Punchbowl Falls Park (Hood River)

This is not the Punch Bowl Falls on Eagle Creek (spelled as two words, in the Columbia River Gorge). This Punchbowl Falls drops into a columnar-basalt amphitheater on the West Fork Hood River, at ground that spent more than a century as Weyerhaeuser timberland. Western Rivers Conservancy purchased the property and transferred it to Hood River County in 2016. Trailkeepers of Oregon and Thrive! Hood River led volunteer trail-building crews from 2016 to 2019, and an Eagle Scout finished the trail signage in 2019.

The 2.1-mile loop combines the West Fork Trail and the Dogwood Trail. From the trailhead, a short walk down an old service road leads to a signed path on the left. The West Fork Trail skirts oak woodland above the basalt-columned lower gorge, where a collapsing 1959 wood staircase still clings to the opposite wall — it once led down to a concrete fish ladder. Spring brings grass widow, saxifrage, buttercup, monkey flower, and larkspur along the slope. The trail reaches an airy, exposed overlook of the Punchbowl Falls amphitheater, then passes a 50-yard spur to 75-foot Dead Point Falls plunging across the gorge. Below, gravel beaches mark the East-and-West-Fork confluence; a spur trail heads up the East Fork to a shady overlook.

The Dogwood Trail completes the loop through a leafy return route, especially rewarding in late October when fall color arrives. The amphitheater overlook has no railing — watch children and leashed dogs carefully. Poison oak grows in patches along the lower trail. Parking is free, but the lot is small and fills on summer weekends when locals combine the trail with river-bottom wading.