Mosier Plateau trail is a heavily used and popular hiking trail along Columbia Gorge. As its name suggests, the trail is located at Mosier, a small town East of Portland. The trail is located about 1.5 hours East of Portland. It is only about 3 miles round trip with little elevation gain. Thus it is ver family friendly. During the spring time, Mosier Plateau trail is known to have its beautiful wildflowers at the top of plateau and thus attracts lots of hikers to come.
We left Portland around 7AM in the morning and got to Mosier around 8:30AM. It was rather cloudy at Portland but when we got to Mosier, it was sunny with no cloud! The parking for Mosier Plateau trail was quite small that could only hold about 8 cars, but there is a large free public parking lot along the railway just North of the Mosier Plateau parking lot. The free public parking lot is was to find with a Mosier Totem. We saw few cars simply parked on the road side, but please don't park on the road. The public parking lot is simply 1 minute away.
The trail head is right by the narrow white bridge and going upward towards the plateau. The first section of the trail goes around some community's backyard. As we hike along the trail, we came cross a small cemetery. We walked around it but people could walk through it as well. The trail then went around the cliff side along the Mosier Creek. Right near where the waterfall is at, there was a path where people could head down to the swim hole.
The hiking trail was very well maintained. There was even staircases built for people to climb up the hill. As we went higher along the plateau, it was getting more and more windy. As we got to the open space at the top of the plateau overlooking the Columbia Gorge, the wind was blowing extremely hard. The wind felt quite sharp scratching our face.
The view was beautiful however. We could see highway I-84 and the entire Columbia Gorge. The wildflower was still blossom, but it has passed its peak time. Comparing to Sevenmile Hill, Sevenmile Hill definitely offered the best wildflower experience we have had.
Overall, Mosier Plateau trail was a great short fun hike. We enjoyed it and didn't have to push ourselves to finish the trail. This trail is family friendly and also pet friendly. One thing to keep in mind is to stay on trail and not to damage any wildflowers.