hike 7: part 1--hamilton mountain

this peak was our destination!

completed: 3/22/11
difficulty: strenuous

rating: 4.5 stars

time: 4 hours and 45 minutes

length: 8 miles

kyle and i didn't have to work until 4:30, so we decided we would do a longer, more challenging hike.  we decided to do hamilton mountain because it isn't super far away and it was a pretty clear day so we wanted some good views! plus the book said it would only take about 3 and a half hours and so far we are usually faster than what is written! hamilton was our second hike in washington and the actual location isn't too much farther than multnomah falls. the biggest issue was the first bridge to cross over the columbia river was another 14 miles east of multnomah...it also happens to be the first bridge east of any of the bridges leading from portland to vancouver, wa. (kyle also forgot to mention that the bridge we crossed to get to our previous hike of coyote wall and the labyrinth was EXTREMELY narrow and had the ridges for water drainage so it was hard to steer and just super scary! i made him drive home because i didn't want to have to drive over it again! and for any of you family members who have crossed the mississippi river in louisiana, mo and how narrow that one is, this one was way worse and longer! i almost had a panic attack while driving!) so anyways, this tangent is getting way too long. we finally got a chance to cross a bridge we had only heard about from driving on i-84 but never seen: the bridge of the gods! fortunately it was way bigger than the previous bridge but unfortunately i wasn't as impressed especially since it had a name like "bridge of the gods".

so once we got to the trailhead we were impressed. the trail for hamilton mountain starts in beacon rock state park and this hike is described as 2 different hikes in the book; hamilton mountain and beacon rock (which is why this is part one!). we had to park at the trailhead for beacon rock, which is a very impressive work of nature (more on that later...) because the road to the campsite and the official trailhead of hamilton mountain is closed in the winter. so we actually did more than 8 miles, but not sure how much! 

the book describes hamilton mountain as strenuous, so we knew it was going to be a challenge going into it, and probably the most challenging hike we had done yet! i was a little nervous considering the walk up to the campsite was kinda steep! but the trail started right away in the forest and started to climb right away-not too steep, but definitely not easy! the elevation for the start of this is at approximately 500 ft, after the hike up from where we parked! so a little ways into the hike the forest clears into more of a meadow and it is because all of these power lines are up. that is where we had our first glimpse of the summit. we discussed for a few seconds if that could really be where we were going because it seemed far away! we also stopped at a bench there and shed some of our heavier layers!

hardy falls

one of the many bridges we crossed!

back into the woods we went and crossed a couple of small streams that had bridges! we also got to check out 2 waterfalls from hardy creek on the hike. to get to view the first one, hardy falls, we had to descend down a very muddy and slippery trail. there was a nice viewing platform to get a look.

on the bridge close to the bottom of rodney falls

a picture of close to the top of rodney falls
and the railing is where the trail ends for
the "pool of winds"

the second waterfall, rodney falls, was really cool. the bridge that crossed the creek at this point was really close to the water and the falls were very rocky. there is also a small side trail that leads up to the "pool of winds" where you can get really sprayed from the waterfall. its called this because the water is basically exploding out of a bowl in the rock face! after crossing hardy creek, we had to climb some steps and the sun was peaking through the trees just right and the birds were chirping that it really felt peaceful. just a little bit farther we traveled on before we came to an intersection to choose the way up hamilton mountain: difficult or more difficult!

we went up the more difficult trail as was suggested in the book. i am glad we did because that way was definitely more interesting and the view was better because it overlooked the gorge almost the whole way! so the trail basically wound through the forest and was rather difficult. there were quite a few switchbacks and lots of places where if you fell of the side of the trail you would tumble down the hill pretty far! there was one point when we could look up and see a really rocky formation and we thought that was the top! we were wrong! we had a lot farther to go!

there were quite a few side trails at this point which we ended up taking and exploring quite a bit (one of the reasons why it took us so long to do!) we could also see trails up to this other peak, but thought there was no way that could be where we were going! we had already climbed so much and were up really high! plus it seemed really far away! again, we were wrong!

we thought we were at the top!

the actual summit of hamilton mountain in the background!

view of the gorge

so we decided to continue going because the book also said the trail was a loop and at the time the only way down would have been the way we came. at this point, the trail became even more steep (according to the book we climbed 700 feet in about a mile)! this part was definitely strenuous! kyle supposedly had a second wind and said he felt great! grr...i was cold and sweating at the same time and out of breath! not cool. 

but we knew when we reached the top! thank goodness there was a sign! and the reason i was cold was because there was still snow on top of the mountain! wonderful...not. so at the top we looked around (not much of a view of the gorge because the summit is on the north side and it was pretty cloudy by the time we got there so we couldn't see mt. adams or mt. st. helens) and ate our apples before finding the trail back down. another reason i was happy we took the trail up that we did was because there was a lot less snow. on our way down we walked through snow for about a half mile. not fun!

looking back at the other side of the summit 

as i mentioned, the trail down was a lot less cool. its an old road so its pretty wide, but just winds through the forest. so the main reason the hike took us so much longer than what the author said it would was because clumsy me happened to twist my ankle on the way back down! i did it a little bit before the trail split between difficult and more difficult. kyle was nice enough to not laugh at me (until later when i was laughing!) and helped me up. so the rest of the hike down was pretty slow, even though we were both afraid we were going to be late for work at this point! all in all a good hike that we will definitely visit again!