Revision as of 18:03, 25 April 2021

The Historic Columbia River Highway Trail winds around Tooth Rock (Steve Hart)

• Start point: Tooth Rock Trailhead
• End point: Eagle Creek Staircase
• Trail Log: Trail Log
• Hike Type: Loop
• Distance: 1.8 miles
• Elevation gain: 250 feet
• High point: 440 feet
• Difficulty: Moderate
• Seasons: All year
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: No
• Crowded: No

Hike Description

When the original Columbia River Highway was designed by Samuel Lancaster and others it was decided to skirt Tooth Rock, which rose precipitously from the Columbia River, on a pair of viaducts. The construction of Bonneville Dam in the 1930s forced the relocation of the highway and the original route was abandoned in 1937 when a new tunnel was drilled through the rock. The old viaducts remained in place, largely forgotten for almost 60 years. In 1996 this portion of the old highway, now the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail (HCRHT), was refurbished as a hiking and bicycling path. The Eagle Creek Viaduct was repaired from rockfall damage and a new pedestrian bridge was built over the east portal of Tooth Rock Tunnel. These features are all part of one leg of this schizophrenic hike. Do the easy stroll on the old highway and come back the same way if you're not up for close encounters with post-fire rampant regrowth.

BUT . . .

If you want to go back even further in time, make this a loop using the route of the 1856 Tooth Rock Portage Road. Before the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, the old portage road was a well-used shortcut that linked to trails for Wauna Viewpoint, Wauna Point, Dublin Lake, and Tanner Butte. The route has been abandoned since the fire, which scorched most of the 0.7 mile route. Plants such as Scouler's willow, thimbleberry, elderberry, nettle, and fireweed have had time to grow thick on the road bed. There are also numerous downed trees to clamber over and under. Worst of all, everything is laced together with an unholy alliance of thorny vines, namely trailing blackberry, Armenian blackberry, and the bloodiest of all, blackcap raspberry, all sun lovers that flourish in disturbed areas when there’s no shady canopy. In addition, there's a liberal disposition of poison oak in the vicinity of Tooth Rock. So . . . to do the Tooth Rock Portage Road, and to make it easier for those who follow you, come prepared! Minimally, you will need: long baggy pants, hiking boots, a long-sleeved shirt, thick gloves, a machete, and a pruning saw. Between the tangles, there are some short, easy areas, and the east leg of the road has far fewer obstacles than the west end. Brush will be thick in the summer, and passage will be easier in winter/early spring.

Start at the Tooth Rock Trailhead and hike the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail eastward. You'll pass a power substation, where a plaque honors BPA employee William S. Acton. Only a narrow screen of Douglas-firs separates you from all the traffic. After about a quarter of a mile, look carefully for a small “To Tanner Butte” sign that survived the fire (you wouldn’t necessarily see it if you weren’t looking) and points up the brushy road bed of the Tooth Rock Portage Road.

• The old wagon road, constructed in 1856, was the first on the Oregon side to circumvent the Cascades on the Columbia by heading up over the back side of Tooth Rock, at whose base the Columbia lapped in times of high water. It was a 425-foot climb for the wagons from river level on a rough road begun by one W.R. Kilborn in 1855 and improved the next year by Joseph Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead. By 1859, a portage railroad (the first railroad in Oregon) had been built around the base of Tooth Rock using a trestle, However, part of the trestle was swept away by spring floods that same year. By 1861, the railroad had pretty much replaced the wagon road as the main means of transportation around the Cascades.

You will encounter thorny vines and downed trees immediately, but passage is possible if you are armed and protected appropriately. It's seems almost surreal, on what was quite recently a well-used pathway, with the freeway below and the Bonneville Dam complex visible, to be hacking your way through this jungle. Through the trees, views open up to Hamilton Mountain, Table Mountain, and Greenleaf Peak. The first of Tooth Rock's two main prominences appears up to the right, and you can see the promontory of Wauna Point looming darkly up to your right. Somewhere in this vicinity, you'll pass the abandoned short connector trail that branched off to reach the gated Tanner Creek Road and the Gorge Trail. Then you'll come to the high point of the portage road, with Tooth Rock’s jagged dentures beckoning to your left. You can make the short bushwhack to the top to get views to the Bonneville Dam and the Washington side of the Gorge, but beware the summit’s welcoming skirt of poison oak.

The descent from the portage road's high point is shorter and easier. A rootball has taken out most of the road bed at one point, but there’s also a relatively unobstructed stretch of about 200 yards where there's still a canopy. The old descent path from the wagon road to the HCRHT seems to have disappeared, but you'll pass above a bowl with the HCRHT clearly visible just below. It's a steep scramble down, with perhaps the best point of departure coming just after you duck under a small fallen tree.

When you reach the HCRHT, you can go right past a Stop sign to look down the Eagle Creek Staircase. This piece of the original Columbia River Highway was built in 1914 and abandoned in 1937. Just as the wagon road was demolished in this area to make room for the highway, so too was this older version of the highway destroyed to make room for the new. To connect these various pieces as a trail, modern trail builders had to resort to a staircase to link the different levels together.

As you hike west, the jutting basalt prominence of Tooth Rock appears above, with the rock’s eastern "tooth" visibly protruding on its forested pate. Cross a narrow section of pathway constructed in 1996 to replace a part of the original roadway that collapsed. Then you’re on the Eagle Creek Viaduct, actually a "half-viaduct", with half the road resting on a narrow ledge blasted from the rock and half the road on the viaduct. The railing here is the same as the standard arched, rubble masonry walls used as guardrails on much of the highway. Much of the original railing was lost and the viaduct was heavily damaged by a rock slide during the construction of a new powerhouse at the dam, but the deck and railing have been repaired for trail use. A cozy little overlook on the right, the Eagle's Nest, gives great views downstream to the Bonneville Dam, with Hamilton Mountain behind, and the westbound freeway lanes constructed in the 1950s. The whole area around Table Mountain is clearly visible. After a one-car pullout, inserted during the highway reconstruction, the old highway makes use of the Tooth Rock Viaduct. A section of this viaduct had collapsed from the weight of accumulated rock and was repaired in 1996. Railings here are similar to the Moffett Creek Bridge and the Shepperds Dell Bridge. Now on solid ground, the historic highway trail, lined by white railings, parallels the nearby freeway. After you pass the west end of the overgrown old portage road, it's a short distance back to the Tooth Rock Trailhead.

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• Picnic tables at trailhead
• No overnight parking

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for Tooth Rock Loop Hike

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for Tooth Rock Loop Hike

Guidebooks that cover this hike

• 100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon - 3rd Edition, by William L Sullivan

More Links

Contributors

• Stevefromdodge (creator)