Mosier Twin Tunnels | drueck.net

Mosier Twin Tunnels
A Section of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail
June 21st, 2008

Map of the Mosier Twin Tunnels Section of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail

Our good friends from Egypt, Sameh and Amy, had been staying in Portland for a couple of months, and the entire time my friend Sam had been trying to take them on a hike. This trip was a result of his efforts. The trail followed a route that used to be part of the old Columbia River Highway and had been closed and not in use by cars for years. A few years ago it had been re-opened as a scenic and historic trail for pedestrians and bicyclists. I had never heard about this section of the old highway at all and was excited to check it out.

So, the group of us included me, Sam and Josh (friends from church), Amy and Sameh (friends from Egypt) and three girls who were also visiting from out of town who had gotten to know Amy and Sameh at the organization where they were working. The section of the walk we did was from the Mark O. Hatfield Trailhead West to a viewpoint that was just past the Tunnels and back. As I recall, I think our round trip was about 6 miles.

The Group Near the Beginning of the Walk

Josh, Sam and Amy and a Bicyclist on the Trail

Amy, Josh and Sam Holding His New Camera

View of the Columbia River Looking West with a Small Island

Amy and Sameh in Front of The Columbia River

Concrete Structure Before the First Tunnel

Vertical Shot of Concrete Structure Before First Tunnel

End of Not-The-Tunnel Going Into the First Tunnel

Sameh Taking a Photo of Amy and The Girls in the First Tunnel

Close-Up of the New Wooden Structure of the First Tunnel

Arch at the Entrance of the Second Tunnel

Vertical Shot at the End of the First Tunnel Showing the Gates

View Out the Lookout Hole in the Second Tunnel

Inside of the Second Tunnel Looking West

Sam, Josh, Amy and Sameh at Our Lunch Spot In The Tunnel

Looking Back Toward the Trail from the Viewpoint

Looking Through the Arched and Barred Hole in the Viewpoint Wall

A Cool Looking Tree in a Field of Grasses and Wildflowers

View of the Columbia River Looking East From the Viewpoint

Field of Grasses and Wildflowers Broken in Half by Wooden Fenc

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From left to right: Sam, Josh, Amy, Sameh and the girls.

The trail was pretty newly paved and pretty wide. It looked like a great path for bikes. I'd actually really like to go back there and do the trip on my bike (when I finally get a bike to replace the one that was stolen years ago).

After a little while of walking where we could see the river to our left we came to this section of somewhat barren hills that separated our trail from the river view.

After a break in the hills we came to this little gravel path. It was nice to see an unpaved trail, but I don't think we took it, at least on the way out. We took a gravel / dirt trail to a viewpoint on the way back, and this was probably it, although my memory is so bad that I can't be sure.

River views again...

Sam is a big fan of trains, so he enjoyed taking some photos here.

This was one of Sam's first trips with his new digital SLR, so he was enjoying trying it out.

I really liked this photo of Amy and Sameh. We always enjoy having them in town. Hopefully it will continue to be an annual event.

We thought this strange looking structure might be the first of the two tunnels, but it wasn't. It looks like it was just built to keep the giant mountain of rock from falling on unsuspecting pedestrians--probably a good idea.

There was definitely a lot of rock above that structure. I'm sure it has served it's purpose well.

It looks like there's a house and a dock on this little island that we could see from right before going into the non-tunnel structure.

The inside of this structure looked really neat with the interesting lighting and shadows.

I really like this one.

Right after the end of the not-tunnel was the beginning of the first tunnel. I'm not sure what all this looked like when it was actually being used for cars to drive on... it was pretty cool to walk through, though.

It looked like this tunnel had fairly recently been redone, as this wood looked pretty new and pristine.

I think this was the entrance of the second tunnel. I'm not totally sure because it looks like the roof is wooden like the first one, and the second I remember being mostly sprayed on concrete or something like that... so, the entrance of this one must have wood for just a little ways before it transitions to the other structure.

The end of the first tunnel had these huge iron (well, they looked like iron) gates on it. It looked really neat.

The second tunnel had a couple of lookout holes like this. They had these bars on them to keep people from falling off the cliff. I guess that had happened to someone in the past... very sad.

This picture is really blurry 'cause I didn't have a tripod and it was very dark, but I tried it anyway 'cause the lighting looked so cool. Two of the girls rested at this spot for quite a while while the rest of us ate our lunches near the other end of the tunnel and their friend walked around taking pictures.

This was the view out of the end of the second tunnel.

This is where we ate lunch. I wish I would've had a tripod, 'cause even on ISO 1600 it was still too dark.

Shortly after the end of the tunnel we came to this viewpoint. This is looking back toward the trail from the beginning of the viewpoint area.

This is looking through a hole in the wall of the viewpoint.

There were tons of these nice blue wildflowers near the viewpoint.

Here's us at the viewpoint. It was pretty nice.

Looking east from the viewpoint...

After hanging out at the viewpoint for a while we decided to head back. I think the viewpoint is about 3 miles from the start of the trail, so it was about a 6 mile trip, or a little less.

This was a view of a little valley that we saw from a little side trail we checked out on the way back. That was the only non-paved section that we did. It was nice to get off the road.

I thought this tree looked kinda neat. This was near the top of that unpaved side trail as well. From there we headed back to the cars and back to Portland. It was a pretty neat trip. Very accessible for just about anyone since it's pretty flat and paved. It would be a nice short scenic bike ride someday.