Larch Mountain Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Multnomah Falls Trailhead
- End Point: Sherrard Point (Larch Mountain)
- Trail Log: Trail Log
- Hike type: Out and back
- Distance: 14.4 miles round trip
- Elevation gain: 4010 feet
- Difficulty: Difficult
- Seasons: Apr-Nov
- Family Friendly: Yes, a few short cliff edges
- Backpackable: Yes
- Crowded: Extremely crowded to Falls Lookout, quite crowded to Wahkeena Trail Jct
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Hike Description
How do we describe this hike? It's a 2/10 paved stroll for an elderly woman with a walker. It's a grueling one mile uphill battle shoving a baby stroller. It's a quiet walk next to an incredible stream filled with rapids and waterfalls. It's a five hour, 4000 foot exhausting climb to the most beautiful view in the area. It's anything you want it to be. It just depends on how far you go.
The Larch Mountain trail was constructed in 1915 by founding members of the Trails Club of Oregon. Portland residents might recognize the names of a few early members such as store owners Julius Meier and Aaron Frank, newspaperman Henry Pittock, and Columbia River Highway Builders Sam Lancaster and Simon Benson. Today the Trails Club still maintains Nesika Lodge on a spur trail off of the Larch Mountain Trail.
The trail begins at Multnomah Falls Lodge, a historic building built to serve early automobile travelers in 1925. The first part of the trail is a gently sloped 2/10 mile trail to the Benson Bridge, built in 1914 by Simon Benson, one of the builders of the old highway. This part of the trail is a paved cakewalk, although one small flight of a few stairs blocks the way to wheelchairs beyond the lower falls viewpoint.
Beyond the bridge, the asphalt trail switches up steeply for another mile to a ridgecrest (There are 11 switchbacks to be exact). Look for Columbia River views as you ascend. From the top, the trail drops slightly to a junction with a trail labeled "Top of the Falls Trail #441A" on some old Forest Service documents. Today's sign just says "Multnomah Falls Viewpoint". The asphalt follows the side path 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 people below. Most people take in this view, grab a couple of snapshots and return down the steep hill to that mocha latte thing.
On returning to the main trail, more patient people will turn upcreek and enter a magical place. The next three miles of the trail parallel Multnomah Creek past scores of scenic creek 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 Weisendanger Falls (A plaque honoring Albert Weisendanger, a Forest Service ranger, can be found in Dutchman Tunnel). The trail switches up above Weisendanger Falls and keeps rising to clear Ecola Falls. The trail is rocky in places, but the climb isn't nearly as steep as it was in the beginning. Another quarter mile brings you to a trail junction with the Wahkeena Trail and then another creek bridge, this one made of steel.
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 goes close to the creek through a rocky area of platy andesite, an outflow from the Larch Mountain shield volcano, carved out of the cliff in the creek bed. 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 a bit to go over the rocky formation right next to the creek. The two trails come back together opposite the place where Big John Creek flows into Multnomah Creek from the west.
After crossing Multnomah Basin Road and meeting Franklin Ridge Trail #427, the trail crosses the East Fork of Multnomah Creek and then the West Fork, both on single log bridges with handrails.
Now, the climb begins in earnest: after all, you have 4000 feet to gain from the Multnomah Falls Lodge. The trail traverses a long ridge up the west side of the Larch Mountain crater. I did tell you that this pile of rock is an ancient shield volcano, didn't I? You'll pass a large open rock field: at the south end of the rockfield, you'll see the biggest tree on the trail, a gnarly old Douglas-fir. There are more big trees as you hike up past the Larch Mountain-Multnomah Creek Way Trail Junction, and cross a small closed road. Next, there's a stint on an often boggy tread through a vast stand of silver fir. You'll know you're getting close when you begin to pass abandoned picnic tables and firepits filled with moss and ferns. Eventually, winded and worn out, you'll reach and old turnaround: the Larch Mountain Trailhead is down to your right. There are restrooms here as well as a picnic spot.
From the turnaround, hike up 3/10 mile on paved Sherrard Point Trail #443 to, naturally enough, Sherrard Point. The trail dips and passes the spur from the Larch Mountain Trailhead before ascending a series of steps in a summit forest dominated by noble fir. Blooming on the steep rock faces are Howell’s daisies, alumroot, rock penstemon, matted saxifrage, and Cardwell’s penstemon. The view from the top makes it all worth while. Most people visiting here will have driven up Larch Mountain Road, but you'll enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you got here the hard way. Hopefully, that will help you fend off the stares from the great noncomprehending masses.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Nothing required at Multnomah Falls Lodge
- Northwest Trail Pass required at Larch Mountain Trailhead
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Larch Mountain
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for {Larch Mountain
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Hiking Oregon's Geology by Ellen Morris Bishop
- 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of Portland by Paul Gerald
- Afoot and Afield Portland/Vancouver by Douglas Lorain
- 35 Hiking Trails, Columbia River Gorge by Don & Roberta Lowe
- Columbia River Gorge, 42 Scenic Hikes, by Don & Roberta Lowe
- Hiking the Columbia River Gorge by Russ Schneider
More Links
- Larch Mountain Trail #441 (USFS)
- Sherrard Point Trail #443 (USFS)
- Larch Mountain Trail #441 (Columbia River Highway)
- Multnomah Falls ~ Multnomah Creek - Larch Mtn ~ Sherrard Point Loop Hike (Northwest Hiker) (longer loop)
- Larch Mountain on Summit Post
- Multnomah Falls Lodge
Contributors
- Stevefromdodge (creator)