The last couple of years, I have linked Heaven and Hell – Angel’s and Devil’s Rests on the same hike – together from the Wahkeena Falls trailhead. This makes a very nice lollipop loop which my corgi Ollie appreciated as much as I did. The Wahkeena Canyon path is quieter compared to the Angel’s Rest trail further to the west, the lack of parking probably has something to do with that. But also, Angel’s Rest is probably the second or third most popular trail in the Columbia River Gorge after Multnomah Falls and maybe Dog Mountain (in wildflower season) and Hamilton Mountain. Just from looking at the Angel’s Rest parking lot on a weekend, I would maybe push it into second spot.
THE PLAN
An Openstreet map showing the route to Heaven and Hell high above the Columbia River.
View is to the south.
On this day, I decided to attack Devil’s Rest by way of the busier Angel’s Rest Trail. The path – Forest Service #415 – to Angel’s Rest is only 4.3 miles in length with a gain of 1486 vertical feet taking a time of 3 hours 3 minutes to complete according to outdooractive.com. The trail is reasonably wide with the elevation gained gradually. Rocks can be a problem in a few spots, but a waterfall and views higher up keep the interest as one climbs. Continuing on from Angel’s to Devil’s Rest computed to 8.0 miles and a time of 5 hours 20 minutes.
Atop Angel’s Rest, one has a magnificent view down the Columbia River as it exits the Cascade Mountain Range, the only river able to plow through the mountains. Skyscrapers in Portland are clearly visible, especially in the morning hours. Rooster Rock beaches and the Crown Point observatory are below in the immediate foreground. Other mountains such as Silver Star prominently rise to the north. Freeway noise from Interstate 84 drift up from far below.
A fire scorched some of the area around Angel’s Rest. Most of the damage from that fire happened in 1991, though some of the huge 2017 fire touched the area, as well. In this area of the Gorge, you often hike through areas damaged by recent forest fires and other areas of forest spared because of wind.
THE START
The parking lot at the Angel’s Rest trailhead is a bit bigger than the one at the bottom of Wahkeena Falls, though if you come late, good luck. Even getting started at 0815, I still ran across a good 20 people with most already coming down after seeing the view, somewhat obscured in morning clouds. Coming back down the same trail around one in the afternoon was much busier. A good hundred people were either walking up or down the trail on a summer Monday. Come early – even earlier if it is a weekend.
NO COUGARS ONLY CORGIS
The trail had recently closed for a week or so because of a cougar on the trail. Today, there would be no cougar sightings, only corgis. My 4.5-year-old Ollie managed the trek well, as he did the last Wahkeena lollipop. Corgis have a lot of endurance though you still must be careful if temperatures creep above 80F. On this trek, in addition to carried water, there are water sources four spots along the way, though they are spread out.
REACHING FOR HEAVEN?
We pushed up the Angel’s Rest Trail passing by Coopey Falls. Side trails lead off to gain a closer look though we did not take any. At the top of the upper falls, Ollie plunged into the creek to fill up before the big climb ahead.
The middle part of Angel’s Rest Trail presents elevation gain and switchbacks as you rise out of the Coopey Creek drainage onto a ridge coming off the west side of the Rest. Several parts of the path were involved in the 2017 fire, and here, the trail needed reconstructing.
Near the top, one crosses a patch of about 75 yards of large rock scree before one final switchback lands you atop the Rest. To go to the west side of the Rest, your corgi might need a little lift on one section.
HELL SITS ABOVE HEAVEN HERE
Today, however, we wanted to get past Heaven with our sights set on Hell. One walks the ridge connecting Angel’s Rest to the main mountains -above which lies the Devil’s Rest – along a path that by this late June day was overgrown. Something to be said for doing this hike on a nice day in late May before the forest understory takes off. Ollie, many times, was walking through a tunnel on this hike, while I was constantly brushing plants aside.
MAZE OF USER PATHS LYING BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL
You come to a trail junction – path #415 (an official Forest Service trail) heads off to the left towards Wahkeena Basin. We would return on this trail – but our immediate path is the Foxglove Trail, built by volunteers from the Trails Club of Oregon or the Mazamas – a local mountain climbing club. The Trails Club and the Trailkeepers of Oregon help maintain a series of user paths on the slopes and forests around Devil’s Rest above the Angel’s Rest. I met one solid Trailkeepers member, the only person outside of the Angel’s Rest Trail we met this day, Don Nelsen, busy at work with his small chainsaw slicing logs which had fallen along the Devil’s paths.
The path system is a bit intricate, and one needs to have a good map at hand to try and decipher the different routes. The names for paths are noted on trail signs, though those path names do not always show up on maps, since they are unofficial. The Forest Service would do well to make the unofficial “official”. Above is a great way to navigate the options on the Bridal Veil plateau.
FOREST BELIES A LOGGED PAST
This day, we walked the “new” Foxglove Trail – follow signs for “Devil’s Rest”. Past one junction – Lizzie’s Lane – we turned right and at a second junction followed the sign to “A Smith Road” – named now “Short’s Cut”. The forest walk once above Angels Rest is very pleasant. While it seems, one is moving through primeval forest, it is in fact second or third growth.
Late 19th century and early 20th century loggers were able to get up here into forest lands not as steep as presented just to the north with the massive canyon walls of the Gorge. Here and there, stumps belie the forest past. A logging mill complete with worker housing used to operate into the 1930s – Palmer Mill. Lack of trees (having harvested those present) and the fact that much of the timber was hemlock – not a sought-after source of lumber – brought an end to the industry here high above the Columbia. Today, nature appears to have regained the upper hand, except where Don and his friends try to keep the paths open.
DESCENT FROM HELL
Soon, Ollie and I gained the top of Devil’s Rest. The view from here, however, lies obscured by trees surrounding the top. Hell, I guess? But there is a wonderful viewpoint over the Wahkeena Basin to the immediate east a short quarter mile down the “official” Devil’s Rest Trail coming up from Wahkeena Springs area. The viewpoint – Devil’s View – is also reachable on a couple of paths leading off Devil’s Rest created by volunteers. Names like Shy-Devil (the Foxglove Trail morphed into Short’s Cut and then the She-Devil Trail at some point earlier before gaining the top of the Rest) and Primrose Path are important here. As is Devil’s Slide, which Don informed us as not a great option.
VIEW FROM HELL IS MAGIC
The wonderful viewpoint looks across the Wahkeena Basin upriver past Bonneville Dam and Beacon Rock with Hamilton and Table Mountains rising on the Washington side – St Helens, Rainier and Adams also glistened far beyond – and Nesmith and Palmer Peaks rising up above the forests burned in 2017 on the Oregon side.
We then backtracked to the ‘user path’ leading over the “Primrose Trail”. We were happy to be going down this thing – it leads down the west ridge of Wahkeena Basin to intersect with trail #415 linking Wahkeena Spring with Angel’s Rest – because it was very steep.
PRIMROSES DON’T LINE THIS PATHWAY
In climbing terminology, I would call it an approach path, meaning it goes straight up for the most part. On the ascent, you may need to grab a bush now and then, but our journey pointed down. One of us had four legs and the other held two trekking poles to help brake the descent.
BACK TO HEAVEN
Looking up from a rock outcropping about a third of the way up the Primrose Path. Devils Rest sits in the trees above on the right while the path goes UP past the little cliffs.
.Wahkeena Basin opens to the left.
At about the midway point, we ran across a trail sign that warned of the steepness ahead. The lower half of the Primrose Path seemed more visible and not as overgrown. It was still steep, but not like the upper section.
Out onto an official trail – Forest Service #415 – at least gave us comparatively level ground with some ups and downs. What was most difficult was the overgrown nature of the way. The other two times I have walked this path, it was earlier in the season. With shoulder-high salmonberry crowning the path, the trail was not as enjoyable. Ollie rarely enjoyed a view as his short nature insured a long walk in a vegetable tunnel.
Ollie checks out one last ‘user trail’ – Lillie’s Lane – while the main trail leading from Wahkeena Basin to Angels Rest – #415 – goes off into the vegetation on the right.
WATERING IN THE UPPER REACHES OF MIST
Fairly shortly after walking west on #415, we came to two crossings of branches of Mist Creek. These waters run down to form one of the most magnificent waterfalls in the Gorge – at least in season when it is running full. Today, they offered Ollie a chance to recharge liquidly.
A last creek to cross past a small campsite takes us around a corner of ghost forest back to wonderful views of Angel’s Rest and to the west beyond, out from the clutches of the spectral hosts atop Devil’s Rest.
Soon we are back to the Foxglove-#415 intersection, and we turn back to Angel’s Rest. By now, the Rest is crowded with hikers as we walk by dropping down the way we came up. By this point in the day, the temperatures climbed much warmer – morning clouds, now gone with an even more glorious and far-reaching views – and we are ready to call it a day. Past the rock scree and down the switchbacks we go. Walkers always have something to say about or to Ollie, the mountain corgi as we pass.
ENDING
A final water stop atop Coopey Falls so that Ollie can go into the car with the proper mountain corgi muddy belly and the day in the mountains of the Columbia River Gorge come to a wonderful conclusion.
Totals for the Angel’s and Devil’s lollipop came to 8.0 miles with 2533 vertical feet gained and lost over 5 hours 20 minutes – my Apple watch gives me credit for 8.94 miles along with 1824 calories burned.
So int
So interesting. I used to hike up to Angels Rest frequently, some sixty years ago. A memorable hike was October 13, 1962, the day after the Columbus Day Storm. I took my parents’ VW to downtown Portland to see the Park Blocks damage, then went out to the Gorge to check that area out. In those days, there were few hikers. I don’t recall ever encountering another hiker on the Angels Rest trail. I do remember, however, that once a friend and I started out on the trail and noticed, lo and behold, someone had gone up the trail recently wearing “Vibram” soles on their boots. The soles were highly unusual in 1962-3 and gave us hope that we might meet someone who also liked to climb cliffs in the Gorge—as we did. We were regular hikers on Dog Mountain, too. I do remember meeting just one other party there, an older couple who were photographing flowers. It seemed an odd, maybe boring use of time to me then; a wonderful way to spend an afternoon now.
If only I could have hiked up to Angels Rest in another October, back in 1792. Captain Broughton’s longboat (of the George Vancouver expedition) would have been visible as we ate lunch. Was he and his crew the first “white guys” to see Angels Rest? Good question.
The men with Lewis and Clark were not far behind. Hiking back in the day must have been nice without having to worry about permits, parking passes and crowded trails.