Surely You Can't Be Serious: Hiking in Gifford Pinchot

We wanted to go hiking this last weekend, so Matt perused the Curious Gorge book and found 3 up in the Washington state area. We ended up doing two based on drive time and degree of wetness required. The area is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. According to the Forest Service website, it was named after

"Gifford Pinchot, an active conservationist, was appointed first Chief of the Forest Service. He played a key role in developing the early principles of environmental awareness. Pinchot's philosophy is made clear in his farsighted statement that the forests should be managed for "..the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run." In honor of his leadership, the Columbia National Forest was renamed for Gifford Pinchot in 1949."

On the way out you'll pass a Forest Service Station where you get a climbing permit for Mount Adams. If you had quizzed us on the elevations of the peaks in our general vicinity we would not have had a perfect score. Both of us believed Mt. Hood to be taller than Mt. Adams. Maybe it's because Hood is pointy and Adams is fairly flat top. [...]

Littler Little Goose

Our first stop was Little Goose Falls at Mile 8 on FS 88. Just so you know, there aren't any visible mile posts until about mile 5. Mile 8 mile post is no longer standing. The book mentions an undetectable bridge where you are supposed to pull off. I will tell you, there is no bridge. If you walk down under that part of the road you will see two very, very large culverts, which appear to be functioning as intended at least on the downstream side. The pullout for the "bridge"/ culverts/ river crossing (I agree it is quite undetectable) has a split post and no sign for MP 8. Just start your mile counting from 9 or 7 depending on your direction. There is a noticeable wide dirt pulloff on the east side of the road. Park here. There are sort of two footpaths. I believe they join up pretty quickly and follow the top of the river's ridge on the south side. Walking for as little as 2 minutes or less brings you to Littler Little Goose Falls. There is a relatively easy footpath to the base. Back at the top, follow the trail and your ears to Little Goose Falls. Getting to the base of it is quite tricky and based on trying both methods of reaching it, we strongly encourage only those who are able bodied, flexible, and have the temerity to navigate ledges, fallen tree or rock river crossings, and perhaps creating your own route should go for this. But for those that do, this one is worth it!

Basalt rock cliff

From the top we could not see a reasonable way down a cliff, so we tried the lower route first. This entailed off-trail (because there wasn't any evidence of one) trekking down a long, but not-too-steep slope through dead fall and living trees near the base of the exposed basalt rock wall. From there we climbed over and around rocks along the bank and over the creek itself until the only path forward was to walk across a fallen tree to the other bank. We proceeded along that bank until the only option was to climb along another fallen tree to the original bank, then hopping rocks back across again, only to arrive close enough to see part of the falls, but not actually reach it. The rocks partially or fully submerged are perilously slippery. One at a time we crawled using all four limbs across the last part of the creek. This could have easily been avoided by just walking through the water, which was not too deep, but would have gone over the top of our boots. And this being the first hike of the day, we were not open to getting wet intentionally.

Once on that side and close to the falls we could fully appreciate it's beauty and power, especially for such a small one (really, only about 12 feet). It put off a heavy mist of water and wind, which was very welcomed considering the heat of the day and the effort to get there. After a few moments, a man and a black lab came down the slope where we hadn't been able to figure out where to go down the cliff-like top. He was shirtless and in denim shorts. Apparently he and his buddy were camping in the area. His buddy, also shirtless, arrived a few minutes behind. For an obscure hike, it sure is popular with shirtless men, I couldn't help but think. It also ruined any chances of skinny dipping- which would have been nice in this crazy heat!

After spending some time relaxing and simply admiring the beauty we decided to hike out the way they came in. It was short and steep, but not too bad. There is something of a one-foot wide foot path to follow which is invisible from above due to the straight up climbing involved in the last few feet of vertical dirt and roots. (If the dog could do it- I could.) Scott Cook (Curious Gorge's author) describes this last part from the opposite direction as follows...

"At the fall's view go left for 60-ish feet to an obvious 6-foot down-climb spot (left of the rippled lava block). If you down-climb this you'll then duck-duck Little Goose's super-sneaky catwalk path which cuts under the rim and descends quickly to the falls."

While this may be the best way down, I think our maze from further downstream was more fun and made Little Goose that much more the reward.

First dead fall crossing

Second dead fall crossing

Made it!

Worth it!

Illustration of the mist

Obligatory selfie- no one else around to take our picture for us!

Driving to the next hike you pass Big Tire Junction. Literally.

Lots of tadpoles that were well into changing to frogs at Mosquito Lake

Our next hike planned, also considered obscure, was Steamboat Mountain. From our previous hike to the falls we had strong glimpses of Mt. Adams and Sleeping Beauty (the later being quite a popular viewpoint). Steamboat however, is decidedly a better alternative to Sleeping Beauty. The book says so, our friends who have done both say so, and after hiking it- we say so. Sleeping Beauty's trail is 1.5 miles and 1500-feet gain in elevation and you don't even get that great of a view. Meanwhile, Steamboat is .75 miles and 400-feet elevation gain. Though short, it is fairly steep and it was still righteously hot out. We powered up quickly, stopping only for 1-second sips of water. The view from the top is incredible. You have the whole valley south of Mt. Adams (with the mountain of course), Mt. Hood and Jefferson to the south, and St Helens and Rainier to the west. You can't exactly get a 360-degree view of them all at once because of the trees, but it's only a matter of walking 15 feet. At the top is the only remaining evidence of the now-gone observation tower- the concrete footings. While we didn't have any issues with the July mosquitos we were warned about, there was an amazing amount of other insect activity. We saw quite a few very large butterflies and while I can't say we were necessarily harassed, there were a significant number of bees and flies (and even yellow jackets) at the top. I think the sheer population was the only reason we were ever bothered, but they generally seemed to have little interest in us. Don't let that deter you in any way from doing this short, but very rewarding hike if you're ever in the area. I suggest clicking on the picture below and scrolling through for larger versions.