1 min
Overview
Take a quiet, flat stroll out to the northern tip of Sauvie Island. You will be traveling through a state wildlife refuge and visiting the small Warrior Rock Light. In winter, both on the hike and the drive in there's an excellent chance of seeing bald eagles, sandhill cranes, Canada and cackling geese, snow geese, and tundra swans. Sea lions frequent the Columbia River and feast on the runs of chinook, steelhead, and smelt. In late summer and early fall, river levels are way down and you may be able to walk a long stretch on the beach and hard mudflats. Make sure you pick up your refuge day pass before you park at the trailhead. From the trailhead at the end of Reeder Road, you can pass through the entry gate, but it is more pleasant to start on the beach. Head north (downstream), and if the weather is clear, you should get a glimpse of the lighthouse, near the end of the island, three miles away. Cottonwoods, willows, ash, and black locust rim the shore. After about a half mile, you will run out of beach. Look for a path through the brush to take you to the dirt access road through a cottonwood forest that parallels the beach. Continue north on this road. From the road, you will be able to access several viewpoints of the river, but there is no more continuous beach walking available: the shore is mainly a mudflat that blooms with sneezeweed, Douglas’ aster, field mint and coreopsis in the fall. If you are prepared to bushwack a bit, there are a variety of ponds, sloughs and wetlands to the west of the access road. This area is former farmland, and you may also stumble across signs of previous human habitation such as concrete building foundations, chimneys and rusting metal machinery parts. On the river, there may be fishermen and sea lions sunning themselves on the buoys. A large freighter may hum by. The road continues, sometimes very muddily, through thickets of red osier dogwood, Armenian blackberry, snowberry, cottonwood, Oregon ash, and willow. Eventually the road bed turns to reach the little bay
Trail Stats
0.0 km
3 m
7 m
0 m
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Photos
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250px-WarriorRockMap
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250px-WPtrail
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