Angels Rest-Palmer Mill Road Loop Hike

Overview

This loop begins on conventional trails but then departs the Angels Rest Trail to burrow into the network of user created paths below Devils Rest . There are views from various spots during the first part of the loop. South of Devils Rest , you’ll be on more user trails and in secondary forest in an area that used to be accessed by vehicles until a few decades ago. The descent back to the Angels Rest Trailhead will be via Palmer Mill Road, first on the gated segment, which no longer sees vehicular traffic, and then the last 1¾ miles down the little used gravel portion that connects with the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway. There are two parking areas, one above the other at the Bridal Veil intersection on the Historic Columbia River Highway. The trails from each converge just above the lower parking area. You’ll be hiking up a forested slope where the bases of large Douglas-firs bear scorch marks from the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire. Vine maple, thimbleberry, and sword fern form the understory, and occasionally there are patches of poison oak. The trail crosses an open talus slope to get views to down to sheep paddocks below, the Columbia River, Phoca Rock , Cape Horn , the Cruzatt Rim, and Silver Star Mountain . A loop off the main trail leads to a clifftop view to 150-foot Coopey Falls , which spills down to property owned by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist. Hiking up, you'll see a short spur leading left to get a view up the creek of Upper Coopey Falls . The trail leads up through a hazel thicket, and another spur takes you to the base of the upper tier of Upper Coopey Falls . Continue up under alders and maples to cross Coopey Creek on a footbridge. The trail turns at a reinforced switchback, and then traverses up a slope of maples to switchback again and head out to the Gorge face, where you'll encounter brushier terrain recovering from the 1991 and 2017 fires. Views are more open now, and you can see up to the cliffs of Angels Rest as well as the entire profile of Washington's Larch Mountain and S

Trail Stats

Photos

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Coopey Falls, from the Angels Rest Trail (bobcat)

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Pacific golden chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus) , She Devil Trail (bobcat)

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Cascades on Bridal Veil Creek below Palmer Mill Road (bobcat)

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Sign at the junction of The Way and the Little Devil Trail (bobcat)

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On the connector to Multnomah Basin Road from the Devils Rest Trail (bobcat)

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Mt. Adams, Table Mountain, Hamilton Mountain, and Beacon Rock from the Devils Rest Overlook (bobcat)

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Looking west from Angels Rest (bobcat)

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Descending Smith Road/She Devil Trail towards Palmer Mill Road (bobcat)

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