Beacon Rock State Park - Hamilton Mountain — Tuesday, May. 19, 2009

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - WA

Mid-May is prime time to hike the Hamilton Mountain Loop in Beacon Rock State Park. The loop is 9 miles with 2,400 ft of elevation gain, combining the Hamilton Mountain Trail with the Hardy Creek Trail. Drive east from Vancouver on SR 14 about 34 miles to Beacon Rock, turn left on the state park's campground road and then right into the signed trailhead parking lot. The trail starts next to the restroom building. At 1.5 miles, the trail crosses Hardy Creek below an impressive series of cascades. Before the trail descends to the Hardy Creek bridge, a short dead-end side trail goes left to visit Pool of Winds, where you'll be blasted by the spray from Rodney Falls -- a cool spot on a hot day. After crossing Hardy Creek the trail ascends to a junction with the Hardy Creek Trail. Although counterintuitive, the best route in anti-clockwise, ascending Hamilton Mountain via the trail signed "Most Difficult" and returning via Hardy Creek signed "More Difficult." The trail switchbacks steadily upward through increasingly open terrain. We identified more than 30 species of wildflowers and they were at their freshest and finest on this showery day. At the summit, clouds hid views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood, but we enjoyed closer in views of North Bonneville and Bonneville Dam below to the east and Beacon Rock below to the south. We continued along the ridgetop to a saddle, where "Lewisia columbiana" were in full bud but none in bloom yet. The cool spring has delayed wildflower bloom all through the Gorge this year. Beyond the saddle, we ducked into the woods on an old fire road to eat lunch out of the wind, then descended west from the saddle on a more defined old road down two long switchbacks into the Hardy Creek canyon. Just before the road crosses the creek, the signed Hardy Creek Trail contours back to the junction with the Hamilton Mountain Trail.