Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Labyrinth Coyote Wall Trail Loop

 Headed out to the East side of the Columbia River Gorge to enjoy the warm weather and wildflowers. I decided to park at the Coyote Wall Trailhead and do a combination of the Labyrinth, Coyote Wall and Maui Trails for about 8.5 miles with 1,400 ft of elevation gain. There are many interconnected trails and loops here.
 From the parking area, the trail goes along an abandoned road for a short way. There is a small lake that lies between the abandoned road and the highway.
 A small creek flowing over the rocks.
 I started up the Maui Trail for a short ways. With the wet spring we've had, this area was very green  with lots of wildflowers.
 The trail crosses a creek,
 and a short distance later was the lower side trail that leads to the Labyrinth Trail. Looking east along the Columbia River.
 I then headed up the Labyrinth Trail. There are lots of oak trees here.
 A small cave along the trail.
 The Labyrinth Trail continues along a stream with a waterfall.
 A boot track leads to a closer look of the waterfall.
 There are some interesting rock formations here.
Partway up the Labyrinth Trail, view looking east along the Columbia River














Higher along the trail, balsamroot is in bloom.
There are some nice overlooks of the Columbia River along the way.

 Continuing up to the Upper Labyrinth Trail.






 Lots of water in the creek.














From the Upper Labyrinth Trail, I followed the Attwood Road west to the  Old West Road then followed the Traverse to Coyote Wall.




Along the trails at Coyote Wall were many balsamroot in bloom and turkey vultures soaring overhead.
I hiked a short distance up the Coyote Wall Trail.
Looking north along the Coyote Wall.













View to the south further down the Coyote Wall Trail.
Pano from the Coyote Wall looking south.

The Coyote Wall trail (and the Little Moab trail) are very steep and hard on the knees going downhill.  So instead of heading down the more direct Little Moab Trail, I took the more winding and a bit less steep Little Maui Trail down to the road.
There were lots of little flowers in bloom and large oak trees here.


 I love this winding trail that goes under a low oak branch.
 Along the way, a short boot track leads to this pond.
Little waterfalls cascading down the hillside.














Some of the wildflowers I saw along the trails today:




 







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