McCall Point Hike

Overview

This is a hike filled with views of the eastern Columbia River Gorge, and wildflowers, including a few rare species, are abundant. You will ascend from the scabland at Rowena Crest onto Nature Conservancy property, the trail taking you across the open slopes and oak copses of McCall Point. Please respect the restrictions that the Conservancy has put in place here to protect this unique habitat: (1) the trail is open only six months of the year (May through October); (2) no dogs or bicycles are permitted on the trail; (3) stay on the trail at all times to protect sensitive plant communities. The best time to visit (for wildflowers) is during May and the first half of June. You can first look at the native plantings in the center of the parking circle at the Rowena Crest Trailhead. The lightly graveled trail itself crosses a flat area in a landscape of low 'biscuit mounds,' where you'll see balsamroot, wild onion, tarweed, and bicolored cluster lily, for about 400 yards. Then the route joins an old road, which heads east to the edge of the basalt rim above a forested bowl that slopes down to the Columbia River. In an avenue of oaks on a rocky slope, there's also plenty of poison oak as well as fern-leaf desert parsley and bloomed-out Columbia desert parsley. The trail switchbacks up a slope away from the road bed, the remnant of the wagon road that was built from The Dalles to Hood River in the 1870s. There are amazing views to the east including the tight loops of the Historic Columbia River Highway and a continuation of this wagon road, heading down the opposite side of the valley. Just off the trail, you may note a few examples of the local endemic Hood River milk-vetch. After a short climb, the trail passes through copses of white oak and reaches the meadowed slopes overlooking the Rowena Plateau. Here, you'll have your first view to the west, including the arched highway bridge over Rowena Dell and Mount Defiance. Looking north, Mount Adams appears behind the town of Lyle, at the mouth of the Klickitat Ri

Trail Stats

Photos

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