hikespeak

With its grand river and towering cliffs, the Columbia River Gorge is a tough place to build a roadway. See one of the engineering feats used to build a road through the gorge by moseying over to the Mosier Twin Tunnels. This picturesque pair of tunnels can be crossed on Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, which follows the route of the century old road that crossed the gorge long... Read more.

Shevlin Loop Trail explores pine forests along Tumalo Creek in Shevlin Park, which is just four miles west of downtown Bend. This pleasant woodland trail is mostly easy with a few rolling sections along the bluffs that border the creek. The loop is 4.75 miles long and explores much of Shevlin Park's 647 acres. The hike has 240 feet of elevation change and crosses lovely Tumalo Creek at two... Read more.

Archie Briggs Natural Area presents views over a dramatic stretch of the Deschutes River north of Bend. The river makes a sweeping curve beneath tall cliffs of volcanic rock and is backed by grand mountains like Black Butte and Mount Jefferson. Gaze down the canyon from atop cliffs on the south side of the curve in the river by an intersection of Deschutes River Trail and Archie Briggs... Read more.

Gaze north from the observation site at the end of Head of the Metolius Trail and you'll have a beautiful (if traditional) view of a river flowing through a pine forest toward Mount Jefferson. Look in the other direction to see something surprising. The river springs to live all at once from a gushing source. The trail to Head of the Metolius in Deschutes National Forest is a quarter mile... Read more.

Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon and not the sort of waterfall that leaves you asking for more. Still, the Columbia River Gorge has so many waterfalls to offer that you can pair scoping out Multnomah Falls from top to bottom with admiring a quintet of other waterfalls on an immensely beautiful hike. This loop combines Wahkeena Trail with Larch Mountain Trail and is 6.05... Read more.

Do you have a need for waterfalls? Heading to the Columbia River Gorge is a good start (the area is stocked full of them). If you choose to hike Horsetail Falls Trail, you'll get a tall waterfall right at the trailhead. Half a mile up the trail, you'll find another waterfall that you can actually walk behind. Combine Horsetail Falls Trail and Oneonta Trail for a 2.85-mile loop that... Read more.

Lower Oneonta Falls is an enchantress – a 100-foot ribbon of white water plunging down a steep wall of dark volcanic rock draped in moss and ferns. Getting to this waterfall demands an off-trail adventure up Oneonta Gorge that involves wading through crystal clear stretches of Oneonta Creek as it passes between the towering walls of this narrow gorge. Located in Columbia River Gorge... Read more.

Latourell Falls is a stunning waterfalls tumbling into the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland. More precisely, there are two waterfalls on Latourell Creek totaling 359 feet of falls. Lower Latourell Falls is a beautiful 225-foot single drop waterfall that can be seen right from the trailhead along Historic Columbia River Highway. Farther up the canyon is Upper Latourell Falls, which is... Read more.

Is there a better hike in Mount Rainier National Park than Skyline Trail? The hike begins from Paradise, a perfectly named destination on the southern slope of Mount Rainier. Loop up to Panorama Point, a stunning viewpoint that is about as close to the summit of Rainier as you can get without an ice ax. The trail passes snowfields, streams, waterfalls, and fields of alpine flowers. On a... Read more.

Mount Rainier National Park has three main campgrounds with over 450 campsites. The campgrounds are located in the southwest, southeast, and northeast corners of the park near the most popular hiking areas. Backcountry camping is also an option, by permit only. Visit the official Mount Rainier National Park camping page for more information.   Campgrounds in Mount Rainier National... Read more.