Dry Creek falls round 2 and the Herman Creek Pinnacles

I've been here before, but it was a place I wanted to go back to and see a little more on a second go-round.

The trail is pretty straightforward, go up past the Bridge of the Gods (Recently seen playing a glorious role in the Oscar Bait movie Wild with Reese Witherspoon. It's a good enough movie and most of the final scenes were filmed in areas I have explored in this very blog). 

Up the trail for a mile to the powerlines, another mile through the quiet woods to the junction with the Dry Creek Falls road. Go up a quarter mile and boosh! Pretty little 70 foot falls. Also remains of an old dam system. There isn't much to do outside admire it from a few angles.

The first time we were here it was cold and we turned around and headed back. This time I wanted to explore a little more. The PCT continues to the east below the cliffs past Dry Creek, and it contains a linkup trail to the Herman Creek trailhead, which is the way I went to Indian Point. About halfway between Dry Creek Falls and Herman Creek Trailhead there is a quirky rock formation known as the Herman Creek Pinnacles.

Past Dry Creek falls the trail is mostly level with slight uphills and downhills. You travel mostly through open, lush forest with moss everywhere. At one point you cross the talus slope of an old and apparently mighty landslide. Near the back end of the exposed area you get a halfway decent view of Stevenson, WA across the river. If you know where to look you can even spot the Skamania Lodge.

It's about a half mile to go from here. Pass through more lush forest and turn into a large valley area, where you get faint views of large cliff walls through the trees to your left. You descend down a little bit, curve around and all of a sudden right in front of you pop the Pinnacles. They aren't really big, but they are big enough to admire. They are old basalt formations that nobody really knows how they formed and look like bit pointy rock eggs. There are 3 big notable ones, plenty of small ones around, and a large talus rock that you can climb up and get a sort of nice view of Washington again. 

Dave for Scale

In the valley of the Pinnacles

Landslide down the left side of the Pinnacles area

Girlfriend on the top of the climb-able rock

Pinnacle

The Pinnacles aren't really super impressive, but for a local who has seen the big gorge hits, it's nice to find a deep track and see something new. The hike is mostly level and the only challenge is distance (We did 8 miles), and it was easily a worthy goal. One day soon I plan on coming back via Herman Creek so I can link up my trails on the map like a geek.