Miles: 5.6 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 1037ft/1142ft
Map: Green Trails Columbia Gorge East No 432S , my GAIA
Favorite Eats After Hike: Crush Cider, Walking Man Brewery, Backwoods Brewery, Thunder Island Brewing, Cascade Locks Ale House, Farm Stand Natural Foods, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
Hike details:
The Lyle Cherry Orchard hike is a Columbia River Gorge walk high above the water level with views that take in the length of the river and cliff walls on the other side. You won’t see any cherries unfortunately, the hillside is blanketed with old oak trees instead. The Washington Trails Association continues to do trailwork up on the plateau to multiple viewpoints.
My trip reports:
3/25/2023
You can read more about my visit this day at A Lyle Cherry Orchard Stroll To Lyle Peak.
12/11/2021
After having a delicious lunch and cider sampling at our favorite place in Hood River, we decided to try and fit a short hike in on a familiar trail. Crossing back in to WA, it was nothing but drear to the west so we turned east for Lyle Cherry Orchard.
Passing Bingen, I was OVER THE MOON to see the Columbia Gluten Free Bakery was open! It has always been closed as the hours are short (10:30-2, they are mostly wholesale) and I am usually either earlier heading to a hike or later after having finished one. We picked up some sweet treats along with rosemary olive bread for breakfast tomorrow and arrived at the trailhead at a quarter to 3 with one other car in the parking lot.
With sunset not far away, we opted to just hike up to the first tier of the trail where it levels out onto some pretty nice viewpoints. The oak leaves were crunchy and brown on the rocky trail start, we passed two hikers walking out.
At the trail sign and boot brush, my hubby decided he DID need a rain jacket and scooted back down to the car. While waiting I walked out to the ledge here for a quick view of the river.
We were soon continuing up, I had forgotten how rocky the trail is here and took my time so as to not twist an ankle. When we broke out onto level ground, instead of following the main trail up to the top of the bluff we wandered west on a side trail to look at the basalt rock formations. There were deer munching grass and preparing to bed down and moody skies floated over the mint green water of the Columbia. We walked as far as a viewpoint over Lyle and marveled at a stack of rock shaped like five fingers. It was also interesting to find a US coastal geological marker for Lyle at this elevation!
On our way down just before sunset, one other couple was descending to the parking lot at the same time so we felt like we had pretty much had the hike to ourselves today. Next time I hope to have more time so we can check out the finished new trail further up on the bluff!
12/28/2019
After a quick run up Beacon Rock, we continued down 84 in search of a stroll with a little more substance and landed at the Lyle Cherry Orchard.
There were just a few cars in the pullout already and we started up the trail camouflaged by a carpet of discarded oak leaves just before noon. The skies were grey and threatened rain that never came.
In less than .2 miles we reached the wooden sign for the Cherry Orchard Trail with promises of beauty to come. We were not disappointed! Even without the spring flowers or fall foliage on display, their skeletons made for interesting designs.
Each switchback on the trail brought a new view as the Columbia opened up before us and we could see out along the terrain. It reminded me of my time spent hiking outside Edinburgh on Arthur’s Seat with its jagged steps reaching out towards the water.
Wandering through the gnarled oak trees as we made our way along the trail was both tranquil and eerie as low clouds filtered through. Having not read the whole trail description beforehand we did keep our eye out for cherry trees but it was clear that the oak dominates on the slopes here. The rugged bark reminded me of stacks of finger bones.
At 1 mile in we saw where the trail has been rerouted and took the new switchback. It didn’t seem to add that much more distance and from the top we could see how it would lead to a more sustainable trail. As for trail conditions, there were patches of mud. It was the kind that is pasty and peels off a layer to stay on the bottom of your shoes.
At 2.25 miles we came to an unsigned junction and took a right on a newly constructed trail to a viewpoint another .2 miles to the west of the one shown on the map. It appeared that this must have been a popular spot even before the trail was put in.
The new trail then continued east toward the original viewpoint in .4 miles. This section had a wide meadow and more pine trees. Here we stopped briefly as the wind was chilling, admiring the one cherry tree we did spy. It wasn’t hard to do with the big wooden “X” laying up against it.
We guessed that the trail continued in a lollipop loop from here back to the original junction but there was a path down to some trees below and we opted to see where that went.
This trail meandered through more oak grove below the new trail and in about .4 miles the path petered into more of a game trail on a steep slope. Checking my GAIA, I saw that we were just below the first viewpoint we had come to so we did a quick scramble up about 20 feet and ended up making our own kind of lollipop trail. This move would not be for everyone and it would probably be best to retrace your steps a short distance and take one of the ATV tracks that we saw back to the new trail.
We saw a few other folks and one determined trail runner on this off-weather day and decided that the spring and fall would be nice but we rather liked the solitude we found today. Our track came into about 5.6 miles.
Exploring the Lyle Cherry Orchard trail this weekend was a highlight of our trip to the Gorge, we both agreed it was worth visiting again! I wrote a little more about our hike here.
Directions: From Vancouver, take Highway 14 east through the town of Lyle. Just east of Lyle, you’ll drive through two tunnels. The trailhead is at a turnout on the left side of the road, just past the tunnels.
For more hikes in the area, visit my Southwest Washington & Columbia Gorge page.
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