What Little Girls Are Really Made Of: Weekend Hike of Angel’s Rest and Latourell Falls

A month ago we went on a hike in the Columbia River Gorge.  We chose Angel’s Rest, a moderate 4.2 mile round-trip hike that passed two waterfalls.  We decided on that hike mostly because the drive wasn’t too long and it sounded nice.  Also, none of us had done it before.  When I say “we” and “us” I am referring to a few members of a small group I had talked into going on adventures with me this summer.  This day’s group was made up of my cousin Kathryn (Kit), her best friend Shadi, and my coworker JG.  They’re all great girls, but no one knew JG other than me, and she’s several years younger than the rest of us, but I figured we’d be fine.  Spoiler alert: we were.

At first the hike was easy, and though I’d read it took you past two waterfalls, the reality was that you could only slightly see one and only hear the other.  

Unimpressive.  Soon we reached a higher point where the trees opened up and he remnants of a massive rock slide were before us.  Both the hill above the path and that below it were covered in large scree, with few or no plants to be seen.  

It was pretty cool, and opened up for the first view of the Columbia, so we stopped to take pictures.

We kept walking through the woods, which was nice as the trees provided shade and kept us cool.  Eventually we reached another point where the tree line opened up, due to many of the trees on the lower portion of the hill having been burned in a fire some years ago.  

Further past that it opened up even further into large rocks.  As we continued on we encountered more and more people as the hike is very popular on weekends, and required more and more breaks, frequently wondering how much farther we had to go, and speculating on how far we’d walked already.  

We always underestimated how far we’d walked.  It was a hot day, but it’s also a moderately difficult hike.

After a brief jaunt in the woods past the rocks, we finally reached the top.  JG and Shadi sat down while Kit and I soldiered on, continuing down a path that disappeared between some rocks.  We sat on one of the larger rocks overlooking the gorge and sat to have a snack and wait for the other girls to catch up.  

After we’d been waiting a while we finally went back and got them.  It was possible to walk along most of the rocks at the edge of the cliff and see the view from many angles, but we picked only a few spots to stop.

The view from the top was incredible.  You could look to the west and see a large bend in the river with two moderately sized islands in the middle.  

To the east the river continued on, snaking its way between Washington and Oregon seemingly forever.  

There were many places to stop and see the view from the edges of different rocks.  Yes, overall the hike was a little bit grueling at points, but in the end the view and journey were both totally worthwhile.

The way down was fast and easy, and we walked about a half-mile further down the road to Bridal Veil, just to go to the bathroom and look for somewhere to fill our water bottles.  Then we walked back to the car and drove on to Latourell Falls along the Historic Highway (a beautiful drive that I totally recommend).  

Latourell Falls is a 2.2 mile loop up through the Mount Hood National Forest.  We were tired from the first hike and a little reluctant when we started, particularly because this hike starts off a bit steeply.  The bottom tier is visible from the road and absolutely gorgeous.  It’s tall and straight down, surrounded by neon green moss on the edges of the rocks around it and framed by dark evergreens around the top. 

Heading up through the woods took a while, mostly because we were tired from the first hike.  I’ve hiked this before on a day where we had done little else and it was fairly easy.  When we reached the top tier, the mist from the falls was a nice way to cool down.  The falls were beautiful, and it was possible to climb down on to the rocks around and behind them. 

We stayed there a while to rest and take pictures and then continued on.

Having seen what we came to see, we continued on the loop.  However, we were even more exhausted, with only the prospect of the car and long drive home in front of us.  We kept taking wrong branches of the path and making the trip even longer.  It seemed like we were hiking further and further up and more into the middle of nowhere.  However, the trail eventually cut down and ended in switchbacks back to the road.

Hiking was wonderful as always, and it was a fun day with friends.  The hikes in the Columbia River Gorge are particularly beautiful and I highly recommend checking one or more of them out for yourself!