Aside from the short hike up Beacon Rock, I had never hiked any of the trails on the Washington side of the Columbia Gorge. Hamilton Mountain was a great choice since it offered gorgeous views and a strenuous climb without having to encounter any snow. The mountain is only 2445 feet, but it looks awesome from a distance, and it still gives you about 2100 feet of elevation on the hike. We did the loop; going up the older trail which is shorter and steeper (and also more impressive visually) and returning down the newer one (which includes .8 of a mile on a road). On the ascent you reach reach Rodney Falls in 1.4 miles, which is quite spectacular. The trail was extremely steep just after passing the falls, and rather dangerous if you should slip there. I was glad to have a hiking stick. The trail continues upwards getting steeper and with many short switchbacks to Little Hamilton Mountain, which had a fine view of Beacon Rock and the Columbia Gorge. There were lots of wildflowers at this point--it almost looked like the higher mountains in July! We continued to the summit, which had even a better view (and Mount Adams appears here, although its top section was shielded by clouds). After basking a while in the sun as we ate lunch, we continued along the ridge top on the alternate trail, which gave even better views both east and west. The trail begins to descend to the road and you reach a rather confusing intersection where two other roads appear. One has a sign saying ""dead end"" the other one next to it had no sign. We took the most obvious route: the descending road. Finally, the trail appeared again (after .8 mile) on the left and took us back into the forest and to the beginning of the loop. By the time we reached the Falls, the trail had become very crowded. We had seen only a few people on our way up, but by late afternoon, there were hordes. Most of them seemed to be heading just to the Falls.