Mosier Plateau Hike

Overview

In the short time since its official opening to the public in Fall 2013, this short hike on Friends of the Columbia Gorge land has become very popular. There is plenty of parking near the railroad tracks in Mosier, and you need to walk 1,000 feet across the Mosier Creek Bridge to find the beginning of the trail. You’ll pass the pioneer cemetery and then Mosier Creek Falls, a popular summer swimming hole, before entering Friends property. The wildflower meadows on the plateau are spectacular in April and May, but the vistas are suberb all year. Stay on the trail, keep your dog on a leash, and respect all private property signs. Walk east along Highway 30 and cross the Mosier Creek Bridge, built in 1920, to get views of the narrow gorge. Look to your right after crossing the bridge and see a trail leading up behind a bench marked ‘Mosier Pioneer Cemetery.’ There's also a map of the route here. The path winds up in a parkland of oaks and ponderosa pines offering views of Mosier Creek’s narrow gorge. Pass the pioneer cemetery, where members of the Mosier family are interred. You’ll reach an overlook with a plaque memorializing Helen Wortman Russell, a granddaughter of Oregon Trail pioneers. From here, there’s a full-frontal view of two-tiered Mosier Creek Falls. Continue along the grassy slope, which blooms with cryptantha and bachelor’s buttons in the spring, to reach the steep rocky slope above the waterfall. A user trail drops down to the pool between the two drops, and desert parsley forms clumps of yellow and green on the steep slope. From this point, the trail enters Friends of the Columbia Gorge property. The path makes a traverse along the grassy slope with a few ponderosa pines and oaks. Switchback at a split-rail fence and traverse up a grassy slope above a fence to switchback twice more to a series of steps. In the spring, cluster lilies, bachelor’s buttons, buckwheat, and cow vetch bloom in abandon here. Make four short switchbacks and wind up the slope to make a couple more switchbacks and then asce

Trail Stats

Photos

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