We saw earlier how to climb to the top of the Larch Mountain crater from the Columbia River on the 1915 historic Larch Mountain Trail. But you don’t have to gain 4,400 feet over the 6.6-mile trek up to Sherrard Point. You can actually cheat and start at the top. Simply drive up Larch Mountain Road to its end. Fourteen miles up from the Columbia River Highway just west from Crown Point. Park in the large lot near the summit.

CHOICES

From the parking lot you have choices. There is our old favorite, the Larch Mountain Trail. And a few hundred yards down the road from the parking lot, is the upper end of the Oneonta Trail. This trail opens up another watershed to the potential adventurer.

Both trails give other options to produce loops upon loops. But here, we will concentrate on exploring the rims of the crater of Larch Mountain. Doing the Larch rim route covers 6.2 miles with 1407 vertical feet gained and lost. One thing to remember, the views from the top of Sherrard Point atop the mountain give you an incredible outlook. You scan over mountains and forested valleys bordering the Columbia River Gorge. The rest of the walk stays in the trees for the most part.

CLOCKWISE OR COUNTERCLOCKWISE

This really does not matter too much. The climb up the west rim is maybe slightly steeper than the east rim, but not much. I have done both directions. I like the counterclockwise direction better, just to get the quarter mile hike on the road down to the Oneonta Trail out of the way. Road walks seem a bit anticlimactic, even if you spend most of your time hiking through trees. The views from the road do not improve from the trail and my old knees prefer the duff of the trails.

Another note: “duff” of the trails? A bit misleading there, because you run across lots of rocks – though nothing like a hike in the Appalachians – complicated by multitudes of tree roots all contributing to attempt to stub your toes along the way.

SHERRARD POINT

With a fine paved seasonal road – Forest Highway 15 – to the top – with a large parking area – most people who come to get close up on Larch Mountain simply drive to the summit.  Only the parking lot is still not the true summit.   Sherrard Point, the highest point at 4055 feet, is an ancient plug to the volcano, attached to the crater rim by a little ridge traversed by an asphalted path – a sign at the west end of the parking lot points to “Sherrard Point” – covering 0.3 miles and a series of 125 steps. 

The stairs lead to a large platform from which you can peer out over the crater below and to five glaciated volcanoes rising in the distance.  To the south lies the vast Bull Run Reserve, a watershed owned and run by the City of Portland providing drinking water for the metroplex. The western view is mostly obscured by trees, though you can get a glimpse of the Columbia River, the Portland airport and the city of Vancouver.

Quick note: parking in the lot beneath Sherrard Point requires a Forest Pass – daily, seasonal or some other parking pass good for Federal parks.

Looking north over the crater, you see verdant green of the rejuvenated forests, until you come upon the fringes of the 2017 fire.  Franklin Ridge and parts of the upper Multnomah Creek canyon below the crater show areas where the fires burned hot.  That fire, driven by strong winds blowing to the west, stayed below around the immediate rim of the Gorge getting up to around the 2,400-foot level.

ON THE CLOCK

So, going with the clock, backtracking from Sherrard Point, after descending the stairs you find another asphalted trail climbing another 26 steps. Up you go. This trail leads to picnic tables, but you also find a trail going off to the right descending to the west. This takes you down to the uppermost section of the Larch Mountain Trail. If you miss the trail on the right, make your way back to the parking lot where the Larch Mountain Trail officially ends just past the rest area.

The next almost two miles drops you down the forested rim of the old volcano. Only as you approach a first trail junction with an old forest road does the way get very steep, so the journey remains pleasant. Occasionally, you can get glimpses through the trees to the east edge of the crater, your target.

multnomah way

In just under two miles, you reach an intersection with Forest Road #315 with an old rock quarry on the right.  Continue the trail across the road.  Another half mile brings you down to an intersection with the Multnomah Way Trail.  Here, turn right off the Larch Mountain Trail.

Descend one long switchback – 0.2 miles – to a log bridge crossing of the West Fork of Multnomah Creek. From here the Multnomah Way Trail goes off to the right. You will meet the upper end of this trail later in the hike.

We head left onto the Multnomah Spur Trail with directional signs pointing to the Oneonta and Franklin Ridge Trails, 2.6 miles into the hike.  This path leads up over a slight ridge and down to a rock crossing over the East Fork of Multnomah Creek.

eastern rim

Now, you climb to reach the northeastern rim of the crater, about 0.25 miles to an intersection with the Oneonta Trail.  If you go a half mile further to the north, you reach the upper terminus of the Franklin Ridge Trail as the Oneonta path crests out of the Multnomah basin to descend into the main Oneonta canyon.  But for the rest of the Larch Mountain crater rim, we turn south on the Oneonta Trail.  A gentle ascent at first, then followed by a descent to cross two upper trickles of Oneonta Creek.

Another 0.25 miles brings you to the intersection with the Bell Creek Trail.  This trail connects the Oneonta Trail to other trails – Horseshoe Creek – which lead all the way to Nesmith Point, but that is for another day.  Also, those trails have been closed since 2017 with little or no trail maintenance in the meantime making for a possibly tedious journey.

A quick note on the Horseshoe Creek Trail. Looking at the map, that trail appears part of a long-range complex of paths linking various fire lookout locations atop peaks in various drainage systems coming off the Columbia River along the Oregon side – Larch Mountain, Nesmith Point, Tanner Butte, Chinidere, Defiance and others. That trail system – if re-opened – opens a lot of backcountry to adventurers.

multnomah way again

After passing Bell Creek Trail – you are now leaving the Hatfield Wilderness (self-issuing permit box at the junction) – and it is time to regain all that lost elevation.  The path gets a bit easier after 0.8 miles where you come to the upper terminus of the Multnomah Way Trail.  If you turn on this trail just a short way to the point in turns into the crater, you can see the old railroad cut created to allow the former narrow-gauge line to get into to the southern part of the crater to help loggers remove some of the old growth forests there.

road walk finish

From the top of the Multnomah Way, the Oneonta Trail continues up the south rim of the crater to terminate on the last hairpin turn of Forest Road #15 – Larch Mountain Road.  Walk up the road back to your car in the parking lot 0.4 miles further.

Total for the rim circumvention comes to 6.2 miles with 1,414 vertical feet gained and lost along the way.  Recommended time runs to just over three hours.