Franklin Ridge Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Multnomah Falls Trailhead
- End Point: Oneonta-Multnomah Spur Trail Junction
- Hike type: Lollipop loop
- Distance: 11.1 miles
- Elevation gain: 3205 feet
- High point: 2,930 feet
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Seasons: Mid-spring - fall
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: Not above the Wahkeena Trail junction
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Hike Description
This is a good early or late season loop that takes you away from crowds and yet encompasses the series of waterfalls on Multnomah Creek that the crowds come for. Higher up, you’ll encounter fewer people on the Larch Mountain Trail, a route constructed in 1915 by members of the Trails Club of Oregon. You’ll pass under some magnificent old-growth Douglas-firs, and then turn off the main trail to cross the East and West Forks of Multnomah Creek to enjoy what will probably be a solitary descent of Franklin Ridge. When the Franklin Ridge trail was originally constructed, it offered open views across the Oneonta Creek drainage to points north and west, but decades of healthy forest growth left these vistas very restricted. Ironically, the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire that burned across this ridge opened up some views again. Bear in mind, however, that the Franklin Ridge Trail, although cleared by Trailkeepers of Oregon crews, was neglected for a couple of years after the fire, and the trail tread saw a healthy regrowth of brush that can only be contained by constant foot passage.
The trail begins at Multnomah Falls Lodge, a historic building built to serve early automobile travelers in 1925. From a photographer's viewpoint, get a head on vista of both the lower and main tiers of Multnomah Falls and the picturesque span of the Benson Bridge. From here, the trail is a gently sloped 2/10 mile paved path to the Benson Bridge, put in place in 1914 by Simon Benson, one of the builders of the old highway. This part of the trail has one switchback, although one small flight of a few stairs blocks the way to wheelchairs beyond the lower falls viewpoint. You'll pass below a rock net and can look up to see the seasonal Shady Creek Falls, which splash down a cliff just west of Multnomah Falls.
Beyond the bridge, the asphalt trail switches up steeply for another mile to a ridgecrest (there are 11 switchbacks to be exact). At the first switchback, you'll come to the Larch Mountain-Gorge Trail Junction. After the Eagle Creek Fire, logging crews cut many of the trees on this slope and the views are more open. At the third switchback, a once shaded viewpoint with a bench offers a view to Multnomah Falls. At the fourth switchback, a scree slope shelters a busy colony of pikas, which tend to disappear when the midday crowds show up. As you ascend higher on the slope, look for Columbia River views. Post fire, the trail seems more precipitous and the drop-offs more lethal as much of the buffering understory was incinerated during the blaze. At the crest, you'll see a few trees that were killed by the 2017 fire. From the top, the trail drops slightly to a signed junction where you'll go right for the Multnomah Falls Viewpoint. The asphalt follows a side path that switchbacks down twice to the Multnomah Falls Upper Viewpoint, a balcony of sorts at the lip of the falls looking down on the lodge and the less motivated visitors below. A ten-foot uppermost tier of Multnomah Falls splashes down into a shady pool encased by columnar basalt here.
On returning to the main trail, turn upcreek and cross a rock-faced culvert over Multnomah Creek. Pass the old junction with the Perdition Trail, a lower link to the Wahkeena Trail across the face of the Gorge that was severely damaged by the 1991 Multnomah Falls Fire and permanently closed. The next three miles of the Larch Mountain Trail parallel Multnomah Creek offering numerous scenic views. The trail passes Lower, Middle and Upper Dutchman Falls, followed by a unique trip through a creek-washed overhang called Dutchman Tunnel. Just beyond the tunnel, you'll come to Wiesendanger Falls. (A plaque honoring Albert Wiesendanger, a Forest Service ranger, can be found in Dutchman Tunnel.) The trail switchbacks four times above Wiesendanger Falls, and soon passes the lip of Ecola Falls. The tread is rocky in places, but the climb isn't nearly as steep as it was in the beginning. Views up Multnomah Creek from here reveal a scorched understory and blackened tree trunks. Another quarter mile brings you to a trail junction with the Wahkeena Trail and then another creek bridge, this newest version made of steel and installed post-Eagle Creek Fire in 2018.
Above this bridge, the trail follows Multnomah Creek a short distance up the hillside. You'll cross a wide creek: it's hard to keep your feet dry here in the wet season. When the trail drops back to creek level, it splits into two trails. The main trail runs right alongside the creek under an overhang of platy andesite, an outflow from the Larch Mountain shield volcano. During the summer, it's a beautiful walk next to the creek. In the spring, this area floods, so hikers will need to take the alternate route signed as the "High Water Trail" to switchback up the ridge. The two trails come back together opposite the place where Big John Creek flows into Multnomah Creek from the west.
Now you'll enter a patch of lush, mossy forest undamaged by the 2017 fire. Cross Multnomah Basin Road, which leads east towards Nesika Lodge, and enter the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness. (This western section of the wilderness was added in 2009; there's a wilderness permit box here.) Soon pass the Franklin Ridge Trail #427, your point of return on the lollipop loop. You'll see the confluence of the East and West Forks of Multnomah Creek and cross the East Fork of Multnomah Creek and then the West Fork, both on single log bridges with handrails.
The trail switchbacks up from the creek in a scorched understory and traverses a long ridge up the west side of the Larch Mountain Crater. The Eagle Creek Fire was especially harsh on this slope, and hundreds of blackened, dead conifers are the vestiges of this intense conflagration. Cross an open talus field, and pass two massive Douglas firs. Hiking higher, you'll finally pass out of the 2017 fire zone. The verdant understory overflows with wood fern, deer fern, twin flower, foam flower, bleeding heart and huckleberry. There are more big trees as you hike up past a mossy boulder field to the Larch Mountain-Multnomah Creek Way Trail Junction, where you should turn left. (If you want to include an in-and-out trip to the top of Larch Mountain from this point, it will add four miles round-trip and 1,120 feet of elevation gain - see the Larch Mountain Hike.)
On this next short section, you will be sharing the trails with mountain bikes. The Multnomah Creek Way Trail #444 switchbacks down among huckleberries and hemlocks and past a campsite to a few gnarly cedars in the salmonberry bottom of West Multnomah Creek. Cross the one-log footbridge, and turn left at the Multnomah Creek Way-Multnomah Spur Trail Junction. Then follow the Multnomah Spur Trail #446 on a rising traverse up through a carpet of bunchberry and false lily-of-the-valley. The trail passes over a forested ridge crest of western hemlock and silver fir and traverses down to a bridgeless crossing of the East Fork Multnomah Creek, normally a rock hop but perhaps a ford after a lot of rain. Then the route ascends a rocky tread where small springs issue onto the trail. Shortly, you'll come to the Oneonta-Multnomah Spur Trail Junction at a massive Douglas-fir.
Make a left here on the Oneonta Trail #424: it’s 0.6 miles to the junction with the Franklin Ridge Trail, and you'll soon be seeing scars and burned snags from the 2017 fire. Drop slightly through the salal, and then traverse up to a crest through a recovering understory. Descend again through a tangle of old blowdown as the path winds down into the fire zone, where fireweed proliferates. The trail rises through unburned old growth to reach the Oneonta-Franklin Ridge Trail Junction.
Keep left here, and make a gently descending traverse in an open understory of salal and Oregon grape to a ridge crest. There are some venerable hemlocks and Douglas-firs here that survived the fire. As you begin dropping down the ridge, which narrows very quickly, you'll notice that most of the trees here experienced crown fire. Listen for woodpeckers prospecting for grubs in the burn snags. Wind down and switchback past some low rock outcroppings offering views across the Oneonta valley. Soon the dense post-fire shrubbery, including bracken, Scouler's willow, wild cherry, elderberry, thimbleberry, trailing blackberry, blackcap raspberry, and snowberry, encroaches upon the tread. You’ll pass above some very steep talus slopes in the Oneonta Creek drainage, and a rocky perch on the right offers a view of Table Mountain and Mount Adams. You can see across Yeon Mountain to Nesmith Point, with Palmer Peak in the forbidden Bullrun Watershed Unit to the right. Continue hiking down the ridge through a thicket of burned vine maple. Then, depending on the time of year, you may have to swish your way through a dense thimbleberry/cow parsnip thicket and follow the spine of the ridge past summer-blooming poison larkspur, tiger lilies, and pathfinder. Reach another tall thimbleberry thicket and a sharp bend left in the trail at the former junction with a connector trail to the Trails Club's Nesika Lodge. The latter path headed down past a former helispot but has now been abandoned.
From the bend, you'll wind down and then make a gradually descending traverse through bracken and thimbleberry along a burned slope above the Multnomah Basin. Mountain beaver burrows mine the trail tread in places. The terrain flattens, and then you’ll make a single switchback to reach the unsigned Larch Mountain-Franklin Ridge Trail Junction. Go right here to head back home down Multnomah Creek.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Dogs on leash in Multnomah Falls area
- For parking near the Multnomah Falls Lodge between late May and early September, a Timed Use Permit ($2 fee) will be required for each personal vehicle between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
- For the I-84 parking area, between late May and early September, you will need to purchase reserved tickets from Recreation.gov.
- Restrooms, restaurant, visitor center at Multnomah Falls Lodge
- Self-issued wilderness permit at entry to Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness
- Share trails with mountain bikers around Larch Mountain
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Trail Maps (Friends of Multnomah Falls)
- Green Trails Maps: Bridal Veil, OR #428
- 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
- National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Zigzag Ranger District
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Hood National Forest
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Franklin Ridge
- Franklin Ridge 8/8/2022
- Franklin Ridge Loop Hike 2/13/22
- A slight misstep on a Franklin Ridge Loop hike
- Larch mtn/Franklin ridge loop 3/4/15
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Franklin Ridge
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Day Hiking: Columbia River Gorge by Craig Romano
- 70 Virtual Hikes of the Columbia River Gorge by Northwest Hiker
- 35 Hiking Trails: Columbia River Gorge by Don & Roberta Lowe
- 70 Hiking Trails: Northern Oregon Cascades by Don & Roberta Lowe
More Links
- Larch Mountain Trail (#441) (USFS)
- Multnomah Creek Way Trail (#444) (USFS)
- Multnomah Spur Trail (#446) (USFS)
- Oneonta Trail (#424) (USFS)
- Franklin Ridge Trail (#427) (USFS)
- Multnomah Falls – Franklin Ridge Loop Hike (Northwest Hiker)
- Franklin Ridge Loop Hike (Outdoor Project)
- Larch Mountain hike (A Life More Extraordinary)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)