at the trail’s namesake bridge over Hardy Creek.

After crossing the creek the trail climbed for a tenth of a mile to the Upper Hardy Trail (another old roadbed).

Here again we could have shortened our hike by turning right following a pointer for the Equestrian Trail but we wanted to revisit The Saddle north of Hamilton Mountain. We turned left on the Upper Hardy Trail climbing approximately 300′ in 0.6 miles to yet another junction.

Hardy Ridge from the Upper Hardy Trail.

We once again faced a choice at this junction.
The left fork would have been slightly longer by leading us around the back side of a knoll and making a 180 degree turn following the east side of the ridge toward The Saddle.

We turned right opting for the slightly shorter route to The Saddle.

Coltsfoot

Just under three quarters of a mile after turning right we were rejoined by the the left hand fork of the Upper Hardy Trail.
Southern junction of the two forks of the Upper Hardy Trail.

The Upper Hardy Trail then descended for .2 miles to The Saddle and a junction with the Hamilton Mountain Trail.

Hikers coming down from Hamilton Mountain.

For the first time on this hike were at a familiar spot. We turned right onto the Equestrian Trail following it for 150 yards to a sign for Dons Cutoff Trail.

On both of our previous visits we had stayed on the Equestrian Trail following it downhill for a mile to a 3-way junction at Hardy Creek. This time we took Dons Cutoff which would bring us to the same junction in just a tenth of a mile more. Dons Cutoff headed steeply downhill arriving at the Upper Hardy Trail after half a mile.

Dons Cutoff Trail nearing the Upper Hardy Trail.

We turned left on the old roadbed following the Upper Hardy Trail for .4 miles to a junction with the Equestrian Trail and then arrived at Hardy Creek after another tenth of a mile.
Upper Hardy Trail

Equestrian Trail

Hardy Creek

We crossed Hardy Creek on the Equestrian Trail following it for a half mile to the 4-way junction.

Had we opted for the described hike we would have arrived at this junction on the East Hardy Trail. We faced another choice here, keep on the Equestrian Trail for 1.7 miles or turn left onto the Lower Loop Trail and add approximately 0.4 miles to the hike. You guessed it we turned left and took the Lower Loop Trail which popped us out onto the Equestrian Trail at the 4-way junction where we had turned up the West Hardy Trail that morning.

We turned left and followed the Equestrian Trail downhill for the final 1.2 miles of what turned out to be 13 mile hike that gained approximately 2700′ of elevation. Slugs were out in force along the final stretch including a number of small black specimens.

Spotted this guy while I was photographing the slug above. Not sure if it’s a crane fly or ?

There are some hikes where missing out on the mountain views is a real bummer but this wasn’t one of those for us. It was just a great day in the forest with flowers, creeks, critters, and a good deal of solitude despite the park being popular. The number of trails and options provided in the park allow for people to spread out a bit with Hamilton Mountain being the busiest area which we pretty much avoided (other than The Saddle) on this day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Hardy Ridge Loop

Tags Beacon Rock State Park, Bridge Trail, Columbia River Gorge, East Hardy Trail, Equestrian Trail, Equestrian Trailhead, hardy creek, Hardy Ridge, Hardy Ridge Trail, hiking, Lower Loop Trail, The Saddle, Upper Hardy Trail, Washington, West Hardy Trail, wildflowers

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Washington

Columbia Hills State Park – 4/17/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date April 21, 2021
1 Comment on Columbia Hills State Park – 4/17/2021

We joined the masses of people heading to the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge to catch the wildflower display which may be brief this year due to a combination of a lack of moisture and higher than normal (what is normal anymore?) temperatures. While we try to avoid crowds the hikes in Columbia Hills State Park are a featured hike in William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Eastern Oregon” (Hike #2 in the 3rd edition) and one that Heather had missed out on in 2015 when I was joined by my parents (post). Knowing that word was out on social media that the bloom was on, we left even a little earlier than typical in hopes of minimizing the number of encounters with others. We followed the same order that I had done the hikes in during my first visit stopping first at the Horsethief Butte Trailhead.
Mt. Hood from the trailhead.

We followed the trail .3 miles to a junction where, unlike the first visit, we went right first following the trail around to the south side of Horsethief Butte where a fence announced the area beyond was closed.

Death camas

Western stoneseed

20210417_065844 Fiddleneck

Large-flower tritelia

Mt. Hood beyond Horsethief Lake

Standing at the fence looking east.

Wren

Horsethief Butte

Lupine

We then walked back about a quarter of a mile to a sign at an opening in the rock formation.

Here we turned and headed up into the rocks.

There is an optional side trail to a viewpoint inside the formation but we wanted to save the time and get to our second stop sooner rather than later. We had been the only car at the trailhead but half an hour later there were another half dozen cars (mostly rock climbers) with more arriving.

We descended from Horsethief Butte and after a short detour due to a wrong turn at a junction we arrived back at our and drove east on SR 14 for 0.7 miles to the Crawford Oaks Trailhead. While the trailhead opened in May of 2014 my parents I had not parked here opting instead to park at the Dalles Mountain Ranch making this a primarily new hike for me too.

There was a small handful of cars here but not bad (it was a different story later). We followed the Entry (Access) Road Trail uphill form the parking lot past the Ice Aged Floods Viewpoint.
Horsethief Butte and Mt. Hood from the viewpoint.

After a 180 degree turn the Entry Road approached Eightmile Creek near Eightmile Creek Falls.

Purple cushion fleabane

Balsamroot

The road turned uphill along the creek where several Lewis’s woodpeckers were flying from oak to oak.

Western bluebird

We followed the road down and across Eightmile Creek to an interpretive sign at a junction.

Ground squirrel

This was the start of a couple different loop options. We chose to take the left fork which was the Military Road Trail. Going this direction is the shortest route to the Crawford Ranch Complex plus it would mean that we would be heading toward Mt. Hood as we looped around on the Vista Loop Trail (the right hand fork here). The Military Road Trail climbed away from the creek reaching another junction after .3 miles. Here we forked left again leaving the Military Road for the Eightmile Trail. (Sticking to the Military Road would have led us to the Vista Loop Trail in .4 miles.)

Lupine, balsamroot and parsley

The Crawford Ranch Complex ahead to the left.

Phlox

The Eightmile trail dropped to cross a smaller stream before finally returning to Eightmile Creek near a fence line.

Approaching the fence line.

While there was a bit of a break in the flowers at this fence line there was no shortage of birds.

Yellow-rumped warbler

Back of a scrub jay

The trail then veered away from the creek and came to another junction after passing through a fence. The flowers here were spectacular and both Mt. Hood and Mt. Jefferson were visible.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson

At the junction we went right on the Ranch Route Trail eschewing a visit to what looked like a very busy Crawford Ranch Complex. The Ranch Route meandered for 1.4 miles through the flowered covered hillsides before arriving at a junction with the Vista Loop and Military Road Trails.

Yakima milk-vetch

We turned left on the Vista Loop Trail following it a total of 1.8 miles back to the the junction near Eightmile Creek.
The Columbia River, Horsethief Butte, and Mt. Hood

Death camas

Large head clover

Approaching the junction.

We followed the Entry/Access Road back down to the now packed trailhead.
Hawk watching all the hikers.

A different hawk? watching the goings on.

Western fence lizard watching everything.

Poppy, manroot, and red-stemmed storksbill

The crowded trailhead

This stop clocked in at 6.9 miles and 900′ of elevation gain.

We opened up a spot here and drove west on SR-14 to Dalles Mountain Road where we turned north (right) and drove 3.5 miles to a fork near the Crawford Ranch Complex. Here we turned left heading uphill for another 1.4 miles (passing a number of hikers walking up along the road) to the Stacker Butte Trailhead. There were a fair number of cars but a few spots were open.

While both were part of the Crawford Ranch, Stacker Butte is not part of the Columbia Hills State Park but is part of the Columbia Hills Natural Area Preserve.

The hike here is pretty straight forward following the gravel road approximately 2.6 miles to some towers on the 3220′ summit of the butte. The flowers were thickest along the lower section of the hike with some that we had not seen down lower including paintbrush, daggerpod and some sicklepod rockcress.

Yakima milk-vetch

Paintbrush amid the balsamroot.

Phlox

Big-seed biscuitroot

Sicklepod rockcress

20210417_122704

Sagebrush false dandelions

20210417_121519 Daggerpod

Daggerpod

Slender toothwort?

Shooting stars in front of a little blue-eyed Mary

20210417_122308 Large head clover

Popcorn flower

Larkspur

20210417_131353 Woodland stars

At the summit we were treated to a clear view of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier, and Goat Rocks to the north.

Mt. Adams

Mt. Rainier

Goat Rocks

After a little rest on top we headed down admiring the flowers along the way and watching for wildlife too.
Swallowtail

Western fence lizards

White crowned sparrow

Another sparrow

Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood as we neared the trailhead.

The three hikes came to a combined 13.2 miles and 2240′ of elevation gain which is why we didn’t just hike up the road from the ranch complex. It’s a little too early in the season for a 16 mile, 3000′ hiking day. Maybe in a couple more months. Happy Trails!

Tags balsamroot, columbia hills state park, Columbia River, Columbia River Gorge, Crawford Oaks Trailhead, Crawford Ranch, Eightmile Creek, Eightmile Creek Trail, hiking, horsethief butte, Lewis's Woodpecker, Military Road, Ranch Route Trail, sicklepod rockcress, stacker butte, Vista Loop Trail, Washington, Western Meadowlark, wildflowers

Columbia Gorge North Columbia River Gorge South Hiking Trip report

Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill – 3/27/21

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 29, 2021
1 Comment on Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill – 3/27/21

We normally only do one hike a month from November through April but a forecast of sunny skies and highs in the low to mid 60’s combined with a chance to see some early wildflowers was enough to break that rule and head to the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. The first wildflowers (usually grass widows and/or parsleys) can show up as early as January in areas such as Catherine Creek (post) with things really picking up by late March and running through early June in the upper meadow of Dog Mountain (post). We had previously been to Catherine Creek (along with Coyote Wall), the Tom McCall Preserve (post), Columbia Hills State Park (post), Memaloose Hills (post) and Swale Canyon (post) so for this outing we decided to check out the Lyle Cherry Orchard and Sevenmile Hill.

Before we got to those wildflower hikes we planned a quick stop at the Mitchell Point Trailhead to make the 1.1 mile climb up to the top of the point. We had actually stopped here in 2018 (after our Memaloose Hills hike) to take the Wygant Trail up to a viewpoint. Originally my plan had been to do these three hikes in a different order starting at the Lyle Cherry Orchard and ending with Mitchell Point but after looking at the plan a little more I realized that it had two flaws. First the exit to the Mitchell Point Trail is only accessible from the eastbound lanes of I-84 and there is no westbound access to I-84 from the trailhead either. (I had made this mistake with the outing in 2018 leading to some extra driving.) The second issue had to do with crowds and our never ending attempt to avoid them. Leaving Mitchell Point as the last hike might have meant dealing with some crowds whereas we didn’t expect Sevenmile Hill to be busy. Our plan seemed to be working pretty well as we were the first car at the Mitchell Point Trailhead.

We headed to the left of the signboard to the Mitchell Point Trail which began climbing almost immediately.

The trail switchbacked up a forested hillside with a few blooming toothworts.
Bench at a switchback.

20210327_080649

We then crossed a talus slope beneath Mitchell Point where lots of tiny blue-eyed Mary grew amid the rocks.

Reroute below Mitchell Point

Mushrooms’ and some sedums.

Views to the west along the Columbia River opened up as we climbed.

The trail briefly reentered the forest and climbed to a set of power lines and an accompanying road.

The trail never quite reached the road instead turning east then north as it headed out toward Mitchell Point.

Houndstongue

We followed the trail out onto Mitchell Points Ridge which was dotted with wildflowers including a lot of bright grass widows.

Grass Widows

Woodland stars

Yellow bell lily

Desert parsley and woodland stars

A saxifrage

Gold stars and woodland stars

In addition to the wildflowers the view from Mitchell Point was impressive.
Looking west

North across the Columbia River into Washington

East

In typical Gorge fashion it was a bit windy (a theme that would continue throughout the day) which didn’t seem to bother the birds.
Looks like moss for a nest maybe?

We returned the way we’d come arriving back at the trailhead to find we were still the only people there, but we weren’t alone.

Turkeys on the Wygant Trail

At just over 2 miles round trip the hike to Mitchell Point made for a nice short hike but it comes at a price gaining over a thousand feet on the way up. From this trailhead we continued east to Hood River where we paid the $2 toll to cross the bridge into Washington. We continued east on SR 14 through the town of Lyle then parked at a gravel pullout on the left hand side of the road just beyond a tunnel. This was the unsigned trailhead for the Lyle Cherry Orchard Hike. There were maybe a half dozen or so cars here already which we were pleased with given the large number of cars we already passed by at the Coyote Wall and Catherine Creek Trailheads (and it wasn’t even 8:45 yet). The unsigned trail starts near the eastern end of the parking area and passing along a rock wall through oak trees with lots of poison oak.

Red leaves of poison oak behind a death camas

More poison oak behind a waterleaf

Poison oak around some balsamroot

A short distance up the trail there is a nice map and trails signboard announcing the start of land owned by the Friends of the Columbia Gorge.

From the signboard the trail continues to climb through the rock and oaks to a plateau where the poison oak is briefly left behind.

Fiddleneck

Desert parsley

Manroot

Lots of death camas blooming on the plateau.

We followed the trail as it headed gradually uphill toward a second plateau.

Looking up at the cliffs above.

Balsamroot blooming below the rim.

At a fork in the trail we detoured left for a view of the Columbia River.

20210327_091929

We returned to the main trail which began to climb the hillside below the rim. While it was still a couple of weeks from prime wildflower season here there was a good balsamroot display along with a few other flowers in bloom.
Balsamroot

Woodland stars with some lupine leaves

Columbia desert parsley

A biscuitroot

Balsamroot

20210327_092349 Balsamroot

The trail leveled out again after reaching the rim of the upper plateau where it also reentered an oak woodland.
View west (With a snow capped Mt. Defiance (post) in the distance.)

Amid the oaks were some additional types of flowers.
Larkspur

Buttercups

Glacier lilies

Yellow bell lily, woodland stars, grass widows and shooting stars.

20210327_104840 Yellow bell lilies

Toothwort

Sagebrush false dandelions

Tortoiseshell butterfly

Just under 2.5 miles from the trailhead we came to a junction which is the start of a short loop. We stayed left arriving at an old road bed a short distance later where we turned right and soon entered the site of the old orchard. Nearly all the cherry trees are gone and the few that remain only have a few branches that continue to bloom and we were too early for those.

The trail looped through the now open meadow with views east of the Columbia River.

A short spur trail on the SW part of the loop led to a viewpoint to the west.

Tom McCall Point and the Rowena Plateau with Mt. Defiance in the distance.

After checking out the view we completed the loop and headed back the way we’d come. We had only encountered a couple of other hikers up to this point (we’d seen more from afar) but the return trip was a different story. There was a lot of mask donning and stepping aside on the way back to the trailhead.
Hikers on the trailhead and below.

One bit of excitement on the return trip was spotting a couple of orange-tip butterflies. We rarely see these pretty butterflies and it’s even rarer that I manage to get any kind of picture.
Just my third photo of an orange-tip.

The hike here for us came to 5.5 miles with another 1200′ of elevation gain giving us over 2200′ for the day so far. The parking area was now a full two rows of cars with more arriving (it was between 11:30 & 12:00). We quickly packed up and opened a spot for someone else and once again headed east on SR 14. We re-crossed the Columbia River on Highway 197 into The Dalles and took I-84 west for 5 miles following the Oregon Hikers directions to the Sevenmile Hill Trailhead

We weren’t sure how popular this hike is given that there are no official trails. That question, at least for this time of the year, was answered when we pulled into the empty gravel pullout.

Our plan was to follow the entry in the Oregon Hikers Field Guide (description). The area consists of Forest Service land surrounded by private holdings (note the no trespassing sign across the road in the photo above).
We headed uphill and left, away from the blocked road passing a gravel pit on our left.

We were supposed to reach a knoll with a small windbreak made out of erratics (rocks from the Rocky Mountains deposited by the Missoula Floods). The first knoll we climbed had some erratics but no windbreak.
Mt. Hood and Columbia desert parsley from the first knoll we tried.

Top of knoll #1.

A lone balsamroot blossom.

We weren’t sure if this was the right knoll or not but we did know from the map in the field guide that we should continue uphill and to the left. We kept climbing up the grassy hillside and reached the top of another knoll where we did indeed find a small windbreak.

From the knoll we followed a faint grassy track past a spring to a stand of oak trees.
The path leading past the spring to the oaks.

The spring

There was a fence on the hillside at the oak trees. We got a bit confused here reading the hike description. It reads “Head up gradually to your left, reaching a draw. Walk across the broken fence line here and cross a small bench. Continue hiking up to your left. At some point, you should see the southwest boundary corner of the property and a fence line ahead.” We had not noticed another fence line and this fence was broken here with no signs so we continued on the faint path. That was a mistake and the fence we passed through was the boundary. When we reached a small crest where we could see everything ahead of us there was no other fence in sight.

We quickly turned and began heading uphill to the NE to relocate the fence line and get ourselves on the correct side (Our apologies to whomever that land belongs too).
Back on the right side

Now we were back on course and followed the fence line uphill. While the wildflowers here would have been better from mid to late April there were a few splashes of color here and there.

Balsamroot surrounded by some little white flowers.

Lupine thinking about blooming.

Larkspur

Yellow bell lilies

We deviated from the description as we neared the top of the hill electing not to follow the fence through a stand of oak trees, where the guide indicates there is a profusion of poison oak, opting instead to pass through the oaks lower on the hillside.

We didn’t notice any poison oak here.

On the far side of the oaks we turned almost directly uphill reaching a viewpoint where Mt. Adams rose to the north beyond the Columbia River.

A grass widow at the viewpoint.

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood over the oak stand.

We turned right along the rim following deer and elk trails through the oaks and past more viewpoints.

From a grassy rise along the ridge we could see a faint path leading into another stand of trees where we could also make out the fence line marking the eastern boundary of the Forest Service Land.

We headed downhill and followed the path to the fence line and then followed it down.
The Dalles beyond the fence line.

Heading down the fence line.

As we lost elevation we began to see quite a few more flowers. It seemed that the flowers at this eastern end were ahead of those to the west.
20210327_143435 Large head clover

A lupine with blossoms.

Hillside covered in Columbia desert parsley

Our car had been joined by one other. (middle left of photo)

Gooseberry Creek

We turned away from the fence on an old farm road following it back to the road near the trailhead by the “No Trespassing” signs.

This loop came in at 4.3 miles according to my GPS and was at least 1250′ of elevation gain which was made more difficult by the cross country terrain. There was little to no level footing for the vast majority of this hike and coming after we had already hiked 7.6 miles and gained 2200′ it really tired us out. That being said it was a great day to be out. One thing to note is that all three hikes are in located in tick country (we were lucky enough not to pick up any) and both Sevenmile Hill and Lyle Cherry Orchard are in rattlesnake country (again didn’t see any). Happy Trails and stay safe out there!

Flickr: Mitchell Point, Lyle Cherry Orchard & Sevenmile Hill

Tags balsamroot, Columbia River Gorge, hiking, Lyle Cherry Orchard, Mitchell Point, Oregon, Sevenmile hill, The Dalles, Washington, wildflowers

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Greenleaf Creek

With the arrival of May we officially started our hiking season by making an attempt to reach Greenleaf Falls. We knew it was a long shot given the little bit of information shown online, but the hike to Greenleaf Creek was a featured hike in the 2018 4th edition of William L. Sullivan’s “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington”. We would at least be getting one step closer to our goal of completing all 500 of his featured hikes (post).

We began our hike from the Bonneville Trailhead which is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River near Bonneville Dam.

From the picnic area we followed a gravel path to a pointer for Table Mountain.

We’d been to Table Mountain twice, in 2013 via a now closed trailhead at the former Bonneville Hot Springs resort and in 2017 from the north via Three Corner Rock.

We followed the Tamanous Trail a little over half a mile through the woods to its end at the Pacific Crest Trail.
Oregon grape

Dogwood

Large solomonseal

Trillium

At the junction we turned left following pointers for Gillette Lake and Three Corner Rock.

The PCT soon entered a series of clearcuts which provided some views of Table Mountain and a good amount of trail side poison oak.

This area seemed popular with rabbits.

The PCT did a little climbing through the clearcuts which revealed a brief glimpse of Mt. Hood to the south.

Nearly 2 miles on the PCT brought us to a ridge where Gillette Lake was visible below.

We followed the wide trail down passing by the lake and crossing the inlet creek on a footbridge.
Hamilton Mountain (post) to the left and Sacagawea and Pappose Rocks to the right beyond the lake.

Sacagawea and Pappose Rocks

Indian paintbrush

Beyond Gillette Lake the PCT climbed gradually for a half mile through more clearcuts before passing a brushy unnamed lake.
Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. Nesmith Point (post) is the rounded high point to the right on the Oregon side.

Unnamed lake through the trees.

After passing the lake the trail dropped to a bridged crossing of Greenleaf Creek then climbed via a series of switchbacks to Greenleaf Overlook.

View east from Greenleaf Overlook with Dog Mountain (post) in the distance.

There was a nice little patch of chocolate lilies near the viewpoint.

20190504_123918

We continued past the overlook through the forest approximately half a mile to a four way junction (Two miles from the Greenleaf Creek crossing).

Bleeding heart

Vanilla leaf

At the junction the left hand trail led to Carpenter Lake while the PCT continued uphill toward Table Mountain. We turned right onto the unsigned Two Chiefs Trail.

One of the nice things about this trail was the lack of poison oak which we seemed to have finally left behind. The trail climbed through the forest gaining 500′ over the next couple of miles.

20190504_091212 Wood violet

20190504_091234 Fairy slipper

Trillium

After approximately 2.25 miles the trail emerged from the tress at a massive talus field made up of rocks from Table Mountain.

IMG_6395_stitch The Two Chiefs on the left and Table Mountain on the right.

From the open talus area we had another view of Mt. Hood which was a bit better given the higher elevation than our earlier view.

A half mile after entering the talus section we arrived at Greenleaf Creek.

Greenleaf Falls consists of a series of drops, some of which were visible from the trail.

20190504_110326 Left side

20190504_110520 Right side

After admiring these lower cascades we decided to go ahead and attempt to reach the upper tiers. I hadn’t seen an actual GPS track or route up to the falls but had seen a 2015 video which showed that this was not going to be easy if it was even still possible. Seasonal rains have caused repeated mud slides and left the steep hillside gouged with channels filled with loose rock.

We picked what appeared to be the most reasonable route and started picking our way uphill. We managed to get about two tenths of a mile uphill from the trail before deciding that there was no remotely safe way to even attempt continuing. I had gotten a little higher than Heather having had her stop while I attempted to see if there was any viable route to continue on. From what we can tell from the maps I was just below the upper falls, but it may have well have been 100 miles. We did however get over to a couple of views of other smaller tiers of the falls.
The highest tier that I was able to see.

A middle section of Greenleaf Falls

Cascades along Greenleaf Falls just above the ones visible from the trail.

We’d given it a shot and I probably got a little too far up the hill. I had to use my hands a lot and spent a decent amount of time crawling to get back down to where I had left Heather. Luckily I was able to make it back down. Ironically I wound up falling near the end of our descent on what appeared to be nearly level ground when a rock rolled out from beneath my heal. A scrapped elbow and palm where the only results though.

As we were making our way back down Heather spotted a frog which we named kamikaze frog due to it launching itself downhill and landing upside down in the rocks a couple of times.

We were both concerned about possibly knocking a rock loose which might hit the frog since he was in the same channel as we were and kept hopping down ahead of us. Thankfully we were able to hop out of that channel and go around it before anything bad happened.

In addition to the frog I had seen a small garter snake while I was searching for a route up and Heather had seen some sort of lizard in the talus slope earlier. As we passed back by the talus we kept our eyes open but didn’t see another lizard or snake.

We did however see a western fence lizard back at Greenleaf Overlook.

The rest of the hike back was fairly uneventful other than having to check for poison oak every time we stepped aside to let other hikers pass. Heather did manage to get a neat picture of a blue copper butterfly in flight while she was taking some photos of flowers.
20190504_124036 Snow queen

20190504_124117 Wild strawberry

20190504_135949 Butterfly landing on leafy pea

We were a little fatigued when we finally made it back to the car. The GPS clocked in at 15.4 miles for the day. That distance combined with the extra work of trying to climb up the steep, loose hillside next to Greenleaf Creek was a lot for a hike this early in our season but it had been a beautiful day. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Greenleaf Creek

Tags chocolate lily, Frog, Gillette Lake, Greenleaf Creek, Greenleaf Falls, hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, Sacagawea and Papoose Rocks, Table Mountain, Tamanous Trail, Two Chiefs Trail, Washington, Western Fence Lizard

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Three Corner Rock to Table Mountain

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date June 27, 2017
7 Comments on Three Corner Rock to Table Mountain

What do we do when the temperatures are going to be nearing triple digits in the Willamette Valley? Take a 23.9 mile hike of course! Okay so that wasn’t our original plan, but due to some navigational errors that’s exactly what happened.

We were headed to Three Corner Rock and then hopefully onto Table Mountain via the Pacific Crest Trail. We’d visited Table Mountain in 2013 starting from the currently closed trailhead near the privately owned Bonneville Hot Springs. Our plan for this hike was to start at the Rock Creek Pass Trailhead where the PCT crosses CG-2090.

After purchasing a Washington Department of Natural Resources Discover Pass online we headed to the Columbia Gorge and crossed into Washington on the Bridge of the Gods in Cascade Locks, OR. From there we followed the directions from the Oregonhikers.org field guide to the trailhead.

Our first (and biggest) error of the day happened as we set off on the PCT. Not only does the trail cross CG-2090 but it also crosses CG-2000, which we took to reach the trailhead, further to the north. On the map below the black “x” is the Rock Creek Pass TH and the red “x” marks the PCT crossing of CG-2000.

Rock Creek Pass TH

We hadn’t noticed the PCT crossing of CG-2000 on the drive to the TH and for some reason I had it stuck in my head that our starting point was the red “x”. So based on the direction we had driven to the spot from, we needed to take the PCT to the left to be heading south toward Three Corner Rock. Had we stopped to question why the Sun was nearly straight ahead as we started on the PCT we may have realized our mistake.

We also hadn’t paid enough attention to the guidebook stating to go right on the PCT from the trailhead so off we went blissfully going the wrong way. From the Rock Creek Pass Trailhead it should have been 1.5 miles to the junction with the Three Corner Rock Trail which meant we had expected to reach it between 45 minutes to an hour into the hike. Instead about an hour into the hike we crossed CG-2000. That didn’t tip us off because based on where we thought we had started and the direction we thought we were heading our route would have included a crossing of CG-2090 which we mistook this crossing for.

Heather had been questioning things for a while but it would have been impossible to be going north by following the PCT in the direction we had from where we thought we started, and we figured if we somehow failed to spot the Three Corner Rock Trail we’d just do it on the way back from Table Mountain instead. The forest along the trail was nice and we eventually came to a footbridge across what we soon realized was Rock Creek.

Soon after crossing Rock Creek we came to a junction with the Snag Creek Trail quickly followed by Snag Creek itself.

Neither of us remembered anything about having to ford a creek on our planned route but across we went. We were just over an hour and a half into the hike and now we were both having serious doubts about our direction. We pulled the map out again and this time I also zoomed out on the GPS far enough to see the Columbia River on the display which we had clearly been moving away from. It still took me a few minutes to realize what we’d done. I just kept thinking it was impossible to have gone left at the trailhead and be heading north until it finally sunk in that the trailhead wasn’t where I thought it was. Back we went having to retrace three plus miles and regain nearly 1000′ of elevation.

It was 10am when we made it back to the trailhead, nearly 3 hours after we’d set off in the wrong direction. This time we headed south.

The funny thing was even though by that point I knew we’d gone the wrong way for at least the next hour I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were headed north. The PCT climbed away from Rock Creek Pass gaining views of Mt. Adams through the trees.

Near the junction with the Three Corner Rock Trail many avalanche lilies were still in bloom.

We turned right onto the Three Corner Rock Trail which popped out onto an old road bed after approximately .4 miles.

We followed the road uphill just under a quarter mile to Three Corner Rock.

It was really windy on the open ridge and on Three Corner Rock which was once home to a lookout tower.

It was a five volcano day with a bonus view of Goat Rocks thrown in.

Mt. Hood

Mt. Jefferson

Mt. St. Helens

Mt. Rainier

Mt. Adams

Goat Rocks

To the SE a small section of the Columbia River was visible between Wind and Dog Mountain in Washington and Mt. Defiance in Oregon.

Despite the wind the views were great, but it did make it difficult to take pictures of the wildflowers in the area.

After a short break we headed back to the PCT where we decided to continue south toward Table Mountain. We told ourselves we’d play it by ear and could turn around at any time but we’re both stubborn and it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we’d wind up making it all the way there.

From the Three Corner Rock Trail junction the PCT gradually descended for 1.25 miles to a road crossing at a saddle with a spectacular display of paintbrush and penstemon. Along the way the trail crossed a rough 4wd track and passed along a ridge still showing evidence of the 1902 Yacolt Burn.

2017-06-24 11.57.12

From the road the PCT traversed along the east side of a ridge through the forest for a mile before arriving at a large clear cut.

Three Corner Rock was visible behind us.

The trail climbed through the clear cut for about a half mile before reentering the trees.

For the next 1.25 miles the PCT passed through a series of wildflower meadows, first on the west side of a ridge with views to the south of Table Mountain and Mt. Hood, then onto the east side of the ridge with a view of Mt. Adams and the Columbia River.

The views were nice but we spent most of our time focused on the many wildflowers along the trail.

2017-06-24 12.44.26

2017-06-24 12.47.35

2017-06-24 12.51.18

2017-06-24 12.48.27

2017-06-24 13.42.25

2017-06-24 13.42.59

The variety of colors of penstemon was particularly impressive.

2017-06-24 12.42.58

2017-06-24 12.43.06

We had hoped to hop off of the PCT at a sharp right turn just uphill from some power lines and hook up to a dirt road just on the other side of the lines at a saddle. As we came around the ridge end though we couldn’t see any obvious signs of a connector trail so we stuck to the PCT as it began to quickly lose elevation. After looking at the map and realizing that following the PCT all the way to the road would add almost two miles and another 500′ of elevation gain we went back to look again for a connection. After a brief off-trail excursion on a steep slope with thick brush, we bit the bullet and took the PCT down to the road.

We had to walk back uphill on the road and it was warm. We had benefited from a nice breeze most of the day which helped keep the temperature bearable but there was none along the road. When we arrived at the saddle we spotted a sign near an overgrown roadbed pointing 1.4 miles to Table Mountain.

We followed the old roadbed for about half a mile to its end where a faint, and at times very brushy, trail continued along the north ridge of Table Mountain.

When the trail wasn’t overgrown it too was lined with wildflowers.

Not only was the route a bit of a challenge to follow due to the brush but it was steep at times, especially on two rocky climbs, the last of which brought us to the plateau of Table Mountain.

Three Corner Rock was visible to the left of the ridges we’d followed to reach the plateau as were the power lines running over the saddle a mile away.

We picked up the Table Mountain Trail on the plateau and followed it south to the viewpoint above the cliffs overlooking the Columbia River.

We sat in some shade near the cliffs and took off our shoes and socks to give our feet a bit of a break while we ate a snack. We had no idea how far we’d gone (it was almost 16 miles already) but we knew our feet were sore and we were both developing blisters. We were also getting low on water but thankfully Heather had brought our water filter and we’d passed what I thought would be a sufficient water source in the meadows between the saddle and the clear cut.

We started back at 3:15pm hurrying as quickly as our protesting feet would allow. We both ran out of water shortly before arriving at the seep where the water was just deep enough to use our filter to get some much needed wonderfully cold water. We arrived back at our car at 6:48, almost 11 hours and 45 minutes since we’d set off that morning.

It certainly hadn’t gone as planned but we’d at least come prepared with enough food and water to make it through the day. In addition to some great mountain views and wildflowers meadows we’d learned a valuable lesson about how important it is to make sure you know where your starting point is and to consider everything when determining where you’re at. Had we taken the position of the sun and the description of the hike as beginning uphill to the right of the TH we might have realized much more quickly that we’d misidentified the location of the trailhead on the map. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Three Corner Rock to Table Mountain

Tags hiking, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Rock Creek, Rock Creek Pass Trailhead, Snag Creek, Snag Creek Trail, Table Mountain, Table Mountain North Ridge, Three Corner Rock, Washington, wildflowers, Yacolt Burn

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Dog and Augspurger Mountains

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date May 11, 2016
4 Comments on Dog and Augspurger Mountains

This was our second visit to Dog Mountain and probably our final one for several years at least. While the wildflower meadows on Dog Mountain are arguably the best in the Columbia Gorge, that distinction brings crowds. We do our best to avoid crowded hikes, but our visit in May 2014 was on a morning when low clouds covered the upper meadows limiting views of the gorge and the flowers. https://wanderingyuncks.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/dog-mountain/

Reports of the flower show being near peak and the promise of a sunny day brought us back to Dog Mountain for the views we missed and an additional visit to Augspurger Mountain which we had done on our previous trip. We left extra early arriving at the trailhead just after 6am to find close to a dozen cars already in the parking area. The parking area has recently gone through some changes reducing the number of spots from 200 to 75. For more information check out http://www.oregonhikers.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=23519.

Two trails start from the parking lot, the Dog Mountain and Augspurger Trail, which make an 7 mile loop possible. The Augspurger trail also continues 4.7 miles beyond its junction with the Dog Mountain Trail past the summit of Augspurger Mountain to meadows with views of 3 Washington volcanoes.

We started up hill on the Dog Mountain Trail gaining almost 700′ in the first half mile to a junction in the forest.
Dog Mountain Trailhead

We forked right at the junction following the slightly longer, less difficult, and more scenic trail. After another mile (and another 800′ of elevation gain) we arrived at the lower meadow. The flowers were still in pretty good shape here and the view was better than during our first visit.
//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Lower meadow on Dog Mountain

Columbia River from the lower meadow on Dog Mountain

Paintbrush, lupine, balsamroot and other flowers in the lower meadow

Wildflowers in the lower meadow on Dog Mountain

Wind, Greenleaf and Table Mountains from the lower meadow

The less and more difficult trails rejoined after another half mile back in the forest.
Dog Mountain Trail

Another 550′ climb over the next half mile brought us to the site of a former lookout at the lower end of Dog Mountain’s upper meadow. The balsamroot painted much of the hillside yellow. Other flowers were mised in adding splashes of red, white, and purple to the color palette.
Dog Mountain Trail

Upper meadow on Dog Mountain

Lakrspur and balsamroot with a little paint

Balsamroot, lupine and paintbrush

Upper meadow on Dog Mountain

Larkspur, balsamroot, and paintbrush

Upper meadow on Dog Mountain

We continued .4 miles from the former lookout site to a signed junction where a .1 mile path led up to the trails high point at the top of the meadow.
Upper meadow on Dog Mountain

Upper meadow on Dog Mountain

Balsamroot on Dog Mountain

Dog Mountain Trail

Junction in the upper meadow

The trail had not been too crowded, but we had already encountered more people in the first three miles than we had on our previous thirty-three miles of trail. It wasn’t the people that chased us from the top of the meadow though, it was the bugs. There was no breeze to keep them down and there were a lot of them including some biting flies. After taking in the view including Mt. Hood and Mt. Defiance to the south and Mt. St. Helens to the west we headed back down to the junction.
Mt. Hood and Mt. Defiance form the top of the upper meadow

Mt. Hood

Mt. St. Helens from the top of the upper meadow

Mt. St. Helens

Wind Mountain and the Columbia River from the top of the upper meadow

We continued on the Dog Mountain Trail another 1.1 miles, passing more wildflowers and fewer people, to its junction with the Augspurger Trail.
Paintbrush, buttercup, larkspur, balsamroot and chocolate lily

western stoneseed

Phlox

Balsamroot, paintbrush, phlox and larkspur

Meadow on Dog Mountain

White capped sparrow on balsamroot

Vanilla leaf and star flowered solomon's seal

Junction with the Augspurger Mt. Trail. (The spelling is wrong on the sign.)

We turned right at the junction and headed for Augspurger Mountain. It was immediately obvious that far fewer hikers used this portion of the trail. Brush crowded the path as it followed a wooded ridge dropping 400′ into a small valley.
Augspurger Trail

Augspurger Trail

A fairly steep climb on the far side of the valley brought us to a dirt road which we followed uphill to the right. After passing under some powerlines the road reentered the forest. At a sharp right hand turn markers indicated the continuation of the Augspurger Trail.

Augspurger Trail

Another half mile of climbing brought us to the first of several small meadows. This one had wildflowers and views back to Dog Mountain and Mt. Hood and to the west down the Columbia River.
Dog Mountain, Mt. Hood and Mt. Defiance from the Augspurger Trail

Wind Mountain and the Columbia River

Augspurger Trail

Chocolate lily and larkspur

Serviceberry, paintbrush and larkspur
Lomatium and paintbrush

For the next 2+ miles the trail alternated between trees and meadows as it followed a ridgeline up Augspurger Mountain. Each meadow seemed to host a different combination of flowers and plants and the sections of forest all had different feels to them.
Augspurger Trail

Dutchman's breech

Augspurger Trail

Fairy slippers

Augspurger Trail

Wildflowers along the Augspurger Trail

Chocolate lily and a beetle

Trillium

Augspurger Trail

Valerian

We momentarily lost the trail in the final meadow near the top of the mountain. Between some downed trees and new growth it was hard to tell where the trail was. I thought I had found it leaving from the right side of the meadow but quickly lost an sign of it in the trees. We went back to the meadow and picked up a faint but clear path heading to the left out of the top of the meadow.
Augspurger Trail

We followed this path into the trees. We were passing below the summit of Augspurger Mountain when we spotted a “summit” sign on a tree above us to the right. We headed uphill to tag the summit before continuing.

The path then began to lose elevation and entered another long meadow. This meadow provided views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in addition to Mt. St. Helens and also contained a fair amount of glacial lilies.
Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams

Mt. Adams

Mt. Rainier

Mt. St. Helens

Glacial lilies

The one constant in all the meadows we’d been through was the bugs. The trail continued faintly down through the meadow which we could have followed down another couple of tenths of a mile, but we didn’t really want to have to regain any more elevation than we were already going to need to so after a brief rest we began our return trip.
Augspurger Trail

We ran into two other groups of hikers along the Augspurger Trail on the way back to the Dog Mountain Trail junction. There was a good deal of traffic on the final 2.8 mile stretch from the junction down to the trailhead, most of which was headed in our same direction. The parking lot was packed when we arrived back at the trailhead a little after 1pm and people were walking along the highway to cars they had parked along the shoulder. We had managed to get the wildflower and mountain views that had eluded us in 2014 and now we’ll leave Dog Mountain for others to enjoy. After all there are plenty of less popular trails we have yet to explore and even though they may not have the wildflowers to rival Dog they’re all worthy of a visit. Happy Trails!

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/albums/72157668107094945

Tags augspurger mountain, augspurger trail, balsamroot, columbia gorge, Columbia River, dog mountain, glacial lilies, hiking, Washington, wildflowers

Columbia Gorge North Hiking Trip report Washington

Catherine Creek, Coyote Wall, and the Weldon Wagon Trail

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date March 20, 2016
4 Comments on Catherine Creek, Coyote Wall, and the Weldon Wagon Trail

Similar to last months hike our March trip consisted of shorter hikes at three separate locations. We had been waiting for a day off with decent weather to head out toward the eastern end of the Columbia Gorge to see some early wildflowers and finally got one on the day before Spring.

We started our day at the Catherine Creek Trailhead located approximately 6 miles east of Bingen, WA along Old Highway 8. We managed to arrive at the trailhead just as the sunrise began to light up with color.

We took the paved Catherine Creek Trail on the south side of the old highway toward the Columbia River. We followed the 1 mile loop past wildflowers, vernal ponds, oak woodlands, Catherine Creek Falls, and views of Mt. Hood.

Grass widows

Prairie Stars

Shooting stars and saxifrage

Lomatium

After completing the loop we crossed the road and head north on an old roadbed marked as “20”. At a fork we should have veered right on another road marked with a “21” sign but we initially missed that turn which turned out okay because we came upon a scenic vernal pond reflecting the clouds in the sky above and were serenaded by a western meadowlark.

Once we had backtracked onto the correct road bed we followed it to a crossing of Catherine Creek then on to an old corral below the Catherine Creek Arch.

The Forest Service has closed off the area near the arch with fencing but the view from below near the corral is nice.

We continued on the old road climbing gradually and after passing under a set of power lines we came to a trail junction. We took the signed trail to the right which led up a small hill to a ridge with a view of Mt. Hood.

This trail followed the ridge down toward the old highway passing the top of the Catherine Creek Arch along the way.

We arrived at the old highway about a quarter mile east of the trailhead and simply walked along the shoulder back to the car. From there we headed back toward Bingen and our next stop at the Coyote Wall Trailhead just off Courtney Road (approx. 3 miles east of Bingen). Our early start allowed us to get to this second trailhead before 9am which was nice because this is a very popular destination.

From the parking area we followed a closed section of old highway 8 east passing a nice view up Coyote Wall. After passing some cliffs the scenery shifted to rocky green hillsides dotted with wildflowers.

Our plan was to take the Labyrinth Trail up to the Rowland Creek Trail then head left from that junction to old road 20 following that left to a creek crossing and following it all the way to a junction with the Coyote Wall Trail. The Labyrinth Trail sets off from old highway 8 approx .75 miles from the trailhead, but before turning up that trail when we came to it we continued on a couple hundred yards to check out Lower Labyrinth Falls.

After returning to the Labyrinth Trail we headed uphill climbing past wildflowers and rock outcrops to a view of Labyrinth Falls near a small cave.

From the falls the trail continued to climb through a mix of grasslands and oak woods gaining better views of Mt. Hood.

We saw lots of wildflowers along the way and passed a trail crew from the Washington Trails Alliance.

Grass widows

Prairie stars

Lomatium

Larkspur

Yellow bell lilies

Toothwort

We arrived at the road 20 creek crossing as planned but things began to unravel a bit shortly afterward. Signage had been virtually non-existent and after climbing up from the creek crossing we arrived at large junction where the WTA trail crew had parked their vehicles. Several trails and old roads headed off in various directions here and were not shown on the map we were using. We first set off straight ahead on an old road bed but quickly saw a sign indicating it was private property, we turned back to the junction and began to head uphill on a clear trail. It didn’t seem like we should be going that direction though so we pulled out our guidebook and GPS before going any further. After some deliberation we returned once again to the junction and headed downhill on another old road which was the correct route. Here we passed an impressive meadow filled with yellow bell lilies and grass widows.

We passed several more junctions that were not on our map and made one more wrong turn (it appears it would have led us to the top of Coyote Wall in the end) before finally making it down to the junction we had been looking for with the Coyote Wall Trail. At this point we were about halfway up the wall and made our way over to check out the view.

Mt. Defiance (with the snow)

Mt. Hood

From there we headed downhill staying as close to the wall as possible before the trail finally veered away as it neared the old highway.

We spotted a few additional flowers on this lower portion before popping back out on the old highway and making our way back to the busy trailhead.

Woolly-pod milk vetch

Gold stars

Popcorn flower

Manroot

The unfortunately named Broomrape

Fiddleneck

Our final stop for the day was the Weldon Wagon Trail. For this hike we headed back through Bingen and continued west on Highway 14 to Alternate Highway 141 just before the White Salmon River. We followed this road north to Husum, WA where we turned right on Indian Creek Road. We followed signs for the Wagon Trail and parked at an unmarked pullout at the crest of Indian Cemetery Road. To reach the trail we needed to walk .2 miles up a logging road.

The Wagon Trail follows an old wagon road built in the early 1900’s to cart apples down to Husum. The trail began in a forest before entering more open grasslands.

The trial offers a pretty good climb gaining over 1000′ in the first 1.8 miles where a conservation sign sits in the middle of a hillside with a view of Mt. Hood.

Although the trail continues another .7 miles to another road we turned around at the sign knowing we would be over 13 miles for the day by the time we arrived back at the car and that this was the best of the views from the trail.

On our way home we made one final stop, this time for food, at Mekong Bistro in Portland. We’re blaming this one on the good folks over at Trail Keepers of Oregon for having their Winter Meet-n-Deet there last year. 🙂 We enjoyed the food enough that night to have it now be our go to spot on the way back to Salem after hiking in the Gorge. It didn’t disappoint and was a great end to a good day of hiking.

Although we did not have any issues ticks can be a problem on these hikes so be sure to keep your eyes out and check for any after your visit. Poison oak is also possible, as are rattlesnakes. Happy (and safe) Trails!

Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/albums/72157666169966955

Tags catherine creek, catherine creek arch, coyote wall, grass widow, hiking, labyrinth, labyrinth falls, Mt. Hood, rowland creek trail, Washington, weldon wagon road