Eagle Creek to High Bridge Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
Info
- Start point: Eagle Creek Trailhead
- End point: High Bridge
- Distance: 6.6 miles (round trip)
- Elevation Gain: 480 feet
- Difficulty: Easy to moderate
- Seasons: Year round
- Backpackable: No
- (but there are backpacking options further up trail)
- Crowded: Yes
- Family Friendly: No (Due to exposure)
Hike Description
Eagle Creek is the quintessential hike in the Columbia River Gorge, boasting dozens of spectacular waterfalls, tall basalt cliffs, ubiquitous talus slopes, and the lush temperate rain forests that so characterize the Pacific Northwest. It is considered by many to be the most resplendent hiking destinations in the Northwest -- no doubt, essential fare for Portland-area outdoor lovers.
What makes Eagle Creek even more popular, is the number of ways one can enjoy it! There are options that can take 3 hours to 3 days depending on how far you go! In fact, one could literally hike to Mexico starting from the Eagle Creek trailhead because 13 miles in it intersects with the Pacific Crest Trail. In fact many PCT thru-hikers will choose to divert their usual course over the Benson Plateau to take in the splendid beauty of the Eagle Creek gorge.
Maybe as impressive as the Gorge itself, is the story of how it was built. It was created as part of an early effort to begin preserving areas as parkland in the Columbia River Gorge in the early 1900s. Workers used dynamite to blast the trail into the side of the cliffs. Soon thousands of people could enjoy areas that were impossible to traverse otherwise. The original trail has remained nearly unchanged to this day - the only significant exception was a diversion between High Bridge and Four and a Half Mile Bridge.
The Eagle Creek to High Falls hike is a popular day-hike option. At a little over 6 1/2 miles round trip, and a mere 480 feet of elevation gain, this option gives you a great balance of effort vs. reward, and will hopefully whet your apetite for return visits that take you far further down the gorge.
Starting at the trailhead, which can be zoo-like on summer weekends you take the wide well-groomed trail into a second-growth forest turning away from the creek, but just as quickly you turn back toward the water, with the trail hugging the shore for quite a ways.
You will go in and out of the forest a bit with the ever-present ambient sound of rushing water to accompany you. Before you've gone a mile you will start to take on elevation. Soon, you will encounter the first of many areas of the trail that rise high above the creek, opening up to a wide canyon on your right. Many months the fog hangs low in the canyons blocking your view of the snow-encrusted sides of the cliff all around you. In places the trail is narrow and the drop-off is quite steep. You'll notice area where the trail-builders had to use explosives to carve the passage-way into the cliffs. On a few of these sections, cable lines have been built into the walls to provide some stability.
As the trail gains elevation it begins to get further from the creek and deeper into the moss-covered old-growth forest. Your companions will be the thousands of ferns, blackberry bushes, and sometimes poison oak that are so characteristic of this region. You will be surprised at the beauty of these forests, which at-times are like scenes from a fairytale.
There are various side-creeks that you'll cross -- some by rock steps, many by footbridges. Be sure to look upstream as you cross these - especially in the wetter months -- as you will be treated to waterfalls and more lush greenery.
After you've walked about a mile and a half, watch for an obvious spur trail off to your right. This unmarked trail drops down to an overlook with a view of the magnificent 100 foot Metlako Falls. The tallest falls on Eagle Creek, Metlako seeming shoots out straight of a cliffside into a large pool below.
Walk back up the spur trail to the main trail and continue Southward. In just over a half-mile you'll be at an obvious junction and resting spot near Punchbowl Falls.
Should you want to see Punchbowl Falls, you can choose two options: take a spur trail down and to your right, or continue forward about 1/4 mile to the Punchbowl Falls overlook. The spur trail which takes you down about 300 feet in a 1/4 mile to a wide open rocky shoreline about 100 yards from the falls. In the summer months this can be a crowded swimming hole for children, but given the right weekday in the off season, this is a quaint setting can provide you some enchanted solitude as you admire the gushes of water blasting its way out the gorge above.
Should you choose to continue on, the overlook gives you a great vantage point of the falls looking straight down to the gushing waters and glorious blue pool below. You may recognize this viewpoint from photos of the area. Please stay inside the guardrails. Every year there is some story about someone falling from this spot and injuring themselves.
Continue on the trail as it once again begins to gain elevation and wind it's way away from the creek. You will notice the quiet as you get further and further from the rushing water. You will cross a few more tumbling creeks before coming across an exposed cliff-side section of trail. Keep your eyes open to the bluffs on the right, as soon you will come across the necktie shaped Loowit Falls (not to be mistaken for it's namesake on Mount St. Helens.
Soon you will turn a corner and begin to close in on High Bridge. The trail leading up to the bridge, although well groomed and often-travelled, can be rocky and slippery in places. It is very exposed and looms 120 feet to the water below! A cable-line afixed in the rock cliff to your left provides some security, but on a busy day you will encounter two way traffic through this short, but vertigo-inducing stretch!.
You should see High Bridge amid the trees ahead of you. When you get there you will notice a small rest area before the bridge, with bluffs towering above you.
Cross the bridge, which spans a very narrow channel some 120 feet below you, and you'll see a smaller, but somewhat more scenic rest spot. If this spot is too crowded, you can walk the trail another 1/4 mile to a large camp area (Tenas Camp) where you might find some space to stretch out, fuel up, have a drink and head back.
From this point you can turn around and had back the way you came. Should you still have energy and want to continue on, there is a lot more to see, including Four and a Half Mile Bridge and Wy-Est Camp and Tunnel Falls.
See these other hike alternatives:
- Eagle Creek to Punchbowl Falls (shorter)
- Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls Hike (longer)
- Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake Hike (backpack option)
Maps
- See clickable image to the right
Trip Reports
- Eagle Creek to Tunnel Falls 9/23/06 - 9/24/06
- Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake, and Chinidere Mt 7/12/06 - 7/14/06
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Related Discussions / Q&A
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Guidebooks that cover this hike
- 100 Hikes in Northwest Washington - 2nd Edition, by William Sullivan
More Links
- Information, history and photos of Eagle Creek at Splintercat.org
- Punchbowls Falls from Waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest
- NWHiker.com Hike #55