EG: 1232' 5 miles
We left Portland early and headed east. We were heading over Mt Hood at around 8am. The traffic was heavy and most of it was people headed to Timberline or Mt Hood Meadows.
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| Snowy trees on Mt Hood |
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I was glad to be just driving through. We stopped at the Chevron just past Hwy 35 and then continued on.
We arrived at Smith Rock late morning, enjoyed the surrounding views and got started on the trail.
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| Us at the TH |
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| The beauty we enjoyed the entire hike |
The Parking area is up about 300' from the river, so you hike down a nice trail for about 0.5 miles. There is a composting toilet before heading across the river.
After crossing the river, you can go left along the river trail, or continue forward up the Misery Ridge trail. We went forward for the 1 mile trek up about 1000'. There are a lot of switchbacks to ease some of the steepness of the trail.
About halfway up, there was a group of twenty-something year old guys that were taking a cigarette break. Nothing better than enjoying some secondhand smoke while you are already having a hard time getting enough oxygen.
We made it to the top after about 30 minutes. It was a nice view from the top.
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| a little snow reaming |
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| look at the parking lot way down there |
We took a few minutes to enjoy the views and then continued on. A few yards down the trail, there is a spur trail off to the left where there is a bench to sit at and enjoy the views of the Cascades(if the clouds cooperate), there are also some large rocks to climb up even higher and get a 360 view.
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| beauty |
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| old gnarly tree |
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| Cher didnt have a desire to join me on the rock |
The boys that were enjoying the cigarette break soon joined the area and had another smoke break(only this smoke was a little more skunky smelling)
. After getting a contact high, we continued on the trail.
A little further down, there were some more rock formations to check out. I had no idea that there would be so much cool stuff to check out up here.
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| Cool rock |
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| Cher spots bunny |
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| little bun-bun spotted |
We went up a little higher on the other side of the large rock and found a really cool spot for lunch and to explore around a little more
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| Diego and I doing a little rock climbing before lunch |
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| Black Butte and the Cascades |
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| break time |
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| nice views for lunch |
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| Diego also enjoys a little lunch |
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| a little post-lunch tom foolery |
After a little lunch break, we went back down to the trail and enjoyed views of Monkey Face Rock
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| Monkey Face Rock and Crooked River |
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| beautiful colors |
After this point, the Misery Ridge trail continues down the other side back down to the river. It is not as steep as the way up.
We found a cool hollowed out rock that we just had to stop to pose in.
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| Jen and Diego |
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| Just Jen |
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| Cher's turn |
The trail starts to level out as you come to the base of Monkey Face rock. There was a little snow built up at the base of the rock.
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| love the colors |
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| a cairn wall |
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| amazing rock formations |
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| a lone tree. The geese were trying to chase away an intruder |
The trail eventually meets up with the river trail again. As we continued on the trail and were looking up at the massive rock walls that the trial follows, we noticed hundreds of mud nests that had been made in the crevasses of the rocks. Im guessing they were swallows, but not sure.
As we came around the south side of Smith Rock, we noticed a lot more rock climbers in action.
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| rock climbers doing their thang |
We were almost back to the bridge and noticed another compost toilet. We stopped and used the bathroom and watched the rock climbers for a bit before heading back up to the car.
I had read about a local restaurant that was supposed to be really good, so we decided to check it out for dinner. It is called
Terrebonne Depot Food and Drink and it was amazing!
They had everything from Tuna Poke, to Elk steak, to hamburgers.
We both chose the bacon cheese burger with Gorgonzola cheese. We added an egg to it and asked for it to be as raw as possible. It was perfect!!
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| Bacon cheeseburger |
We decided to head home through Redmond and Sister, instead of over Mt Hood again.
It was a great hike and we will be visiting again (both Smith Rock and Terrebonne Depot)
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