Big madrone on the Outback Loop, Cathedral Hills (bobcat)

View to Grants Pass and Dollar Mountain, Cathedral Hills (bobcat)

Poison oak leaves of three, Cathedral Hills (bobcat)

The national champion knob cone pine on the Ponderosa Pine Loop (bobcat)

The Outback and Ponderosa Pine Loops shown in yellow (not a GPS track) (bobcat) Courtesy: Caltopo/MapBuilder Topo

• Start point: Espey Trailhead
• Ending Point: Grants Pass Viewpoint
• Hike Type: Loop
• Distance: 3.8 miles
• Elevation gain: 425 feet
• High Point: 1,475 feet
• Difficulty: Easy
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: Yes
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: Yes, on weekends

Hike Description

These 400 acres just a few minutes from Grants Pass support a network of trails for hikers, horses, and mountain bikes. The area is extremely popular and can get crowded on weekends. Spring is a popular time to visit for the wildflowers: fawn lily, iris, Indian warrior, columbine, buttercup, and cluster lily are some of the blooms on display. Fall is another season that displays colors as well as a fine array of fungi. The trails are so interlaced that they can pose a bit of a challenge to follow, but the suggested route for first timers is to follow the well-signed Outback Loop all the way around. There are two state champion trees here, a 117-foot tall knobcone pine and a 25-foot high whiteleaf manzanita. Both are off of the Outback Loop and are not marked.

Find the trail leading to the left of the restrooms, and keep left at the junction with the Outback Loop. You’ll enter a woodland of black oak, Pacific madrone, Douglas-fir, incense cedar, and ponderosa pine. Stay on the trail – the poison oak is everywhere! The path drops down a slope and crosses a footbridge. You'll keep left at the next footbridge following the signs for the Outback Loop. At the next two junctions, stay left on the Outback Trail and descend past the junction with the Manzanita Junction Trail. The Outback traverses and hillside and then drops steeply to a copse of white-leaf manzanitas with their eye-catching mahogany red bark. Keep left at the Shortcut Trail junction before traversing on the level to keep straight at the four-way junction with the Sugarbowl and Ponderosa Pine Trails.

To see the largest knobcone pine in the U.S., go left on the Ponderosa Pine Trail. The trail drops slightly through a rustling woodland of incense cedar, madrone, ponderosa pine, oak, and a few Douglas-firs. Ignore spur trails leading to private property. After the trail bends to the right and begins to rise, you'll notice the big pine to the right, with its many dead lower branches sticking out like threatening spikes. From the pine tree, the path passes through a copse of whiteleaf manzanita and heads right on an old road bed to rejoin the Outback Loop.

Make a left and ascend a slope of ponderosa and manzanita. Keep an eye out for spectacular pileated woodpeckers flitting through the woods. Wind up above a deep valley, and reach an old logging road and then the four-way junction with the Timbers Riders and Hogback Trails, where you keep straight. The Outback Trail makes a rising traverse and then turns left at a second junction with the Hogback Trail. The trail follows a ridgecrest with views of forested Pickett Mountain to the southeast above the Onion Creek valley. At the next junction, you'll stay on the ridge and pass a bench viewpoint looking over the Rogue Valley to Grants Pass and the low hill of Dollar Mountain. Get more views to the north and south as you continue along the ridge until the trail drops to another junction with the Timber Riders Trail, where you’ll make a right.

At yet another meeting with the Timber Riders Trail, stay left and hike through oak woods with views of Pickett Mountain to the left. At a four-way junction with the Hogback Trail, keep straight and pass a picnic table. The path continues to drop past the junction with Zed’s Trail and soon arrives behind the trailhead restrooms. Make a left to return to your vehicle.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• Restrooms, information kiosk
• Share trails with horses and mountain bikes
• Respect private property boundaries

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Cathedral Hills Trails (Bureau of Land Management)
• Cathedral Hills Trail Map (Trail Forks)

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Cathedral Hills Loop Hike

• Flowers around Grants Pass

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Cathedral Hills Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this destination

• 100 Hikes/Travel Guide: Southern Oregon & Northern California by William L. Sullivan
• Hiking Sasquatch Country by Wendy & Gary Swanson

More Links

• Cathedral Hills (Bureau of Land Management)
• Explore Oregon Recreation: Cathedral Hills Trails (Bureau of Land Management)
• Cathedral Hills Park (Grants Pass, Oregon) 05-Feb-2017 (Boots on the Trail)
• “Cathedral Hills far better than treadmills” (Zach’s Adventures)
• Champion trees highlight Cathedral Hills (Zach’s Adventures)
• Cathedral Hills Trail System (Outdoor Project)
• Outback Loop (All Trails)
• Help Permanently Protect Cathedral Hills Park (Kalmiopsis Wild)
• Friends of Cathedral Hills (Facebook)
• Cathedral Hills (Northwest Wildflowers)

Page Contributors

• bobcat (creator)