Hiking Near Hood River: Where To Start

To start, I would highly recommend either going into a local store like Shortt Supply, which is located in downtown Hood River practically right when you come in off of Highway 84.  Talk to the local staff that is in the store and they will be able to tell you anything that you wish about local hiking trails and whether or not they are easy or difficult and how long they are and other pertinent information.  This store here is a local running and hiking store and they are absolutely amazing in being able to get you the proper gear for what you are planning on doing.  Whether you are looking to just walk the entire hike or actually run the hike they have all the proper gear to get you prepared for it.

Also: I highly recommend the following book which you can buy anywhere in Hood River including the local hotels such as the Hampton Inn or the coffee shop such as Doppio Coffee I have actually seen copies of the following book in the coffee shop because this book is very highly rated and has so many hikes this book will be sure to give you a great start in finding the perfect height for you as well as hikes with beautiful views or difficult hikes or hikes that you can actually run as well.

Easy Walk and Hike To Start

To start:   If you are coming to Hood River and you are looking for a place to hike you have definitely come to the right place.  Hood River has many places to walk starting with easy trails and walking paths as well as intermediate and difficult hikes.  I will start with one of the easiest walks here in Hood River which is near the waterfront Park.  The waterfront Park is very easy to get to and has a nice walkway along the Columbia River.  Not only is the view very nice but you will get a nice burst of wind as the Columbia river gorge is one of the windiest areas in the nation.  There is food and other amenities nearby not to mention the Hampton Inn hotel if you wish to stay overnight here.  The pathway along the river is a sidewalk and is paved and goes along the Columbia River to what we referred here locally as “The Hook”.

Along this walkway you will find the following:

PFriem

Stoked Coffee Roasters

Ferment

Solstice Pizza

Grasslands BBQ

Other amenities such as a hotel a gas station and an overpass into which you can walk into Hood River.

Intermediate — Indian Creek Trailhead —  this is a local trail head located here in Hood River and I will post a quick map of where you can enter and exit the trail head as this is a local trail head that traverses most of the inside of Hood River.

Indian Creek Trailhead
Indian Creek Trailhead

As you can see there are many access points to access this trailhead, the above image is from Google search, while some of the red may indicate other trails the majority here are for accessing the trailhead, specifically the Indian Creedk Trailhead.

The above information about the basic starting points for hiking here in Hood River is to give you a one day start on where to walk and run here in Hood River.  There are many many trails and points of interest for those interested in hiking to do around here and another notable place that I would like to write about is Multnomah Falls.  The reason is because Multnomah Falls is one of the most beautiful spots in the entire country along with the fact that you can hike to the top of Multnomah Falls in about a little over 2 miles however there are other options near there that are more difficult.  The elevation and uphill to rain makes it not only a beautiful site to see but a very challenging 2 miles to get to the top of Multnomah Falls.  And that is just scratching the surface of the many hikes in the area and in this article the point is not so much as to go over every single trail but rather to point to places where you can get the best information on where to hike.

 

Where To Go For Hiking Info

I would definitely go to a local store here named Shortt supply.  Shortt supply is located in downtown Hood River and not only has all of the latest gear and things to help prepare you on your long hike, but they would also have firsthand knowledge of all the best places to hike as well as weather information and other valuable things that you can purchase such as a new book that I have seen here locally that is for sale in many places is called the Gorge guides.

I am sorry that in this particular article I am not going to go over every single hike and the reason for that is because there are just so many hikes in the area that I wanted to be able to point to where to go for the best information on local hikes here in Hood River and The Gorge.  I will have more articles about future hikes coming up but also I thought I would point out that there are local hiking groups that you can be a part of which I will post here as well.

Looking for someone to go hiking with??

https://www.meetup.com/columbia-gorge-hiking-meditation/

https://www.meetup.com/freedom-hikers-of-the-pacific-northwest/

See Also:  https://www.discoverhoodriver.com/getting-to-multnomah-from-hood-river/

Shortt Supply: https://shorttsupply.com/

I really hope you have enjoyed this quick article and a quick summarization of where to go for local hiking information and I hope that you enjoy some of the other articles on this website!!!  Stay safe and have a wonderful hike here in Hood River!!

Another book by a local author below!!

 

 

 

 

Other Resources: https://innatthegorge.com/blog/great-hood-river-hikes/#