Difference between revisions of "Two Chiefs Trail Hike"
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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[[Category:Gifford Pinchot National Forest]] | [[Category:Gifford Pinchot National Forest]] | ||
[[Category:Columbia River Gorge]] | [[Category:Columbia River Gorge]] | ||
| − | [[Category: | + | [[Category:Difficult Hikes]] |
[[Category:Waterfall Hikes]] | [[Category:Waterfall Hikes]] | ||
[[Category:Viewpoint Hikes]] | [[Category:Viewpoint Hikes]] | ||
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{{Start point|Bonneville Trailhead}} | {{Start point|Bonneville Trailhead}} | ||
* End point: [[Greenleaf Creek Crossing]] | * End point: [[Greenleaf Creek Crossing]] | ||
| − | * Trail Log: | + | * Trail Log: |
* Hike Type: Out and back | * Hike Type: Out and back | ||
| − | {{Distance| | + | {{Distance|15.2 miles}} |
| − | {{Elevation gain| | + | * High point: 1,380 feet |
| + | {{Elevation gain|2575 feet}} | ||
{{Difficulty|Moderate}} | {{Difficulty|Moderate}} | ||
* Seasons: Year round | * Seasons: Year round | ||
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=== Hike Description === | === Hike Description === | ||
| − | + | Essentially a hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and then an old logging railroad grade that became an abandoned jeep road, this route then was taken over by the ATV crowd. After the area became part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, ATVs were banned, and the tread has seen use as an unofficial trail that takes you to the base of [[Table Mountain]] and then on to Greenleaf Creek, with the upper tiers of [[Greenleaf Falls]] a short but rugged bushwhack above. The December 2007 landslide, which spills half a mile down the slope, is just beyond the creek. Now the shorter approach from the former Dick Thomas Trailhead, entirely along the old railroad grade, has been closed off, so the only legal option is to begin at the [[Bonneville Trailhead]]. | |
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| − | Essentially a hike along an old logging railroad grade that became an abandoned jeep road, this route then was taken over by the ATV crowd. After the area became part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, ATVs were banned, and the tread has seen use as an unofficial trail that takes you to the base of [[Table Mountain]] and then on to Greenleaf Creek, with the upper tiers of [[Greenleaf Falls]] a short but rugged bushwhack above. The December 2007 landslide, which spills half a mile down the slope, is just beyond the creek. | + | |
Walk up the gravel track at the west end of the large parking area. The corridor here supports a natural gas pipeline. The former beginning of the Dick Thomas Trail headed through a clump of blackberries: now walk a little farther west in the pipeline corridor, crossing a flowing rivulet, to pick up the trail entering the woods on your right. Cross a four-log footbridge and then drop to step across a small creek. The old trail alignment comes in from the right here. Continue up on a rooty tread, winding through sword ferns under Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and big-leaf maple. Drop to skirt a vernal pool and then gradually descend through a sword fern/Oregon grape carpet. At the [[Carpenters Creek Crossing]], use the makeshift footbridge. | Walk up the gravel track at the west end of the large parking area. The corridor here supports a natural gas pipeline. The former beginning of the Dick Thomas Trail headed through a clump of blackberries: now walk a little farther west in the pipeline corridor, crossing a flowing rivulet, to pick up the trail entering the woods on your right. Cross a four-log footbridge and then drop to step across a small creek. The old trail alignment comes in from the right here. Continue up on a rooty tread, winding through sword ferns under Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and big-leaf maple. Drop to skirt a vernal pool and then gradually descend through a sword fern/Oregon grape carpet. At the [[Carpenters Creek Crossing]], use the makeshift footbridge. | ||
Revision as of 01:04, 23 March 2017
- Start point: Bonneville Trailhead
- End point: Greenleaf Creek Crossing
- Trail Log:
- Hike Type: Out and back
- Distance: 15.2 miles
- High point: 1,380 feet
- Elevation gain: 2575 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Year round
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
Essentially a hike along the Pacific Crest Trail and then an old logging railroad grade that became an abandoned jeep road, this route then was taken over by the ATV crowd. After the area became part of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, ATVs were banned, and the tread has seen use as an unofficial trail that takes you to the base of Table Mountain and then on to Greenleaf Creek, with the upper tiers of Greenleaf Falls a short but rugged bushwhack above. The December 2007 landslide, which spills half a mile down the slope, is just beyond the creek. Now the shorter approach from the former Dick Thomas Trailhead, entirely along the old railroad grade, has been closed off, so the only legal option is to begin at the Bonneville Trailhead.
Walk up the gravel track at the west end of the large parking area. The corridor here supports a natural gas pipeline. The former beginning of the Dick Thomas Trail headed through a clump of blackberries: now walk a little farther west in the pipeline corridor, crossing a flowing rivulet, to pick up the trail entering the woods on your right. Cross a four-log footbridge and then drop to step across a small creek. The old trail alignment comes in from the right here. Continue up on a rooty tread, winding through sword ferns under Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and big-leaf maple. Drop to skirt a vernal pool and then gradually descend through a sword fern/Oregon grape carpet. At the Carpenters Creek Crossing, use the makeshift footbridge.
Reach the Aldrich Butte-Dick Thomas Trail Junction, with grassy, alder rimmed Carpenters Lake, a former beaver marsh, to your right. Go right at the junction, and after 60 yards, at the Aldrich Butte-Two Chiefs Trail Junction, an old jeep track, go right. This is the Two Chiefs Trail (also known as the Greenleaf Falls Trail, and marked on most maps as Moffit Springs Road). Continue on this road and you'll soon loop around Carpenters Lake heading east. The trail heads up a small valley that, in spring, fills with little streams and skunk cabbage. About a mile up this trail you'll cross the Pacific Crest Trail.
Keep straight on this wide trail that, for many years, was used by ATVs. A small sign on a tree announces this as the Two Chiefs Trail. A trail to the right leads to a campsite on a wooded knoll. Descend into an alder grove, then rise along the face of a ridge. Get a view of the town of North Bonneville and head down again. Note along this trail how some creeks just disappear into the jumble of the Bonneville Landslide and reemerge mysteriously lower down the slope. There are several seasonal pools in this area choked with water parsley. Cross a more recent slide and look up to the left to see Sacaquawea and Papoose Rocks and also the face of Table Mountain. Soon come to the Table Mountain Slide Area where the whole amphitheater of the slide’s origin opens up before you. At least eight layers of lava seem to compose Table Mountain’s core. Look south to get a panoramic view of the Columbia River Gorge and the snowy top of Mount Hood above the deep cleft of the Eagle Creek Gorge. One can also see an old travel route that came up the scree directly from below. After this, you will reach the Greenleaf Creek Crossing and the roaring twenty-foot plunge that is the bottom of the falls. The water rushes through a jumble of large boulders, all mossy and liverworted in this cool dell.
Greenleaf Creek is the end of the moderate hike described here, but there are a couple of options for the more adventurous.
Extra options:
1) The more dramatic upper tiers of Greenleaf Falls are located upstream. There is no trail and you will have to bushwack up the steep unstable slope, encountering steep faces of the crumbly Eagle Creek Formation, to view the falls. This extra push is for experienced off-trail hikers only.
2) Where the road meets the creek the bridge has washed out, but you can wade across or keep your feet dry by scrambling downstream and walking across on logs. Cross the creek and continue on the old road to visit the 2007 landslide. Debris from the toe of the slide has wiped out part of the road, but users have created a new trail over it.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
Note: The old railroad grade is shown as a jeep road on these maps, but not as a trail:
- 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
Regulations or restrictions, etc
- $5 parking fee at Bonneville Hot Springs & Spa
- Dogs on leash at spa and make sure you clean up after your pet!
- $2 toll each way at the Bridge of the Gods
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Two Chiefs Trail Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Two Chiefs Trail Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Afoot & Afield: Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
More Links
- Greenleaf Falls (Northwest Waterfall Survey)
- A New Look at an Old Landslide (USGS)
- "Hikers discover massive landslide at Greenleaf" (The Spokesman-Review)
Contributors
- Stevefromdodge (creator)
- bobcat