McCall Point trail is located within Tom McCall Reserve. It is about 1.5 hour East of Portland. McCall Point trail is a 2 miles long trail and very well known for its wildflowers during the sprint time and many Oregonians love to come here for a hike in Spring. On this very beautiful sunny Saturday, we drove out on I84 and headed to Tom McCall Reserve.
The drive to Tom McCall Reserve was very smooth. One we get to Mosier, we got off I84 and drove on historic highway 30. Highway 30 was very narrow with bridge that only allowed one car to go through. After driving about 4 miles on Highway 30, we got to Rowena Viewpoint, which is where the trail head is at.
We got to the trail head around 9:30AM and the parking lot is about half full. From the parking lot, which is at Rowena Viewpoint, we could see the windy highway 30 going down the mountain. It was quite interesting. Some people hopped over the wall and walked on the cliff side to get better selfie photos, but it was very dangerous.
We headed to the trail head and there was a lot of wildflower on the field, even at the start of trail head. We saw many girls wearing their beautiful dress to come out here for a photo shoot.
As we hiked towards the top, there were even more wildflower to be seen on the side of the trail. We just love it. As the trial gained elevation, we could also see Mount Adams on the North side and Mount Hood on the East. The scene was just amazing.
We also saw a Labrador Retriever, 2 Golden Retrievers, and a St Bernard on the hiking trail although the sign specifically said no pets allowed. The dogs were very well behaved however. There were also many people brought their new borns to this beautiful place.
The trail itself has about 1000ft in elevation gain over about 2 miles, so it is a relatively easy hiking trail. It took us about an hour to reach the top, but it was mainly due to spending so much time on taking pictures.
At the top of the trail, there was not really any seating areas. So most people just sat on the ground to enjoy the flower and the breeze of wind. There were also bees flying around.
When we got back down to the parking lot, the parking lot was entirely full of cars and so many people were there. There is another trail(Rowena Plateau Trail) on the East side of the parking lot, which is very easy with essentially no elevation gains and very suitable for young children and seniors. However, it did not have as much wildflower.
Overall, McCall Point trail is our favorite trail this year so far. There are many other trails around this area and we definitely want to explore this region to check out more wildflower.
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