Hidden Falls – wanderingyuncks

Mt. Tabor, Mt. Talbert, Scouters Mtn., & Hidden Falls Parks – 12/16/2023

For our final outing of 2023 we headed to Portland to visit some Boring volcanoes. Not to be confused with boring, the Boring Volcanic Field which consists of more than 80 small volcanic vents and associated lava flows dispersed throughout the greater Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Several of the resulting cinder cones are home to parks providing hiking opportunities and we planned on visiting three of these along with a city park with a 15′ waterfall.

We began our morning at Portland’s Mt. Tabor Park. We parked in in the lot next to the Mount Tabor Visitors Center and set off toward the playground.
The playground behind and to the right of the signboard at the Visitors Center.

We were attempting to follow, as closely as possible, the route described by Matt Reeder in “PDX Hiking 365”. (His hike has a different starting point but loops through the parking area where we were starting.) After a little confusion near the playground we located the red trail and followed it to the Mount Tabor Stairs where we turned right.
The red trail continuing on the far end of the playground.

Mt. St. Helens from the playground.

On the red trail.

The Mount Tabor stairs extend from the park border up to the summit.

Summit restrooms

The restrooms were reopened in 2017 after being renovated.

Mount Tabor summit

Mt. Hood from the summit.

Downtown Portland

At the southern end of the summit, near the former site of a statue of Harvey W. Scott (and later a bust of York), we headed downhill on a steeper trail.

At a wide junction we turned right onto the Red Trail and passed above Reservoir No. 1.

At Reservoir Loop Road we veered left staying on the Red Trail climbing up and over Poison Oak Hill. The trail then dropped back down to the loop road near Reservoir No. 5.

Mallards

We walked along reservoir road to a small building then crossed the road and headed down a long flight of stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs we turned right on the Green Trail and followed it past some tennis courts before turning uphill. We stuck to the Green Trail as it neared the parking area and followed it back behind The Crater before arriving back at the Visitors Center.

We forked right at this junction sticking to the green pointers.

Arriving at The Crater.

Coming around The Crater near the Visitors Center.

This was just over a two-mile loop with approximately 350′ of elevation gain.

From Mount Tabor we made the nine-mile drive to the Sunnyside Road Trailhead for the Mount Talbert Nature Park.

We set off on a gravel path that descended to a metal bridge over Mount Scott Creek.
Mount Talbert from the path.

Mount Scott Creek

Beyond the creek the forested trail began to climb Mount Talbert. We passed a junction with the Cedar Park Trail joining from the left and after 0.4-miles arrived at a T-junction with the Park Loop Trail.

The Park Loop Trail junction just uphill.

Mount Talbert is an Oregon Metro park which meant well marked junctions complete with small maps.
Note that the map at the Park Loop/Sunnyside Road Trail junction mis-identifies the location with the “You Are Here” star located at the Park Loop/Summit Ridge junction.

We turned left onto the Park Loop Trail and followed it further uphill to the actual Summit Ridge Trail junction.

We turned right onto the Summit Ridge Trail and followed it up and over the wooded summit to the West Ridge Trail.

Arriving at the West Ridge Trail junction.

We turned right again and followed the West Ridge Trail as it traversed the hillside brining us back to the Park Loop Trail.

Rejoining the Park Loop Trail.

We completed the loop and turned down the Sunnyside Road Trail to return to our car to complete this 2.5-mile (and 700′ gain) hike.
Mt. Adams was visible through the web of small branches.

A snowy Mt. Adams.

Back at the Sunnyside Road Trail.

From the Sunnyside Road Trailhead it was just a 3.5-mile drive to the parking area at Scouters Mountain Nature Park.

From the parking area we set off on the paved Shelter Trail toward the summit.

After just 0.2-miles we arrived at the shelter and a great view of Mt. Hood.

The benches throughout the park contained various nature sculptures, this one is “Moss Group”.

After admiring the mountain we made a small loop on the summit then continued on our larger loop by taking the Boomer Trail at the southern end of the summit downhill and looping around the East side of the mountain to return to the parking area.
On the Boomer Trail.

The Boomer Trail turned left at the bottom of these stone steps.

Another Metro trail map and pointers.

The Boomer Trail, named for Mountain Beavers which are sometimes called boomers, crossed the entrance road before climbing back up to the parking area.

This was an impressive root system.

A less obstructed view of Mt. Adams. (Mt. St. Helens was also briefly visible from this section of trail.)

Slightly clearer shot of Mt. Adams.

Back at the trailhead.

This was just a 1.3-mile loop with 200′ of elevation gain, and it was still early enough that we could easily fit one more stop in. From Scouters Mountain we drove another 4.5-miles to Hood View Park

At the far end of the parking area we followed a service road down to SE 162nd Ave and followed it right to its end at a sign for the Hidden Falls Nature Park.

Mt. St. Helens from the service road. Mt. Hood was also visible to the right through some fences around the ball fields.

A wide path led somewhat steeply downhill a third of a mile to an impressive bridge over Rock Creek and a view of Hidden Falls.

The large area to the right didn’t offer much of a view of the falls, but the view from the bridge was great.

We continued past the bridge a short distance along Rock Creek before turning around when the path veered away to climb up into another neighborhood.

The Oregon Hikers Field Guide describes a 4.1-mile loop that visits some other parks while also passing through several neighborhoods. We were content with seeing the falls and headed back making this just a 1.2-mile out-and-back with a couple hundred feet of elevation gain. For the day we logged 7.2-miles and 1475′ of cumulative elevation gain. It was a nice relaxing way to end our 2023 hiking season. Happy Trails and Merry Christmas!

Silver Star Mountain

HOT! That certainly describes our recent visit to Silver Star Mountain, but that would be doing this hike a great disservice. Despite the 90 degree temperatures better descriptions would be amazing flowers, great views, and beautiful scenery. Silver Star Mountain is located in Washington State’s Gifford-Pinchot National Forest between Mt. St. Helens and Portland, OR.

I’d been wanting to visit Silver Star for a long time, but the timing hadn’t been right until now. I had seen a number of trip reports which indicated now was a good time to catch many of the wildflowers that fill the meadows and the weather called for clear skies, the perfect combo. There are a number of possible approaches to the 4390′ summit but for our hike we chose to approach from the north via Ed’s Trail.

The drive to the trail head was tedious with the last 9 miles taking a good 45 minutes due to poor road conditions. Our plan was to hike a big loop sampling as much of the area as we could so we knew we had a long day ahead of us. It was already over 60 when we arrived at the parking area at 7:15. The sky was clear and the birds were out in force as we headed up the north flank towards the junction with Ed’s Trail. Mt. St. Helens loomed behind us and as we climbed Mt. Rainier and later Mt. Adams joined the horizon. As we approached the junction with Ed’s Trail Mt. Hood appeared through a gap ahead surrounding us in Cascade peaks.

Mt. St. Helens & Mt. Rainier from the jct with Ed's Trail — Mt. St. Helens & Mt. Rainier from the jct with Ed’s Trail

Already the flower display had been amazing. The variety of flowers was one of the best we’d seen. There was red paintbrush and columbine, pink nootka rose, purple lupine and iris, orange tiger lilies, white beargrass and thimbleberry, and (new to us) yellow lupine. The meadows here are due in large part to the 1902 Yacolt fire which swept over Silver Star Mountain removing the trees and clearing the way for the flowers. I could easily fill this whole trip report attempting to describe the flowers we saw on this day but the hike had other things to offer as well so I will have to let our photos do much of the flower reporting.

Ed’s trail was truly scenic as it traversed the NE side of the ridge through wildflower meadows with views of the 4 snowy Cascade peaks. Soon the path passed some rocky areas and passed through a natural rock doorway. Not long after passing through the doorway we scrambled up a short, steep section of the trail as it passed through a rocky slot up to a great viewpoint. A small patch of snow remained surrounded by avalanche lilies.

When Ed’s trail met an old road we took it up to the twin summits of Silver Star mountain. The view from the north summit was a true 360 degree panorama. Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams were joined by snow covered Goat Rocks to the north while Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, and the faint Three Sisters rose to the south. The Columbia River and Portland, OR lay to the SW while the ridges and meadows of Silver Star Mountain surrounded us in every direction.

After leaving the summit we continued on to the Indian Pits trail to visit a series of rock pits used as vision quest sights at one time. More wildflower meadows awaited on this trail which ended at a rocky ridge endge with yet another set of wonderful views. As an added bonus we were serenaded by a resident swallow who appeared to be enjoying the view from the top of the rocks as much as we were. It was really starting to warm up as we left the pits and continued on our loop down an abandoned road past sturgeon rock. The old road was actually lined with trees but it was wide enough to remain in the sunlight.

We made our way down the road to the Tarbell Trail which we then turned right (north) on and momentarily entered the forest. The trees didn’t extend far to our left and we could see that much of the hillside below had been clearcut. It is a sight that I don’t particularly enjoy seeing. The stark contrast of the stumps and piles of slash next to the still standing forest always leaves me imagining what it must have once looked like. We were on a collision course with the cut though and soon emerged to the treeless hillside. One of the first things we noticed were the butterflies. They were everywhere and flitting above a vast array of wildflowers. Even the clearcut couldn’t spoil the areas scenery 🙂

The lack of trees did mean we were once again exposed to the sun and for about 2 miles we switchbacked down and across the hillside before again reaching the forest on the other side. We were greeted by the first sound of water on the hike. The source was Coyote Creek and that was where we would find our next destination, Hidden Falls. What a welcome change to the heat Hidden Falls was. A bench near the 92′ cascade gave us a place to rest while we cooled off courtesy of the breeze created by the falls.

After another mile and a half on the Tarbell Trail we arrived at the Chinook Trail which would take us up Kloochman Ridge and back to the road we had been on early in the morning. The Chinook trail spent a short time climbing in the forest before emerging in some of the hikes best wildflower meadows. The number and variety of flowers on this ridge trumped all the others we had been through on this day.

This was also the steepest trail we’d been on and with the temperatures hitting the 90s we needed all the distraction the flowers could provide.

We eventually made it up Kloochman Ridge and then headed back down the road to our car and the extra water that was stashed in our cooler. This was one of the rare occasion when I actually finished off all the water in my Camelbak (1/4mi from the car). Silver Star Mountain had lived up to all the hype I’d seen in the trip reports. With a little something for everyone it’s an amazing area and I highly recommend exploring any of the areas trails. If you’re a fan of beargrass skip next year since it only blooms every 2nd or 3rd year and this year it was on, or better yet go both years and see the difference. Happy Trails and have a safe 4th of July.

Facebook album https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201492927112255.1073741839.1448521051&type=1
Flickr photos -http://www.flickr.com/photos/9319235@N02/sets/72157634416726411/