I’ve had Smith Rock State Park on my radar for a few years, and we finally managed to add it to our Eastern/Central Oregon trip in May – so very glad we did. Smith Rock is heaven for rock climbers, and while I don’t do any climbing, there are also wonderful hiking trails here.
Feeling adventurous, we opted for the Misery Ridge Trail – very aptly named!! If you look closely at the photos, you can see the switchback trail we climbed up from the Crooked River, then another set of switchbacks to get to the top of the rock. From the top we found a small spur trail with a beautiful bench, and spent at least an hour looking down across central Oregon and counting the line of mountains and volcanoes in the distance: Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, the Three Sisters, Black Butte, and Mt. Washington.
But what goes up must come down, and we most definitely took our time on the descent. I would have never made it without hiking poles. The trail was steep and covered in loose pebbles that act like marbles, easily slipping your feet out from underneath. On the way down we paused to watch climbers on Monkey Face, a column of rock that must be wonderful to climb – if you’re into that kind of thing!
The final section of the hike was flat and followed the Crooked River back to the entry point, with huge cliffs on one side and the river on the other. If Misery Ridge is not your cuppa tea, it’s well worth it to still walk the flat trail that follows the river.
