hike 7: part 2--beacon rock

Beacon Rock

Completed: 3/30/11

Length: 1.8 miles

Difficulty: Moderate

Stars: 2

In our awesome hiking book Hamilton Mountain and Beacon Rock are grouped together. I assume this is because their respective trailheads are across the street from each other and Beacon Rock is a short hike. But Kyle and I did not hike these hike at the same time mainly because Beacon Rock is also known as a good climbing spot, so we wanted to hike it and climb it on the same trip! Add the fact that Hamilton Mountain took longer than we anticipated when we needed to work that night. However, we didn’t end up climbing Beacon Rock when we went back to hike because we went pretty late in the day, we forgot our climbing shoes, and it was still kind of rainy out. Anyways, that is why this hike is in 2 parts! (check out part 1 here!)

Beacon Rock actually has a really cool history along with it being an impressive hiking trail! It sticks out of the earth very impressively and has been hiked by Lewis and Clark. The rock marks the change in the Columbia River; the last of the rapids and the beginning of tidal influence on the river. The rock is the inside of an ancient volcano that remained behind after all the flooding that happened to form the Columbia River Gorge due to glaciers melting. Henry J. Biddle bought the land in 1914 to build a trail that climbed the rock. The trail itself ascends almost 600 feet in less than a mile and consists of 52 switchbacks, 100 concrete slabs, and, originally, 22 wooden bridges. Another cool fact about the trail was that the builders couldn't scout the route; they would build a section and then figure out where to go with it next.

The top of Beacon Rock provides a great view of the gorge in both east and west and a view of the peak of Hamilton Mountain to the north. But Beacon Rock was a little too touristy for Kyle and I. We saw people “hiking” up it in flip flops, which would be really easy to do other than the fact that its steep. Plus, at the top there were railings around the entire thing so we were unable to explore. We did break for a beer at the top though! On our hike down we ventured off the trail to see if we could find any of the top-rope climbing spots. Unfortunately we didn’t see any, but we did find some great bouldering areas. Kyle even climbed up one of the boulders without his climbing shoes!

The Beacon Rock State Park is a cool area, even if the climb to the top was less than amazing. There is beach access, picnic areas, and a camping areas. It would be a cool place to go back to and camp and swim and have a good time once it gets warm out!