Arrow Point, Archer Mountain (Adam Schneider)

Larch Mountain from the yellowjacket fir, Archer Mountain (bobcat)

View to Archer Falls from Scott Point (bobcat)

Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), Quiver Point Trail (bobcat)

View to Beacon Rock and Bonneville Dam from Arrow Point, Archer Mountain (bobcat)

Columbia kittentails (Synthyris missurica stellata), Arrow Point (bobcat)

Rock wall and steps, High Valley (bobcat)

GPS track of the route (bobcat) Courtesy: Gaia Topo

• Start point: High Valley Trailhead
• End point: Arrow Point
• Hike Type: Lollipop loop
• Distance: 6.3 miles with High Valley loop
• Elevation gain: 1,780 feet
• High point: 2,020 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Seasons: Spring through fall
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: No

Background

Archer Mountain is the westernmost of a quartet of similarly formed basalt prominences on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, the others being Hamilton Mountain, Table Mountain, and Greenleaf Peak. All are the result of layers of Columbia River Basalts backflowing up creek valleys. Softer strata between them are now highly eroded into expansive bowls or deep creek valleys.

The mountain was named after Finch R. Archer, an Englishman who was granted title to 178 acres at the foot of the mountain in 1901. Archer homesteaded on the west side of Archer Creek. He had been special agent to the Quinault Indian Reservation and was later appointed as Warden of the infamous McNeil Island Penitentiary in Puget Sound. Archer Mountain was dragged out of obscurity when embers from the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire jumped the river and created the only part of that burn on the Washington side. The rough trail system suffered as a result, but due to the efforts of a cadre of diligent volunteers, it has become more simplified and much easier to follow.

This area is divided between two jurisdictional bodies: the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ Columbia Falls Natural Area Preserve. The preserve, which covers the upper cliffs and reaches of High Valley, as well as Archer Falls, is off limits to the public (although none of the "Trail Closed" signs remain); it protects two threatened plants, four sensitive plant species, and the rare Larch Mountain salamander. However, Archer Mountain's summit, the cliffs facing the Columbia River, and the lower entrance to High Valley are all part of the National Forest, and a network of volunteer maintained trails will take you to these destinations from the south.

Hike Description

From the trailhead at the end of Smith-Cripe Road, walk up the road bed (Forest Road 1853), and pass around a gate above a forest of secondary-growth Douglas-fir. After walking through the west side of an open field, you'll approach a thicket where the track splits below a thin poplar that gleams bright yellow in the fall. Bear right here, and pass the marker for FR 1853-159. In about a tenth of a mile, after you enter a maple wood, you'll see an artistically illustrated sign for the Archer Mountain Trail heading downhill to the right.

The latest incarnation of the Archer Mountain Trail was constructed in 2019. It switchbacks down three times and descends gently through mixed forest for about 300 yards. Then it switchbacks again to a bridge made of logs tied together, including a "handrail." After crossing Archer Creek, the trail climbs to reach an old logging road bed that it follows briefly through an understory of snowberry, sword fern, and Oregon grape. The trail switchbacks up past a big Douglas-fir and continues to rise past an unmarked trail coming in from the left.

Now you’re rising sharply on a tread of loose scree under a canopy of alders, with a small stream to the right. Make numerous short switchbacks, and pass under a mossy basalt outcropping. Switchback at a small waterfall, and make seven more switchbacks up before crossing a steep hanging meadow rimmed by oak trees. Arrive at a viewpoint where you can look across to Larch Mountain and Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the Gorge. After eight more switchbacks, you'll arrive at a mossy point colonized by a single tough Douglas-fir. (The tree has also at times hosted a yellowjacket nest, so be careful about approaching too closely.) Views from here extend across the river to Larch Mountain but also downstream to Phoca Rock and the cliffs of Cape Horn. You can also see east to Quiver Point, one of your destinations on this hike.

The trail traverses up from here – this was also the western edge of the fire. Switchback above a clump of clifftop manzanitas, and cross a steep camas meadow to get views down to the fields of High Valley as well as to St. Cloud Point and the valley’s western cliffs. At an unmarked but obvious trail junction at a multi-trunked maple, keep left to descend a narrow mossy ridge to Scott Point. From here, there’s a great view up High Valley to 218-foot tall Archer Falls (a.k.a. Columbia Falls), which spouts off sheer cliffs in spectacular fashion during the wet season but runs totally dry in the summer. As a nice bookend, to the south you can see Multnomah Falls on the Oregon side of the river.

Return to the junction, and head left to soon arrive at another junction, where an illustrated sign proclaims Quiver Point is 0.65 miles along the path to the right. Soon you're in a shady Douglas-fir forest, some trees blackened by fire, with a vine maple understory. The area at Quiver Point was scorched by the 2017 fore, and you'll pass through a dead forest of fire-killed maples. Above Quiver Point, a spur trail breaks right to descend along the narrow and brushy spine. You'll start getting views east to Arrow Point, Hardy Ridge, Hamilton Mountain, the top of Table Mountain and Beacon Rock. Across the river in Oregon, you can make out Horsetail Falls and the Oneonta Gorge. This user path is often steep and slippery, and the brush may encroach vigorously. At the end of Quiver Point is a copse of white oak sending up post-fire shoots and an exposed viewpoint with sheer cliffs on three sides.

After you head back along the spine of Quiver Point, continue straight up the slope through a thicket of cherry, elderberry, and maple. Orange ribbons may help to guide the way. From a thoroughly incinerated forest, you'll suddenly enter a wood with a full canopy and reach a junction with a connector trail. The sign indicates that Quiver Point is 0.45 miles away. Keep right to continue to Arrow Point. Violets and trillium bloom in these leafy woods in spring. At the junction with the signed Archer Summit Trail, stay right and make a steep traverse across the slope above a spring.

You should then veer right past a graphic Danger sign to work your way out along the narrow, rocky promontory of Arrow Point, which was also denuded by the fire. This is a far-reaching, if exposed, viewpoint with a serious downclimb (or traverse along the west side) if you want to reach the end. You don’t have to do this, however, to get views across the Columbia River to Horsetail Falls, Oneonta Gorge, Yeon Mountain, and Nesmith Point. On the Washington side, you can see Quiver Point across the steep bowl to the west, and down to Franz Lake. Bonneville Dam stretches across the Columbia River upstream from Beacon Rock, and Hamilton Mountain protrudes across the wide, forested bowl of Indian Mary, Duncan, and Woodard Creeks.

Return to the junction with the Summit Trail, and hike up over a knoll and then down to a saddle before finally ascending to the summit of Archer Mountain. The 2017 fire opened up views a little more, so you can see Hardy Ridge and Hamilton Mountain to the east. From the summit area, take the trail down the west side to a wooded plateau of old-growth western hemlock and Douglas-fir. Keep right at the junction with a connector trail signed for the summit. After descending gradually, you'll drop down a steeper slope and pass the junction with an old road bed. Stay left, and avoid tripping over a logging cable half-buried in the trail. You'll pass though an alder grove above a spring and then make a steep descent under maples to reach the junction with the Quiver Point Trail. Turn right here and then left at the next junction to descend Archer Mountain the way you came.

After you cross the Archer Creek Footbridge and rise to the Archer Mountain-High Valley Loop Trail Junction, with its poised and deadly archer, turn right on the old road bed for a 1.2 mile figure-of-eight loop if you're interested in exploring the site of the High Valley commune, which owned this property from 1971 to the 1990s.

Pass through a thicket of encroaching blackberries, and then enter a woodland of big-leaf maples and large Douglas-firs with snowberry bushes overhanging the track. Leave the forest to hike up through a grassy field studded with bracken ferns and snowberry thickets, getting a view up to the cliffs of St. Cloud Point, also known as Indian Head. While still in the meadow, reach another track, and make a right. Drop down into Douglas-fir woods with an understory of thimbleberry, Oregon grape, and sword ferns. Where the road curves to the left, a trail leads right but ignore it. (This is a path to the base of Archer Falls, but it soon enters the forbidden territory of the Columbia Falls NAP.) The loop trail becomes a footpath under a vine maple bower. Return to the bracken field, and keep right (southwest) on the grassy track. After re-entering the woods, you’ll arrive at a stone wall where a homestead once stood. There’s an old electrical box hidden in the shrubbery near this site. Follow the road as it descends past a blackberry thicket which conceals the foundations and electrical boxes of the commune. A thick stone wall, now very much concealed by brush, runs along the bottom of the slope to your right. Pass under some old apple trees and you'll soon reach the big meadow and junction. Bear right to return to your vehicle.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder

Regulations or Restrictions, etc.

• Stay out of the Columbia Falls Natural Area Preserve
• Trails can be indistinct: not for beginners

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Archer Mountain

• Archer Mountain 4-6-22
• Archer Mountain loop on the last day of freedom (3/22/20)
• Archer Mountain 11-24-18
• Archer Mountain, scorched and mostly off-limits - 2018-05-23
• Archer Mountain Hike - 2018-05-20
• Winter solstice hike 2017, Archer Mountain
• Archer Mountain 2016
• Archer Mountain 2013

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Archer Mountain

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• none

More Links

• Archer Mountain (Summit Post)
• “Archer Mountain, Washington” (The Columbia River: A Photographic Journey)
• Archer Falls (Northwest Waterfall Survey)
• “Archer Mountain Fire grows to more than 250 acres, 30% contained” (KATU)
• “Crews double containment of Archer Mountain Fire” (The Columbian)

Contributors

• bobcat (creator)
• Adam Schneider (updater)