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Silver Star Mountain

From Oregon Hikers Field Guide

Revision as of 00:17, 7 February 2007 by Jeffstatt (Talk | contribs)

Silver Star summit
Hikers enjoying the view atop Silver Star Mt

Contents

Description

Silver Star Mountain is a bald peak in Skamania County, not far from Vancouver with a captivating 360 view encompassing five Cascade volcanoes. This peak is the most prominent on the horizon looking East from Portland (omitting the aforementioned volcanoes). It is easy to spot looking North from I84 near Gresham to the East of Vancouver. It is snow-covered during the most of the winter months, and it’s brown summit stands out during the warm season.

Silver Star is named for the star shape it appears to have when looked at from the air. The arms of the star are made of nearby protuberances like Pyramid Rock, Little Baldy and Sturgeon Rock.

The entire summit, as well as a good percentage of all the trails leading to it, are wide open. These hikes feature vast meadows, which make for a great destination for wildflowers in the springtime. These meadows are not the result of altitude and climate, but rather a devastating wildfire, called the Yacolt Burn, which tore through this area in 1902.

This is an extensive network of trails in this area that encompass this mountain, but the most popular approach is from the north using the Silver Star Trail 180 (sometimes called the Stairway to the Stars) as it is a short 2 ½ miles with 1000 foot of elevation gain.

The Chinook Trail Association has been building a system of trails from Yacolt to Three Corner Rock with Silver Star Mountain as its crown jewel. This network is part of a large scale plan to connect existing trails all along SW Washington.

Silver Star is a very popular destination among hiking clubs, but it gets passed over by many due to the perception of the difficulty in getting to one of the main trailheads. True, you must traverse miles forest roads whose conditions are inconsistent from season to season. This author has made the trek on a half dozen occasions with nothing but a low clearance passenger car, and had few problems (had to navigate around some large pot holes in places!)

Other interesting tidbits:

  • A visit here might warrant a side trip to the Indian Pits, a former native American spirit quest site
  • There is another Silver Star Mountain in Northern Washington that's about double the height!

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Oregon Hikers Field Guide is built as a collaborative effort by its user community. While we make every effort to fact-check, information found here should be considered anecdotal. You should cross-check against other references before planning a hike. Trail routing and conditions are subject to change. Please contact us if you notice errors on this page.

Hiking is a potentially risky activity, and the entire risk for users of this field guide is assumed by the user, and in no event shall Trailkeepers of Oregon be liable for any injury or damages suffered as a result of relying on content in this field guide. All content posted on the field guide becomes the property of Trailkeepers of Oregon, and may not be used without permission.