Sacaquawea and Papoose Rocks from Cedar Ridge (bobcat)

Vine maple (Acer circinatum), Aldrich Butte Trail (bobcat)

Table Mountain from Carpenters Lake (bobcat)

Oaks on the ridge, Cedar Mountain (bobcat)

Cedar Falls, Cedar Creek (bobcat)

The loop hike on the Cedar Mountain ridge (not a GPS track) (bobcat) Courtesy: Caltopo

• Start point: Aldrich Butte Trailhead
• End point: Cedar Mountain
• Hike Type: Loop
• Distance: 7.6 miles
• Elevation gain: 2815 feet
• High Point: 1,995 feet
• Difficulty: Difficult
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable:No
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

MAY 2016 NOTE: The Aldrich Butte Trailhead is now off-limits based upon the property owners’ wishes. There are “no trespassing” and tow warning signs as you approach on Shelly Lane. Use the Dick Thomas Trailhead, and remember that the Resort charges a $5 day use fee.

This loop takes in some of the territory south of Table Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge. The route takes in a short stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, but most of the time you are on old lookout/logging roads and the unofficial trail system maintained by users in the Cedar Mountain area. While you're mostly in shady woodland, there's a diversion to Cedar Falls (best seen in the rainy season) and, higher up on Cedar Ridge, there is an excellent viewpoint. You may, of course, extend the loop by continuing to the summit ridge of Table Mountain via the West Way Trail.

Note: Pay careful attention to directions, especially in the Cedar Mountain area, as trail junctions can be obscure and less obvious at certain times of the year.

Walk up the road from the parking area and come to a junction on the edge of the powerline corridor. Go right here (This is the Aldrich Butte Road) and enter leafy maple/Douglas-fir forest. The road rises steeply as a creek runs to the right. Cross the creek where it runs across the road and reach the unmarked Aldrich Butte-Dick Thomas Trail Junction at Carpenters Lake. From the lake, get a view up to an excellent profile of Sacaquawea and Papoose Rocks and Table Mountain. Go left at the junction and, 60 yards later, come to the Aldrich Butte-Two Chiefs Trail Junction. (The Dick Thomas Trailhead is an alternative start to this hike. You'll tie in with the narrative below at Carpenters Lake.)

Go left up the slope on another old vehicle track. Hike up under Douglas-firs and hemlocks as the road swings right. At the next switchback, the Aldrich Butte-Aldrich PCT Bypass Trail Junction, stay left and walk up the eroded road bed to the east of the ridge crest. Pass below a large rock outcropping and reach a gap in the ridge where a logging road peels off to the right at the Aldrich Butte-Cedar Falls Trail Junction. You will return to this point but, for the moment, continue heading up. The road curves around the south face of Aldrich Butte. First, there’s a view of Hamilton Mountain just to the west and then an expansive vista of the Bonneville Dam and the Oregon Gorge. Small oaks and Douglas-firs line the road up here. An old foundation remains in a grassy area. The true summit is on the west side of the peak with the remains of a lookout tower surrounded now by Douglas-firs.

Return to the Aldrich Butte-Cedar Falls Trail Junction, and go left. Head southwest down Aldrich Butte’s western slope. Past a large, decaying log, the road bed becomes a trail. Then, briefly, the trail uses an alder-colonized road bed again before dropping down the slope, Switchback between two Douglas-firs, and then switchback again at the Cedar Falls-Aldrich Butte Cutoff Trail Junction. Reach the cedar groves at the Cedar Creek Crossing. At times of high water, you can head about 100 yards downstream and, past a large grand fir with an old growth Douglas-fir looming up the slope, cross on a mossy log that has been refurbished to provide better footing; during dry periods, this is an easy rock hop.

The trail resumes on the opposite bank, rising and then dropping before ascending again and rounding the nose of a ridge along an extremely steep slope. You should be able to see Cedar Falls below at this point. Reach the four-way Cedar Falls-Cedar Mountain Trail Junction. The rough, steep trail down to Cedar Falls drops down the ridge crest and switchbacks at a stump. Switchback twice more and reach the alder-shaded creek. There are good views of the three-tiered falls from the creek bank; the falls are best seen from late fall to spring, when the water levels are high and the leaves have dropped from the alders: in summer, they become a mere trickle. The falls pours over a shelf of conglomerate from the Eagle Creek Formation, sediments laid down during the Miocene before the massive Columbia River basalt flows.

Return to the Cedar Falls-Cedar Mountain Trail Junction and keep straight up the ridge crest (See the Aldrich Butte-Cedar Falls Loop Hike for a description of a loop to the west of here). Hike up a rough path to the steep, narrow ridge crest: this is a basaltic dike intruded into the Eagle Creek conglomerates and the slope falls away almost vertically to the west. A small creek runs down to the right as you continue up under Douglas-firs through a carpet of Oregon grape. You’ll reach the first of several oak meadows and then the trail skirts an active slide with a couple of Douglas-firs arching skyward, clinging to Cedar Mountain’s ridge with a labyrinth of roots. Above a cliff, you’ll get a good view of the western slopes of Hamilton Mountain. Hike through a mossy clearing and then up a grassy crest strewn with a few boulders, getting more views west. Keep to the open ridge to pass through a small copse of oaks. Look back to get views of the Oregon Gorge. The trail goes up over a large slab of conglomerate and reenters Douglas-fir woods on the ridge crest. Drop slightly and then continue up above a grassy slope that offers another vista west. As you reenter the woods at a patch of pinemat manzanita, you’ve reached the summit of Cedar Mountain.

CAUTION: This next section of the route can be tricky to navigate correctly once the foliage comes out in spring and summer.

Now enter a dark, young Douglas-fir forest. You’ll notice rectangular white reflector patches on trees here. The track here can be rather obscure as it wends through the Oregon grape and there may be winter debris strewn about. Reach a more mature coniferous woodland and then a maple/alder saddle. The trail veers right as you pass by many rotten snags, the remnants of an old burn. Drop off the saddle and trend left at an old logging track right above a spring. Pass a large Douglas-fir and wade through Oregon grape under an avenue of alders. Where a pile of sticks blocks the road, the Cedar Mountain Trail heads up the ridge crest to the left.

(For a shortcut back to the Pacific Crest Trail, keep right through a carpet of Oregon grape, vanilla leaf, candy flower, and bleeding heart. Reach a large log across your path. Go over the log and then make your way through vine maples before dropping down the slope to your right. You’ll reach a road bed, where you go left. The road reaches a slope and turns down to the right. Descend past a spring and reach Cedar Creek. Find a way down to the creek (It’s very steep) and then up Cedar Creek’s east bank. Try to pick this crossing to be opposite a slump in the hillside opposite. You’ll reach the PCT, where you go right.)

To continue up Cedar Ridge, wind up and then ascend precipitously on the ridge to reach a great viewpoint of the Bonneville Dam and Sacaquawea and Papoose Rocks from the edge of a steep, oak-lined meadow (This is actually in the easternmost section of Beacon Rock State Park). Undulate along the ridge and then rise through young Douglas-fir forest before dropping a little and then reaching a small ridgetop meadow with a campsite. Continue on the ridge crest from here to the signboard at the Pacific Crest-West Table Mountain Trail Junction - if you're ascending Table Mountain, keep straight here.

To complete the Cedar Mountain loop, go right on the Pacific Crest Trail, and drop through coniferous forest. Pass the Pacific Crest-Heartbreak Ridge Trail Junction with its signboard about the Table Mountain Natural Resource Conservation Area. Wind down and cross a creek before descending to a vine maple gully. Pass some large snags and swing left under a mossy rock face to reach the first Pacific Crest-Aldrich PCT Bypass Trail Junction. Keep right and cross a slumping slope with Cedar Creek flowing down to your left (This would be where you cut across to take the shortcut described two paragraphs above). Descend above Stick Camp and come to a four-way junction (This is the second Pacific Crest-Aldrich PCT Bypass Trail Junction).

Stay right here on the Bypass Trail. Pass a spur leading to Stick Camp. Descend this old road bed, with Cedar Creek running down to the right under Douglas-fir, big-leaf maple, red alder, and western red-cedar. Come to a saddle, and keep descending on the east side of the ridge this time. Begin catching glimpses of Carpenters Lake below and then come to the Aldrich Butte-Aldrich PCT Bypass Trail Junction. Go left and make a wide curve down to the Aldrich Butte-Two Chiefs Trail Junction. Make a right and head down to the Aldrich Butte Trailhead.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder

Note that only the Pacific Crest Trail part of the route is shown on these maps:

• Green Trails Maps: Bonneville Dam, OR #429
• Green Trails Maps: Columbia River Gorge - West #428S
• Geo-Graphics: Trails of the Columbia Gorge
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service/Bureau of Land Management: Columbia River Gorge
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Adams Ranger District
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Cedar Mountain Loop Hike

• Cedar Falls-Cedar Mountain-Cedar Creek Loop
• Table Mountain - Cedar Mountain Figure Eight: 1/21
• Aldrich Butte/Cedar Mountain Loop - 08 July 2012
• Table, Cedar Mountain Loop 06/05/11

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Cedar Mountain Loop Hike
• Blue Wood on Cedar Mountain?

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• none

More Links

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)