I have a love/hate relationship with this trail. I hike it every few years and 2026 was the year I returned. I love how easy it is to get to (close to town, right off the road, no passes), and great views, but then it can be crowded or lot full or the trail over trodden.

I arrived at the trail around 930am and there were still a few spots in the lot to park which was surprsing since today is the last day to do the full loop. Despite all the cars, the trail did not feel crowded.

I always do the loop counter clockwise - I feel like I get the steep section out of the way and then can hike down towards the water (better views). The trail was predictablely muddy and I was glad to have poles for the ascent and decent. Even with poles I did slip a bit and took it slowly. There were only two trees that I had to climb over. It seemed that there had been a lot of recent trail maintenance done after the windstorms. Thank you to those who cared for this trail!

A few things to note about the trail:
After you go under hwy 14, there is a sign to avoid using the bridge as it has failed. You can see that one of the beams under the bridge has cracked and fallen down. yYou can either cross at your own risk or walk down to the creek and hop across.

On the lower portion of the trail, the bridge by the falls is gone. There is now a trail that goes up and behind the falls. It was kind of nice to walknunder the falls to cool off on this sunny January day! I wonder if they will repair the bridge or keep the detour as is?

The last mile of the loop is all road. sometimes you can see eagles or farm animals on the walk up which helps pass the road mile time. with the loop, my garmin clocked 7.37 miles.

Saturday January 10, 2026

We arrived to find 7 cars in the main Cape Horn TH around 8:30am. 

Weather was dry but breezy especially long the Columbia.

After using the facilities, which were stocked and relatively clean, we headed counterclockwise on the trail.   The trail was in pretty good shape, no real obstacles and not much mud.

It's been a while since we hiked this trail... years actually. It's a little rougher on the second half than we recalled but it was nice to have the varied terrain. Great views up and down the Columbia River gorge and across to the Oregon side.

We returned at 11:45am to 30 cars in the lot and many cars parked along the road.  We saw relatively few people despite all the cars.  This is a solid, close-to-town hiking option! 

Most of Cape Horn looked great yesterday, but there is a huge bridge on the lower trail with a sign saying Not Crossable (or something similar) and I want to say it references the US Forest Service, but I didn't take a picture, so please don't quote me. 

Not sure if this is even the correct place to post this. 

thanks!

Day 1 - Hatchery Creek to Augusta Lake.

This trail is an absolute mess, the amount of blowdown, burnt blow down, exposure, lack of water, route finding... A note at the TH said "766 down trees, yes we counted". It may actually be more than that. Another said "it was the worst hike ever," I agree, it really was the worst hike i've ever done. Another note, "Falls Creek is Dry".

Surprisingly there was water at 2mi in. I almost called it and turned around until this point. I filled everything I had, cooled off and recalibrated the trip. Seeing that note about Falls Creek was dry, I wasn't sure when the next water source would be if any until Augusta.

A fellow hiker I passed on the way up, I ended up running into 3 days later, now headed the opposite direction on Icicle Creek. He said he thought he was about to get heat stroke and turned around and called for a ride out. Which got me thinking, if you did have an issue on this trail, search and rescue getting in and out with all the blowdown would be a really bad situation. 

If you want to try this, start really early AM, and/or on a cloudy cool day but hopefully now you have a better expectation of the embrace the suck for the first 5 miles. 

Day 2 - Augusta Lake to Mary Lake

The ridges are great, but everything below the treeline is slow going. Big descents and ascents, trail is very overgrown at times, blowdowns causing re-routes. Lots of very helpful cairns, Gaia GPS was fantastic for me. Really once over the ridge from Augusta to Chatter Creek it's just slow to get through the valleys and brush. Edna is incredible. I'm terrible with heights so Cape Horn took me a minute to focus enough to scoot around the corner. Camped at Lake Mary.

Day 3 - Mary Lake to Susan Jane

Woke up to a flat mattress, couldn't find the leak in the lake. Otherwise, Mary Lake to Susan Jane was pretty straight forward, some fun steep sections traversing along the ridge. Lower Doelle might be my new favorite alpine lake. Once I got to Josephine I saw several closed for restoration and day use only signs so I kept boogying to Susan Jane. 

Day 4 - Susan Jane to Stevens

Yep, mattress still flat, butt pad under the hip, sleeping on clothes, still got some shuteye and could hear the winds picking up. A slight sprinkle woke me up around 6:30am and got me packed fast and on the go, but with a dead mattress I threw in the towel at Stevens and grabbed a ride home. 

Did the upper and lower trails with the road in a counterclockwise loop from the park and ride TH.

Recommend an early start to beat the heat and get a parking spot. The spots are pretty small there, so recommend not trying to park a massive truck there, though there is more spacious overflow parking. Got there at 9am on a Sat, and there were plenty of spots left, but given the sun, wish I had started at 8 instead.

counterclockwise takes you up to the highest point first, allowing you to get the hard work out of the way in the beginning when it's cooler. This area is decently shaded and there are several nice views of the gorge.

the trail leads down the hill, then along some farmlands, then across a grassy field, then a gravel path, then down a wooded hill until passing under the highway.

The lower trail is now open (closed Feb-July 15). This trail continues down a wooded hill to more viewpoints until hitting volcanic cliffs over the river. The trail is easy to find, though vegetation is thicker in the lower bit and parts of the trail are canted. After a stunning cliff view, it back to walking uphill through rocky patches in the sun and shaded forest bits. A bridge is gone, requiring you to walk behind or through a small waterfall that is a nice refreshing shower after the heat. The lower trail has less shade than the upper, particularly once you hit the 1.5mi roadwalk back to the lot, so bring a hat. This road is a very boring part of the walk that feels longer than the initial hike up the hillside for whatever reason, and you will look at cows in blackberry and sweet pea lined fields.