Bonanza trail, Jul 12th

The Bonanza trail is a hike I did by myself a long time ago and remembered liking the route very much for several reasons. One of them is the combination of scenery and the reward at the end. The other because it provides great solitude. This trial is one of those that it’s usually ignored for the not so obvious reasons though. In contrast to most of other trails, this trail starts at the end of a residential area so it’s not very clear where it is or even more, where to park. Being something I did a long time ago, I had it in my mind to revisit at some point and this particular weekend, Val and I didn’t have plans so I proposed this as an option and we decided to go. Weather was kind of iffy with some chances of rain so we were not very hopeful to get the good views at the top. We got to the trailhead and luckily we found one of the two parking spots open so we didn’t have to park farther away. From the beginning we started on the lush green route that follows the creek as it starts slowly gaining elevation. I did notice the creek running much lower than what I remembered. In a particular section, where a rock has been carved by the water forming a channel that resembles a slide, there was almost no water coming down. Just for comparison sake here’s a picture I took in that area back in 2011 and how it looks now

It’s scary. As we continued up, I kept telling Val that she knew and had been where we were going. And as soon as we hit the viewpoint with the iconic view of Mt Hood, she remembered being there. In fact, she remember we sat roughly in the same place to have lunch and enjoy the views. That time under the sun on a warm day. After a short rest and just before we started to get cold, we retraced our steps all the way back to the car. Bonanza is still a great “secret” hike out here.



Interactive map

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