Rock of Ages, Columbia River Gorge — Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006

9/18/05 Sun Rock of Ages trail is a cool, steep, strenuous hike in the Columbia River gorge. It has a great waterfall, lots of great views into the gorge, a natural rock arch, big (BIG) cliffs, the fun Devils Backbone and many places to explore. To get there, drive about 31 miles east of Portland on I-84. The trail begins near Horsetail falls (2.5 miles past Multnomah Falls). This was mostly an exploratory trip to see if we could find a way out onto the huge ridge which IS Rock of Ages, ie. the ""point"" just west of Saint Peters Dome. Jeff and I enjoy a lazy breakfast and get an even worse start than our usual crack-o-noon. We arrive at horsetail falls, gear up and begin our hike a little before 3PM. (Plenty-o-time). I've done this trail before but not for a long time so just to play tourist, we first follow the trail to and behind the falls and a little beyond. Most of the real tourists only come this far - about a quarter mile and then go home. Our trail begins just before you get to the falls. It's not very obvious but it takes off to the left, straight up past a sign that tells you ""this trail is not maintained"". The trail forks several times on the way up. The first fork occurs almost immediately and is a faint trail to the right probably to the top of the falls. The second and third forks both occur about .75 miles (at elevation 800 feet) after leaving Horsetail falls. The first of the pair (which we didn't take this time) goes to a cool natural arch and nice views into the gorge. (The arch is pretty crumbly - see it soon before it erodes away). The second fork of the pair we did take. We went left up to a spot where you peek over the crumbly ridge a some steep, precipitous nearby cliffs and view out across the Columbia. The view is great but if you go this far I suggest you backtrack the short distance to the main trail before continuing. We didn't do this - following the trail as it traversed on the ever steeping hillside until we were clinging to dirt, rock and grass in order to overcome a very short steep spot with exposure just before it reconnected with the main trail. Although it was passable it was a little more excitement than I wanted. All in all, if I had it to do over, I'd go the other way. The devils backbone is another cool spot just a quarter mile farther (elevation about 1300 feet). The ridge you've been following becomes naked rock - to the right it drops forever into the unknown - the left side drops a mere 30 feet or so. For fun you can walk directly along the top or take the tamer route on the east side. There are spectacular views in all directions here. From here, the trail gradually becomes less and less steep. After another half mile or so is another faint fork to the right (elevation 2100 feet) which Jeff thinks goes down into the Horsetail creek drainage and eventually back to the falls. Another quarter mile on is where we had hoped to find access out onto the Rock of Ages ""point"". We explored off-trail to the north hoping to find some small trail where others had gone before us but ended up finding nothing. Lots of steepness, brush and blowdown blocked the way. I followed one ridge to a lucky view east out over the top of Saint Peter's Dome. At least we knew we were in the right area. Well, this was obviously going to be more serious than we were prepared for on this day - It was getting late to be bushwacking so we decided to give up. We had a little more time and since it wasn't too far we decided to see if we could find the fork to the infamous ""Mystery Trail"". More details about this little excursion as well as pictures and GPS data, waypoins, tracks and map can be found at Metatropo trip reports. After that detour it was getting pretty dark so we decide to beat feet. I suggest we dig a snow cave and wait for help. Jeff suggests that we make it back to devil's backbone and drink beer until the full moon comes up. Beer wins. It's dark enough that we have to break out headlamps to reach the backbone... We finish our lunches and the beer that Jeff carried up but discovered a major error in our strategy: we didn't bring enough beer to out-wait the moon. We finally give up and head down without it. Round trip 5 hours, 5.5 miles, 3300+ feet elevation gain.