Upper Wenaha River
Moderate (to river ford)
4.6 miles round trip
850 feet elevation loss
Open mid-June to early November
Use: hikers, horses
Difficult (to Milk Creek ford)
9 miles round trip
1300 feet elevation loss
The 31.4-mile Wenaha River Trail traces a gigantic canyon through the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness along the Oregon-Washington border. Here at the trail’s upper end you can see the river begin at a high mountain spring in an old-growth larch forest. After just 2.3 miles the river has grown so large that hikers can’t cross it with dry feet. If you don’t mind fording you can continue 2.2 miles into an open rimrock canyon typical of the lower valley beyond.
To drive here from . . .
This chapter is an excerpt from 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon