Getting There

The weather was amazing, the temp were in the upper 60s and blue skies for miles.

The last time I tried to hike this trail from the I-84 parking lot, the Return Trail was iced/snowed over and there was no way to safely walk the road.

This time I took the Bridal Veil/Angel's Rest exit from I-84 E, then found a spot at Wahkeena Falls.

The Hike

Length: 7.51 mi
Elev. gain: 2,687 ft
Moving time: 3:39:30
Avg pace: 29:13
Calories: 2,216
Total time: 4:00:55

I'd been wanting to hike this trail again. I did the Wahkeena-Multnomah Falls loop back in December (December 16, 2023). The last time I hiked to Devil's Rest was 11 months ago (March 18, 2023) and it was pretty snowy.

This time I encountered a small amount of snow on the switchbacks to Lemmon's Point and another patch between Lemmon's Point and Fairy Falls. Beyond that, it was gorgeous and spring-like.

There was a short scramble where a landslide had covered one of the switchbacks below Fairy Falls.

I was kind of surprised that there were almost no trees down on the flatter section of the Devil's Rest Trail. I passed a couple going in the other direction and one of them commented on the MSHI patch. I decided to start attaching it to my pack on non-MSH hikes since I ran into a MSHI Naturalist classmate on the Angel's Rest Trail who was wearing theirs.

In hindsight, I realized I was wearing a red beanie and had my red Kahtoola MICROspikes on my strap. I must have looked sort of "official" from afar.

When I reached Devil's Rest, I was by myself. I considered if I had time to hike over to Angel's Rest or just double back the way I came and checkout Vista Point Trail. As I was resting, another hiker showed up and climbed up the other rock.

After a couple of minutes, I looked over and noticed that person was gone. I thought, what if I do the loop from here? It was the Primrose Path. I made sure there I left a bit of a buffer for the other person. I'd tried to come up this trail over a year ago (January 3, 2023) but there was too much snow and no tracks to follow.

While trying to find my way down this unfamiliar route, I tried to keep sight of the other hiker. I checked AllTrails and noticed I had take the Devil's Slide trail by accident. It was pretty steep but I was able to stay on track by following little markers of neon orange plastic tape.

It was longer than I expected and I lost sight of the other hiker. I hoped I hadn't gotten onto an animal trail. I knew the Angel's Rest Trail was down there somewhere and even if I'd had to bushwhack, I'd run into it. I really didn't want to have to climb back up this trail.

I finally made it to the Angel's Rest Trail and familiar terrain. I breathed a sigh of relief. I slowed down my pace and enjoyed the descent. I should have taken some photos from the Primrose Path but I was focused on staying safe on that steep section. I knew I had my InReach and all the stuff I needed in the unlikely event I'd gotten lost. I knew the area pretty well but also that there are steep cliffs and slim chance to hike where I couldn't get down.

All's well that ends well. Great hike in warm weather and blue skies.