Angel's Rest-Devil's Rest Loop, Wahkeena-Multnomah Falls Loop — Saturday, Apr. 2, 2016

Southwest Washington > Columbia River Gorge - OR

As a born Oregonian, I am ashamed to say I had never hiked this before! We started out at the Angel's Rest trailhead, and from there, for the next almost 3 miles, it was uphill. I was hiking with 3 military members and a 16yr old gymnast.....needless to say, I was Rear Guard! It was beautiful, busy, with lots of dogs on the trail. They DO have a place that provided doggie bags at the beginning. All along the way, Trilliums were in various stages of bloom. Once at the top, it was AMAZING!!! One of the best, unhindered views I've ever seen. From Angel's Rest, we decided to see how far along the loop we could get. We started back up and at the junction went to the right. At some point, we started to wonder how much more up there would be...or at least I began to wonder.. We ran into a trailrunner at a junction and made the decision to go left instead of straight around the loop to Devil's rest. This began the adventure of 'Where are we and will we make it out before nightfall?' We eventually saw more hikers and found Wahkeena Falls and the trail that led down to the road. Lots of crazy downhill switchbacks, but the falls were gorgeous! Once we got down to the road, it was about a 3mile hike along the side of the road to get back to our car. I wouldn't recommend following the road like that unless absolutely necessary. Even though the speed limit is 40mph, many people were speeding. We had to jump into the ditch at one point and at another time a truck stopped to get out and yell at the tailgater behind him. Overall, we hiked for about 7 hours.