7.0 hr
Overview
The Gearhart Mountain Wilderness, established in 1964, was one of the early wildernesses in Oregon. The wilderness area was expanded to its current size in 1984. Most of the protected area is taken up with the ridges of the highly eroded Miocene shield volcano of Gearhart Mountain and its cirques. The 13-mile Gearhart Mountain Trail runs south to north through the wilderness. To experience some of the more intriguing natural features here, begin at the Lookout Rock Trailhead (It’s a quarter mile hike up the gated road from the trailhead to the working lookout if you want to make a side trip), and then hike past the weathered andesite formations of the Palisade Rocks and The Dome . After you reach a saddle , drop into a wide bowl to pass the lush Dairy Creek Meadows , hiking below the sheer cliffs of Gearhart Mountain ’s summit to reach a pass below the summit cliff. Note that the Bootleg Fire burned through the Gearhart Mountain Wilderness in Summer 2021, and much of the route of this hike was severely burned over.
Trail Stats
19.6 km
768 m
2476 m
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Photos
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