Deschutes River Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Lower Deschutes Trailhead
- End point: Harris Canyon Water Tower
- Trail log: Deschutes River Hike/Log
- Distance: 22.6 miles round trip
- High point: 365 feet
- Elevation gain: 400 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Year round, very hot in summer
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: Popular on spring weekends
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Hike Description
The Deschutes River is best known for river rafting and fishing, but in the winter it offers a good opportunity for backpacking or day hikes. Other good seasons to hike the old railroad grade down the river are spring (for wildflowers) and fall. Summer is hot, with the sometimes searing heat reflecting off the rimrock, and the river can become a cacophony of rafters. This is also a great bike ride if you have good tires: you can get off the bike and do short hikes from a number of spots along the trail. The trail begins from the state park and goes along the river on the old railroad grade, now a gravel road, offering typical eastern Oregon scenery: broad spaces, cliffs and rimrock slopes, and clumps of sagebrush on grassy expanses. The river has some spectacular rapids and wildlife, including migrating steelhead, mergansers, geese, herons, deer, otters, gopher snakes, and rattlesnakes. You'll see some relics of the defunct railroad and farming activity.
The story of the railroad line here exemplifies the history of "railroad wars" in the development of the western United States. The Deschutes Railroad Company (Union Pacific) began surveys on the east bank of the river in 1906. Almost immediately after this, employees of the Oregon Trunk Railroad, incorporated in Nevada, surveyed the west bank and began construction. Construction crews snuck into each other's supplies and sabotaged them, and there was more than one incident where one side dynamited the other's equipment. Gradually, however, the competing railroads realized the situation was economically untenable, and the Deschutes Railroad began using sections of the Oregon Trunk line. The Deschutes finally abandoned its entire route along the east bank in 1936.
You may see a farm or Fish and Wildlife truck going down the road but there's a locked gate preventing unauthorized vehicles. In the winter, there are a few hikers, bikers, and possibly horses each day, with more on the weekend. On the opposite side of the river, there are a several trains each day, during the day or night. Watch out for ticks, especially where you brush against grass or shrubs. Check yourself for ticks afterward.
You can start the hike at the overnight parking area near the entrance to the state park, but it's better to drive through the state park as far as you can and park there because your car will be more visible to the ranger and thus safer from break-ins. The first two miles of the hike is within the Deschutes State Park and runs along the Deschutes River. There is a lower trail and a middle trail for hikers only below the railroad grade. A map at the trailhead shows you the routes. This description follows the river trail.
Walk across a field, and follow a sandy track that passes under powerlines with white alders leaning over the Deschutes on the right. Sagebrush bushes dominate the slope to the left and an almond orchard blooms in the spring. Pass a pumphouse and a cable pylon at the junction with the Middle Trail, which leads up to the left. Keep straight along the river, passing a large, shaded rock with a bench to rest. Then hit a short boardwalk and emerge from the trees. Pass below an outhouse, and head up the rim to viewpoint over Rattlesnake Bend and the rapids below. Pungent desert parsley blooms here in the spring. On the south side of this outcropping, you'll also discover a natural arch that peers down to the Deschutes River.
Join the railroad grade and pass the trail that leads up to Ferry Springs (See the Ferry Springs Hike). Head south along the gravel road that is the former rail bed of the Deschutes Railroad. Between here and the Harris Canyon Water Tower, you will be on land managed by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and the Bureau of Land Management as well as a short easement on private property. About a mile from Rattlesnake Bend, the trail arrives at Gordon Canyon. There's a field here that is mowed and used by the Boy Scouts for campouts. The railroad itself used a high trestle, now long gone, but you will descend on a vehicle track to cross Gordon Creek and then head up through a dense and somewhat startling forest of invasive Ailanthus (Chinese tree-of-heaven) trees. Some efforts are being made to curb this species' rabid march up the slope, but it looks like a losing battle. Down below, there's the Colorado Camp outhouse and a grassy expanse. Back on the railroad grade, you'll pass below the Gordon Cliffs, where lichen-stained basalt formations, some in columns and some in radiating circles, are some of the most attractive you'll see.
Continuing above the river, you'll clearly see the Oregon Trunk Railroad (now operated by BNSF) on the steeply-sloped west bank. On both sides of the river, mostly out of sight, are the spacious crop fields of the Columbia Plateau. Pass above another outhouse at Gordon Ridge Camp, and at Mile 5.6, you'll pass a well-preserved railroad car with an intact wood floor. A trail leads down to the river from here. At Mile 6.6 are the remains of the Free Bridge. At a time when there were private toll bridges, this bridge was constructed by Wasco County in 1887 to offer free passage over the river; however, the second iteration of the bridge (It was upgraded in 1905) was apparently dynamited by the opposition in 1914.There's one footing on the east side and another footing in the middle of the river. Before you pass above the bridge supports, you'll see a post that once held an interpretive sign with a photo of the bridge. You can see rough and narrow Free Bridge Road coming down the slope on the west side of the canyon and a road ramp to the left of the pillars on the east side.
Past the Free Bridge are are the wide and swirling Colorado Rapids at a bend in the Deschutes, where you'll hike through a rubble-strewn cutting in the basalt. At Mile 7.8, you may notice an old trestle ramp on the right. The trestle actually spanned the shallow creek here until 2015, when it was dismantled. A second railroad car used to stand next to the road here, but it is now also gone. Below is another outhouse at Bedsprings Camp. Across the river, picturesque buttresses fortify the steep slopes above the working railroad. You'll hike around another bend in the river and, about a mile from the trestle site, pass a rusting piece of farm equipment on the left. Soon, cross a cattle grid that marks a corner of private land that overlaps the trail - stay on the road between the grids. At miles 10.1, a track leads down to Fall Canyon Camp, which is where most overnighters stay if they are doing this as a backpack.
Three quarters of a mile after Fall Canyon Camp, you'll see an alfalfa field down to the right and the picturesque the remains of the Harris Homestead. This wooden structure still contains some rusting bedsprings and appliances and the cloth "wallpaper" peels off the clapboard interior; do not enter the building, however: in recent years, it has begun to buckle and lean and in short order it may totally collapse. Beyond the house, there are corrals, cattle chutes, sheep shearing stalls, and open sheds with some farm equipment. Continuing down the road, you'll pass through an alley of hackberries and reach a grove of ponderosa pines with refurbished caboose that was a more recent residence for seasonal farm workers. There's also a shed and paddock here as well as an outhouse and small pumphouse.
There are a number of campsites. For each one, there's a road down from the main road with an outhouse, and areas to camp near by. You can camp elsewhere but it's requested that you camp at one of the outhouses to control waste. During the summer there are hoards of boaters that would pollute the area if allowed to put human waste wherever. There are camps at mile 3.3 (Colorado Camp, probably the least scenic), mile 5.3 (Gordon Ridge Camp), mile 7.8 (Bedsprings Camp), and mile 10.1 (Fall Canyon).
This hike ends at the Harris Canyon Water Tower just beyond the Harris Homestead at mile 11.3. Return the way you came. See the Deschutes River from Macks Canyon Hike for a description of the next 11.8 miles to a trailhead at Macks Canyon.
The Deschutes River drains off the east side of the Cascades from south of Bend to Mount Hood. The infamous White River on Mount Hood drains into the Deschutes River. There is a large urban area around Bend that drains into the Deschutes River. There is a lot of farming area that drains into the river also.
Fishing season is May 1 to October 31. There are steelhead. The river rafting season is in the summer. Hikers may want to avoid the area then, to avoid the crowds, also it gets very hot then. There is better hiking in the gorge or on Mount Hood.
The Deschutes State Park at the trailhead has a nice camping area. A loop has electricity for trailers and is $12 per night in the winter. T loop is next to the trailhead for tenters and is $5 per night. T loop is basically a circular grassy area with about a dozen sites with picnic tables and fire pits.
It costs $5 per night if you're backpacking. The ranger recommended, to minimize risk of vandalism, parking your car at the end of the road next to the T loop camping area below the camp host, or the parking area a bit before below the full time ranger residence.
Interesting article about railroad history
For more info call:
BLM (541) 416-6700
State of Oregon Fish and Wildlife (541) 296-4228
State of Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation (541) 388-6211
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Green Trails Maps: Columbia River Gorge - East #432S
- Bureau of Land Management, Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service, USDA Forest Service: Lower Deschutes & John Day Rivers
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Campground, restrooms, picnic area, information kiosk at the state park
- $7 overnight parking fee; no charge for day-use
- Outhouses stationed every couple of miles along the route
- Keep dogs on leash in the state park area (first two miles); leash up when you see horses approaching
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Deschutes
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Deschutes
Guidebooks that cover this hike
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Contributors
- retiredjerry (creator)