Green Mountain West Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Green Mountain West Trailhead
- End point: Green Mountain
- Hike Type: In and out
- Distance: 3.3 miles
- Elevation gain: 520 feet
- High point: 805 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Hike Description
Green Mountain is another of the 100 or so Boring volcanoes that dot the Portland/Vancouver area. With the recent conversion of the Green Mountain Golf Course into a housing development, the City of Camas purchased 55 acres on the volcano’s western slopes to complement a donation of 60 acres. A trail takes you up to the hill’s viewless summit, partially using old logging roads. Clark County manages this open space, but the trails are maintained by volunteers.
Take the paved trail from the top of the parking area, and then turn left along a fence on another paved trail. This trail wraps around a fence corner and, as it approaches a street end, look down to the left for a gravel trail, signed for Green Mountain, that leads into a riparian area. You’ll pass the first of several signs designating this a “sensitive natural area’’ as you hike under cottonwood, ash, alder, and maple with plantings of oaks nearby. Past the last house, the trail enters shady woods, makes a sharp turn up to the right, and becomes a natural surface path.
A couple of short switchbacks lead up from some boulders, and you’ll get a glimpse of Warman Lake, a private water-skiing lake. The trail then switchbacks down and traverses the slope under arching hazel shrubs. You'll see rocky ramparts above, and licorice fern-draped boulders in the undergrowth. Candy flower, Oregon grape, trillium, and iris bloom here at various times. Sword ferns dominate the understory. Then the trail heads steeply up, becoming more gradual before it reaches an old road bed. Bear right, and then turn left to hike under a Douglas-fir canopy to reach a junction on a road bed. A sign points to a viewpoint, which you can visit on the way back.
Turn left, and cross a grassy powerline corridor, which blooms with lupine and ox-eye daisies. Then you’ll turn up the slope on a newer section of trail; you can see a fenced pump station to your left. Turn right onto another road bed just above its junction with a spur road (remember this spot as well). Keep on this road as you ascend farther up Green Mountain’s slopes.
You’ll reach a signed junction. The summit trail leads off the road bed into a thicket of young Douglas-firs, hazel, and salal. The trail crosses over the leafy summit of Green Mountain, where a short spur leads to a rocky perch and the new summit sign. You’ll rejoin the road bed and circle around, passing the connector trail which you can use to join the trails on the east slopes of Green Mountain (see the Green Mountain East Loop Hike). A now closed trail drops down to the powerline corridor below and private property.
Return the way you came up. When you reach the junction with the Viewpoint Trail near the powerline corridor, keep left to follow this road bed out to a powerline pylon. A clifftop viewpoint gives you vistas over the new Green Mountain development and, on a clear day, to Mount Hood.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Stay on the trails and respect private property
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Green Mountain West Hike
- Green Mountain (Camas) 2-2-24
- Green Mt., Camas, WA Thursday, Feb. 22
- Green Mountain, Clark Co.
- West Green Mountain Trail
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Green Mountain West Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- none
More Links
- City of Camas Finalizes Purchase of Green Mountain Land (City of Camas)
- “Camas to acquire 115 acres on Green Mountain, looks to expand recreation area” (The Columbian)
- Green Mountain Project Summary (Clark County)
Contributors
- bobcat (creator)