I don’t know why we’ve never done this hike before! We loved it. We hiked with our daughter who is 3.5 years old, in her hiking pack and she had a blast too. 

The directions are easy to follow from getting there to hiking the trail. The climb was steady but gradual, and you honestly feel the steepness more going down than up (well, if you have bad knees and hips like us), but it was doable and nothing like the Coyote Wall descent. 

Bring sunscreen, a hat, and bug spray. The bugs weren’t bad while hiking, though I did get a mosquito bite or two, but they were certainly annoying when we stopped to take pictures of the INCREDIBLY AMAZING views! 

Shade is here and there with one longer stretch once the flowers are in full sight. So, mid day on a sunny day, it’ll get hot and the sunburn chances are high! 

You’ll start on an old Jeep road then take a right onto a single track that you can’t really veer from and that takes you all the way to the top. We followed it under trees, through the open hillside, back into trees. Once we realized we had probably seen the views to see, we turned back around. We didn’t make it all the way through the second forested area. We did about 4.5 miles total out and back. So, technically, we didn’t finish it, but we still loved it.

We started around 9:30 and there were 4 vehicles parked  once we finished there were several more vehicles though I doubt there’s room for more than 12 vehicles to be parked comfortably. It wasn’t overly crowded, which was nice considering how close it is to a white Salmon and all the other over populated Gorge hikes.

wildflowers blooming all over the top mountain

Directions to the TH are accurate in Craig Romano's Day Hiking Columbia River Gorge. The Weldon Wagon Road was built to transport apples from Husum in the White Salmon River valley to the Sandborn Road. The trail begins on an old jeep road. In 0.2 mile go right at the signed TH. The trail has a gradual elevation gain of 1290 feet in 2.7 miles where it ends at the Sandborn Road where a picnic table and a homemade bench in the forest were a welcome sight for lunch in the shade! The temperature was 85 degrees or higher and much of the trail is in the open with no shade! There is a collection of old farm equipment at the end of the trail. We saw 2 calypso orchids, yellow violets and a few "past their prime" Grand Hound's Tongue on the first 0.7 mile of trail which is in the forest. As we entered the open meadows we began to see more flowers. Naked Broomrape, large head clover, blue-eyed Mary, prairie stars, wild cucumber, striped coralroot, lupine, fresh Grand Hound's Tongue and balsam root were some of the flowers seen. Balsamroot was at its peak and the most prevalent flower seen. You need to be aware that poison oak is leafing out and VERY prevalent in the area!  At 1.8 miles there is a sign telling you that you are arriving at the White Salmon Oak Natural Resources Conservation Area (NRCA) which was formed to protect the groves of Oregon White Oak. At 2.2 miles you arrive at the oak forest where the trail continues to the top where you leave the NCRA. A few private homes can be seen east of the trail in this section and Sasquatch continues to guard them! (There is a photo in one of our earlier reports!) We met a local man returning to the TH when we started and saw only one other hiker all day until we got back to the truck where 2 more were beginning the hike. We were blessed to have 5 days of hiking this trip with NO TICKS! :)! 

Trail is in great shape. Many leaves are down and can be a little slick, but very little mud anywhere. Still lots of fall color. Cloudy day, but seeing the clouds roll through the valley was pretty. I definitely want to come back when skies are clear.