Devils Rest

Mark and I hiked to Devils Rest today in the Columbia River Gorge.

(My first time on this hike, although we hiked to nearby Angels Rest in June.)

It was a great training hike for our planned assault of Mount St. Helens - coming soon on August 24!

Today's hike was 6.5 miles round trip, with 2300 feet of elevation gain. (Almost 1000 feet higher than Angels Rest.) We were hiking in steep, but beautiful country.

When we climb/hike Mount St. Helens, we will be hiking 10.5 miles round trip, with 4,565 feet of elevation gain. Ugh. That will be a longer and steeper hike than what we did today. Can we do it? I guess we'll find out...

To get to Devils Rest, you hike up the Wahkeena Falls trail.

The trail follows along Wahkeena Creek for quite a ways above the falls.

It is such a pretty creek, and there is a nice breeze that comes down the narrow canyon, so it is lovely and cool.

A trail junction just above this beautiful waterfall sends you hiking up a further ridge behind Wahkeena Creek.

The trail junction to Devils Rest - still steep, still 1.6 miles to hike to the top.

Along the way, occasional views of Mt. Adams and the Columbia River Gorge.

Another view of Mt. Adams. We saw Mount St. Helens, too, but there weren't any good photo ops of that mountain - too many trees in the way in that direction.

At the top - Devils Rest is wooded, with limited views from the very top. Just the satisfaction of a good climb and lunch waiting in the pack.

Then the descent - back past the beautiful rushing streams again.

The last mile or so is paved, with beautiful rock retaining walls built into the talus slope.

Back home now, had a nap and headed for a shower, I got to wondering about whether or not "Devils Rest" uses an apostrophe or not. You know, is it making a statement--devils get tired, so they rest--so it would be "Devils Rest." Or is it naming a place where the devil rests, in which case it would belong to him, and it would be "Devil's Rest."

The hiking map I use calls it "Devils Rest." So they get tired sometimes. Ditto with "Angels Rest." But several websites I looked at use the apostrophe. Now I'm all confused--hahaha!! Mark and I thought it was a fun hike, and worth repeating when we want a good challenge, whatever its name means.