Father's Day
Monday, June 19, 2006
So, in an annual tradition, my dad and I went hiking for Father's Day. He and I have spent much wonderful time in the past several years hiking together, though he hikes alone a lot more than I do. This year we visited Wahkeena Falls and Angel's Rest in the Columbia River Gorge. (The trails can be seen in this PDF map here.)
We started off by parking at the base of Angel's Rest (right off the Bridal Veil exit of I-84). We then hoofed it along the Historic Columbia River Highway (no shoulder on that road to speak of) over to the Wahkeena Falls trailhead. Then we climbed up the gorge alongside Wahkeena and Fairy Falls, which was absolutely spectacular. Once at the top (about 1400 feet of elevation) we followed trail #420 along the top of the gorge wall over to Angel's rest (hitting an elevation of about 1800 feet.) Please note: While the sign at the top of Wahkeena Falls indicates that it's 2.5 miles to Angel's rest, it took us almost an hour and a half to walk that. We aren't THAT slow, I'm pretty sure that damn sign is wrong.
Anyway, we took a break at Angel's Rest and enjoyed the fine view while munching on sandwiches. Then we walked 2.3 miles downhill (took us closer to 50 minutes on this part) to the car and drove home, tired. All told the hike was at least 9 miles and took us about three and a half hours - great quality time with my dad!
We started off by parking at the base of Angel's Rest (right off the Bridal Veil exit of I-84). We then hoofed it along the Historic Columbia River Highway (no shoulder on that road to speak of) over to the Wahkeena Falls trailhead. Then we climbed up the gorge alongside Wahkeena and Fairy Falls, which was absolutely spectacular. Once at the top (about 1400 feet of elevation) we followed trail #420 along the top of the gorge wall over to Angel's rest (hitting an elevation of about 1800 feet.) Please note: While the sign at the top of Wahkeena Falls indicates that it's 2.5 miles to Angel's rest, it took us almost an hour and a half to walk that. We aren't THAT slow, I'm pretty sure that damn sign is wrong.
Anyway, we took a break at Angel's Rest and enjoyed the fine view while munching on sandwiches. Then we walked 2.3 miles downhill (took us closer to 50 minutes on this part) to the car and drove home, tired. All told the hike was at least 9 miles and took us about three and a half hours - great quality time with my dad!
posted by Burton at 7:56 AM
1 Comments:
Ive done that very same hike a few times. It's a beautiful place.
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