SADDLE MOUNTAIN STATE PARK

WHERE:     From Portland take highway 26 west toward Seaside.  The road to Saddle Mountain is well marked on the right side of the highway about 8 miles before the junction with highway 101.  Follow this rutted road for about 6 miles to its end where there are several picnic spots.

TRAIL:       The trail is only 3 miles but leads mostly uphill to the highest peak in the North Oregon Coastal Mountains.  This trail can be hazardous and a bit grueling despite its brevity so bring some good hiking shoes.  From the peak you can see the mouth of the Columbia, all of the nearby coastal range, and even the froth of the ocean waves with a good enough telescopic lens on a camcorder.  The Cascade Mountains however don't show up like they do when viewed from Elk, King and Mary's Mountains.  The net elevation gain is about 2,000 feet but some of that is repetitive making the climb seem much harder.  My first time hiking the area I was at the top for the sunset and lost the trail on the way down due to darkness.  My reward was a soft but very cold bed of moss on which to  lay during a clear and cold march evening.  In the morning it took about have an hour to warm up enough for my bones and muscles to move freely but I had a reward of stumbling upon a herd of Elk.

THE AREA:     The immediate vicinity of Saddle Mountain is covered with lush old growth forest while the lower elevations near the mountain are pretty much Old growth and secondary growth temperate rainforests.  Unfortunately you cannot see this outside the confines of the park since the area has been heavily logged.  You notice this on the road up as you will not go more than one-third of a mile without seeing a huge clearing on the other side of a thin layer of trees sheltering the road.  On the flip side ... black tail deer and Roosevelt Elk are very common here.  I saw Elk on two of the three occasions I was out here.  In fact if you bushwhack near the parking area a few hundred feet into the woods I guarantee you will see signs of Elk, Deer and even Bear.  There are Elk trails in the heavy brush leading everywhere with trails of scat indicate where they went.