Sorosis Park Loop Hike

Overview

Sorosis Park, at 15 acres, is the largest park in The Dalles, and is perched up on “Sunset Hill,” a vantage point over the lower city and the Columbia River below. The park was founded by a very active local women’s group, and it includes a perimeter trail that ties into a more natural area that belongs to neighboring Columbia Gorge Community College. The park, once harboring a landscape of white oak and ponderosa pine, has lost over 100 pines of late because of an infestation by the dreaded California five-spined ips beetle (Ips paraconfusus), leaving the area bereft of its former wooded ambience. West of the parking area is the Tree Top Play Park, a crenellated wonderland for youngsters of all ages. Walk back down the entrance road to the traffic circle, which surrounds a rose garden centered on the 1911 Vogt Fountain. Cross Scenic Drive to reach the Kelly Viewpoint, named after long-time city councilor Virgil Kelly. Looking east, you can look down to one of the hoodoos of The Dalles Formation, an ancient lake bed. Beyond that, there’s the bridge over the Columbia and The Dalles Dam. The Columbia Hills form a backdrop on the Washington side of the river, and to the west, you can see to Chenoweth Tableland, Sevenmile Hill, and Crates Point. Walk back to the park and take the gravel trail to the right above Scenic Drive. The scattered oaks here belie the fact that this used to be a mixed forest with numerous ponderosa pines, all drained of life by the nefarious beetle and logged in 2019/20. The trail makes a sharp left to follow alongside Sorosis Street, and you’ll see disc golf tees and baskets to your left. Soon, you’ll come to the ball fields at a line of poplars. Swing left again and, across gravel 23rd Street, cherry orchards, best viewed in April when in blossom, stretch across the rolling hills with Mount Hood in the background. The trail bears left again below a large yellow water tank, the Sorosis Reservoir, and passes above the park’s tennis courts and covered picnic structure. A fence runs to yo

Trail Stats

Photos

400px-SorosisParkMap

400px-SorosisParkMap

250px-Living_ponderosa_and_Mt

250px-Living_ponderosa_and_Mt

250px-Balsamroot%2C_Sorosis_Park%2C_The_Dalles

250px-Balsamroot%2C_Sorosis_Park%2C_The_Dalles

250px-View_to_The_Dalles_Dam_from_Kelly_Viewpoint%2C_Sorosis_Park%2C_The_Dalles

250px-View_to_The_Dalles_Dam_from_Kelly_Viewpoint%2C_Sorosis_Park%2C_The_Dalles

400px-Looking_to_Mt

400px-Looking_to_Mt

Tags