King Mountain is a very popular trail near Portland metro area. It is known for its steepness and difficulty of the trail. The trail is about 2.3 miles long with elevation gain of about 2500 feet, which is quite significant. The King Mountain trail is also often associated with Elk Mountain trail due to the fact that these mountain trails are linked. People can choose to do both King Mountain and Elk Mountain at the same time if time allows.
We got to King Mountain trail head around 7:30 AM in the morning. There were only 2 other cars in the parking lot. The parking space can hold around 15-20 cars in total. The weather is a bit chilly in the morning but it gets hot when the sun comes out.
The trail is mostly covered under foliage with lot of ferns on the ground. The trail started with some incline and we were making very good pace in the beginning. The first half of the trail was not difficult at all and just with some elevation gain. After 1 mile in, the trail started to climb steeply.
The steep climb of the trail was still not bad and we could handle. However, after about 1.5 miles in, there was a lot of large rocks on the steep trail. This really made the climb difficult and exhausting since we had to make large strides. When we ere almost at the top of the summit there was a lot of lose gravels on the trail which made the hike a bit slippery.
After about 1.5 hours, we finally made it to the top of the King Mountain Summit. The view was amazing and we could see the entire Tillamook forest below us. At the summit, there was a tube in the box that contains a booklet where people signed their names after making to the top of the summit. We signed our names of course!
Overall, it was a great work out for hiking King Mountain. Going up to the summit was hard, but coming down was not easy either. We had to make sure we don't slip due to the steepness of the trail. We did not use any hiking poles but hiking poles are recommended if you have them.
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