Lower Starvation Loop Hike

Overview

NOTICE: As of July 2018, the Starvation Ridge Cutoff Trail #414B had been closed due to a dangerous slide. You will not be able to complete this hike as loop, but you can do it as an out and back hike on the Starvation Ridge Trail. This is a hike for those that haven't the time or the stamina to do Mount Defiance. It gives you a quick sample of what the big hill is like, as well as views and waterfalls. As with most Gorge trails, watch for poison oak in open areas and especially forest margins: it crowds the trail in several spots and is not so easily avoided, so make sure you can identify it. This and some sheer drops along the way mean you should think twice before bringing children or pets on the hike. A final caveat is that highway and railway noise is noticeable at several points along the way. However, the combination of great scenery, spring wildflowers, and interesting features makes it easy to ignore the rumble of traffic. An easier low-level hike that also takes in the waterfalls, but not the views, wildflower meadows, and poison oak, is the Starvation Creek Waterfalls Hike. Your first waterfall will be Starvation Creek Falls. In the parking area, you’ll see a plaque commemorating the beginning of construction on the Columbia River Highway in 1912. As noted on a smaller plaque above, this information was once posted about two miles west at Shellrock Mountain, but was moved here because of new highway construction. The Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail heads east above the restrooms. Below the restrooms is a shady picnic area circled by a paved loop trail that uses a footbridge over Starvation Creek. At a junction for the Waterfall Picnic Area, you’ll see an interpretive sign telling about a train that got stranded in a snow bank here in December 1884. Passengers were trapped for three weeks, but Gorge residents helped out by skiing in with supplies. Although nobody died, this incident gave the creek and waterfall their current names. Hike up to the small picnic area and a view of 190-foot

Trail Stats

Photos

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