Catherine Creek trail is located about 90 minutes East of Portland, on the North side of Columbia Gorge. It is just a bit further East than Dog Mountain. It is a relatively easy hike that offers 2 miles round trip trail. There isn't a parking lot at this place and the parking spaces are along the road. Thus it is recommended to come here early since the parking space runs out rather quickly. On this beautiful sunny day at the end of March, we decided to go for a hike at Catherine Creek and wanted to see if we are lucky enough to see wildflower blossom.
We left Portland around 8AM in the morning and got to Catherine Creek day use area just before 10AM. We took Highway 14 on the Washington side instead of taking I84 on the Oregon side because we did not want to pay for crossing the toll bridge. When we got there, there were only few parking spots left and we were lucky to grab one.
We started hiking at the trail head but 30 minutes later we realized that we were hiding towards West instead of going North. Then we checked the map and saw that we started on the wrong path right from the beginning. At the trail head, we should have took the path on right side towards East first. Then that trail would take us onto the right path. So we had to head back down to where we started, otherwise we would have ended up at Coyote Wall.
We got back on the right path and the hiking trail was quite easy. After about 15 minutes, we walked on a wooden plank to cross the creek. The water was running rather fast in the creek.
After 20 minutes, we got to the joint where the path diverges. The path on the right loops back down to trail head. The trail on the left takes us further up and do another 2 miles loop. We figured that 2 miles is nothing so we headed further up and it was totally worth it. There wasn't much tree up there and it was just a beautiful lush green of hills. We just loved it. We could also see various purple and yellow wildflowers on the grass field that have just started to blossom. The wildflowers will most likely in full blossom for the next 2 weeks or so.
As we loop back down the path actually took us onto the road instead of looping back to trail head. It was quite strange but we figured that we probably took the wrong turn. Some part of the trail was not very obvious but it was ok because we could see everything from the top. So we walked on the road for 1 minutes or 2 to head back to the trail head.
At the trail head, we just found out that there is a shoe brush to let people to clean their shoes before and after the hike. This is to prevent the seed of other weeds to get to this area.
Overall, we loved Catherine Creek on this beautiful sunny day. We could see Columbia Gorge from the top and we could imagine that the scene is even more beautiful when wildflowers are in full blossom.
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