Multnomah Falls-Devils Rest Loop

This loop strings together much of the western Columbia River Gorge in a single circuit with no repeated tread. From Multnomah Falls Lodge (a 1925 building serving the historic highway), the paved trail climbs to Benson Bridge for the head-on view of the falls, then switchbacks eleven times up the asphalt mile to a ridgecrest. After the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, the slope feels more open and the drop-offs more lethal — much of the buffering understory burned. A pika colony lives in the scree below the fourth switchback.

Above the rim, a side path drops to the Multnomah Falls Upper Viewpoint, a basalt-walled balcony at the lip of the falls. The main trail crosses Multnomah Creek and passes Lower, Middle, and Upper Dutchman Falls, ducks through the creek-washed Dutchman Tunnel, then continues past Wiesendanger and Ecola Falls. A junction with the Wahkeena Trail turns the route up a scorched slope through reviving Oregon grape and bracken. The Devils Rest Trail climbs six switchbacks along Shady Creek into a shallow bowl of large Douglas-fir and hemlock; from a break in the canopy, Devils Rest itself comes into view.

The summit is a mossy rockpile with no view, but clifftop perches nearby look across to Yeon Mountain, Hamilton Mountain, and Table Mountain on the Washington side. The descent follows the user-built Primrose Path — steep, brushy, with downed logs to step over — back to the lower trail system. Above the lower paved trails, the loop sees few people. The Primrose Path requires attention; it is unofficial, and trail finding becomes the work between flagged sections.