When Ice Age floodwaters from Montana roared into the Columbia Gorge 12,000 years ago they backed up here, at a tilted stack of lava flows opposite Hood River. The floods stripped this landscape to bedrock, but now Coyote Wall’s scenic, bare cliff blazes with wildflowers each spring.

The open slopes have become so popular that the Forest Service is decommissioning some unofficial trails and will be requiring that dogs be leashed December 1 through June 30. A trail along the western base of Coyote Wall was closed in 2012 to protect private property, but a new trail is planned on public land farther west that will make possible an 8-mile loop.

Start by driving Interstate 84 . . .

This chapter taken from the book 100 Hikes: Northwest Oregon