We headed out to the Catherine Creek Recreation Area on the Columbia Gorge, east of Bingen, WA. There are several interconnecting trails here. We combined parts of 3 different trails for a hike of about 6 - 7 miles with 1200 ft of elevation gain.
We turned onto old Hwy 8 and immediately parked at the western end of Rowland Lake. To get to the western end of Labyrinth trail, walk a short distance down a closed road next to Hwy 14. You can see Mt Hood in the background.
Rowland Lake Falls, next to this old road.
The trail starts of the road going uphill. We took the Labyrinth Trail (also called Hidden Canyon Trail).
There were lots of wildflowers along the trails, and interesting rock formations.
We saw many turkey vultures flying overhead.
There was also lots of poison oak along the Labyrinth Trail.
We walked by a small cave.
We could see another waterfall between the trees
that led to a refreshing pool.
As we continued to hike higher, we began to get views of the Columbia River.
The Labyrinth Trail led up past a "mini" Devil's Tower.
and trough an Oak forest, looking back down the trail with Mt Hood in the distance.
The trail leads up towards a barbed wire fence, there is a spur trail to the right over a downed section of this fence going to an overlook of Rowland Lake and the Columbia River below (view to the east).
We rejoined the trail and continued hiking up hill. We found a place to sit in the shade of an oak tree, enjoying the view while eating our lunch.
Instead of continuing on the Labyrinth Trail to the east, we hiked up to Atwood Wood road to connect with the Coyote Wall Trail to the west.
Panorama view of the Columbia River from above.
We kept hiking to the west, trying to keep away from the private properties in the upper areas. We enjoyed the flowers,
the stream crossings,
and the views of both Mt Hood
and the Columbia River. We found the old Jeep trail that took us to the Coyote Wall Trail.
At the overlook of Coyote Wall, looking north along the Coyote Wall Trail
From the same overlook, looking south to Look Lake, the Columbia River and Mt Hood.
We then choose to go down the Little Maui Trail back down to the old disused road. We passed by streams,
and wildflowers, and
large rocks, and views.
Looking toward the large rock walls where we began our hike.
Some of the many wildflowers we saw today on our hike:
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