20 miles of hiking • 4250' elevation gain • 2 nights
Arrived at the Gorge later in the day, and car camped at Beacon Rock. Took off on this hike the next morning. Lots of cars at the trailhead, got the last spot before cars had to go to overflow. The trailhead isn't the clearest to find, but we asked some folks heading the same direction. Not a lot of people on the trail itself. Passed a group of 3 on the way up, and everyone else was going down. It's quite a burn in terms of elevation gain! Right at the point where we were losing it we go to the plateau. Awesome views on the way, and some unique stuff like the Indian wells. The plateau was gorgeous. Shrouded in fog, mysterious. We weren't sure how far we'd feel like hiking, and thought about staying at Smokey Camp, but felt energetic and kept going. The hike down from the plateau to the Eagle Creek Trail was totally overgrown. Chest-high bush. Lots of beautiful birds. Steep, and obviously hard to see the trail. It was a riot getting down though. We turned left on Eagle Creek Trail and picked a camp pretty close to the junction, since we weren't sure how busy it would be. We swam a bit, water was manageable. The next morning we left our packs and explored out to Tunnel Falls (amazing!). We hiked the 6 or so miles back to the trailhead and were out by lunch. Eagle Creek Trail was busy, but not mobbed. Great hike.
