Guadalupe Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Abbey Trailhead
- End point: Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine
- Hike type: Loop
- Distance: 3.9 miles
- Elevation gain: 815 feet
- High point: 1,065 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
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Description
There aren’t many places to walk off a tasting when you’re in Yamhill County wine country, but this serene haven north of Lafayette does offer you such a respite. The Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey sits on 1,300 acres of mixed woodland and oak savanna. The monks moved here from New Mexico in 1955. In order to support themselves, the 25 to 30 Trappist brothers who live here run a hardcover bookbindery, a bakery, a climate-controlled storage facility for local wineries, and a guesthouse. They also lease 400 acres of the property out to local farmers. In 2010, the entire Abbey property became a wildlife conservation easement that protects this endangered Willamette Valley habitat. The monastery accepts overnight visitors on retreat but also day visitors who would like to walk their property. Note that when you’re in the building area or the area around the ponds, please keep silent to respect the monks and those who are here on a meditative retreat.
The trail system here has been worked on recently, with new trail names and a major outer loop, the Guadalupe Loop, which we will follow. Please leave your pets at home, stay on the trails, and beware of poison oak!
From the parking area, take the road leading up under the Douglas-firs to the right. You'll pass around a gate and walk up the road, passing a quiet pond on the left. Soon you'll come to the beginning of the loop at a large map kiosk. Bear left, and head up through the oak savanna, keeping right on the main track to pass above the gaping pit of St. Joseph's Reservoir, an old quarry that was dammed with an earth wall. You'll pass the junction with the Monk's Trail, one of three connector trails in the trail system here. The long grass here blooms with both meadow and Nelson’s checkermallow, brodiaea, cluster lilies, centaury, and ox-eye daisy. Watch for deer grazing, gray squirrels scurrying, and acorn woodpeckers swooping among the oaks. The trail enters a Douglas-fir forest, passes the Hermit's Trail, and ascends the slope in a lush understory of cascara, poison oak, sword fern, snowberry, hazel, and trailing blackberry. Then you'll transition into a younger Douglas-fir plantation with the trees in regular rows and an open understory. You'll hook right at a bench to pass the St. Juan Diego Trail. The road bed switchbacks up among mossy big-leaf maples to reach a junction marked for a viewpoint. Walk left here along the ridge crest, and then bear right for a view to Mount Hood and vineyards below. Look to the left to try and spot Mount Adams and Silver Star Mountain.
Head south along the ridge above an old clearcut. A sign points out the short spur to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, which offers views to the Yamhill valley. Recent offerings have been set around the simple brick pillar. Continuing on the loop, keep left at the junction with the St. Juan Diego Pass trail, and descend the slope in dark woods. A narrower tread loops down a steeper slope through an overhanging hazel thicket. Look for the vines of poison oak climbing 40 feet up tree trunks! After passing the south junction with the St. Juan Diego Trail, you'll see a clearcut on the left and arrive at the unsigned junction with the Hermit's Trail, where there's a large sawed-off log.
Bear left at the junction to stay on the Guadalupe Loop, and hike up below the clearcut and into a dense Douglas-fir plantation. The grassy track levels to offer views over a clearcut to Coast Range peaks like Trask Mountain, South Saddle Mountain, and Wildcat Mountain. Then descend into mixed forest that includes Douglas-fir, Oregon white oak, and big-leaf maple. The road bed winds down to bisect a clearing rimmed with lichen-draped oaks and passes the junction with the Monk's Trail. You'll hike through a plantation of Pacific ponderosa pines and bear right at a chain gate marked "No Hiking." The route traverses above open fields, known as the "Field of Dreams" to the monks, and the track becomes a wide gravel access road. As you cross a tributary of Millican Creek, look for a sign marking the former St. Aelred Trail on the right (this was one of the paths in the former trail system). Soon, you'll reach the trail kiosk, where you'll turn left to return to the parking area.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Open dawn to dusk
- No dogs permitted
- Respect the contemplative nature of the site. Silence around the buildings and ponds, please! No electronics, no loud noise, no smoking.
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Welcome to our Trappist Abbey Forest Trails (Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey)
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Guadalupe Loop Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Guadalupe Loop Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Wine Hiking Oregon by Jack Costa
- Peaceful Places: Portland by Paul Gerald
- 100 Hikes: Oregon Coast by William L. Sullivan
More Links
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey
- Trappists (Wikipedia)
- “Trappist Abbey – the perfect place to “unplug” (New Lafayette)
- “Hike to a Trappist shrine in McMinnville’s wine country” (Statesman Journal)
- BPA Footage: Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey - Carlton, OR (BonnevillePower)
- Trappist Abbey in Oregon Wine Country (Grant’s Getaways)
- Miller Woods & Trappist Abbey – 3/15/2020 (wanderingyuncks)
- Trappist Abbey (The Adventure Continues)
- Trappist Abbey – Carlton, Oregon (Where Sasha Went)
- Trappist Abbey (Oregon Adventures)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)