I guess this trail's pretty new. It sure has a fancy trailhead sign!
I chose to do the loop counter-clockwise, heading up to the bluffs first. Early on, a viewpoint opened up to the north, offering a bucolic close-up of the Silver Star complex.
Not much farther along, the trail splits with horses directed to the right and a viewpoint offered to the left. Heading on to Pioneer Point, this vista alone made me really glad I'd come out for a look-see!
Directly across the Columbia, Angel's Rest and Devil's Rest...
A little to the left, Multnomah Falls...
Here's a four-shot panorama. Click it to zoom/pan about in a 23-image, 66.44 megapixel composite.
Well, anyway, "don't waste all your film" at that first overlook. There are actually a series of them as you move west.
One that even appears to have been designed to serve as a little amphitheatre of sorts?
Ran into bunches of new (to me) flowers on the upper portion of the trail, which varies in character between soft dirt trails through the woods, to old gravel roads across fields.
Then the trail descends down through the woods, until you get to a nice new pedestrian tunnel under SR-14.
And still more viewpoints!
As you continue down towards the river, you cross a number of talus fields. Normally, not much of a concern. But I mentioned this is a new trail, right? Ouch! The rocks are pretty loose. Poles tend to be useless, as they plunge into the cracks with each plant. And some genius even designed one segment with seven or eight switchbacks down one of these slopes. I saw a family coming off that, two kids walking, each parent carrying another, one parent seemingly ready to scream at the other for "getting them into this mess!" This picture doesn't convey what a new trail on talus is really like.
But this lower section is intriguing in its own right! Before long, I found a side trail to an overlook that featured Cigar Rock...
And then I got to Cape Horn Falls. Nice!
The sun was now setting on the Oregon side of the gorge, while the Washington side was well into the shade. One last view of Angel's Rest...
Unfortunately, in one way, but not entirely as bad as I anticipated, the last 1.5 miles is on a two-lane (paved) country road back up to SR-14. There, you cross under the highway again, in another new pedestrian tunnel. Along this roadway, you'll see cattle, goats, dogs, rabbits and deer. Only one or two houses, though, and probably no cars.
The full loop, according to GPSfly was 7.65 miles with 2100' EG. My goal was to do it with a 3+ mph average pace, but the talus pretty well killed that notion. Kicking butt down the home stretch, I did get it back to 2.9 overall. Just saying, though much of the trail would be fine in sneakers, you'll be happy for boots in other parts.
http://gpsfly.org/gps_map.php?gps_id=1677&w=645&h=440
This isn't a hike to plan your weekend around. But it's soooo close to the city, you can easily sneak away for this whenever the mood and weather is right.
I'd highly recommend a clear day, after you've mowed the lawn (etc), to enjoy the views of all the other places in the gorge that you've hiked.
As usual, it seems Garmin and GPSfly disagree on stats. I swear my Oregon 450 said I averaged 2.9mph moving, but now that I look at the actual elapsed time (3:40, including all photo stops) I'm skeptical. Probably want to leave three hours of daylight, at least. Darkness closes in on the north side a lot quicker than the south side!
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