• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

TotalHiker

Your Hiking Guide

  • Apparel
  • Gear
  • Hikes
  • Info
You are here: Home / Hiking Destinations / USA / West Coast / Top 5 Must-See Oregon Hiking Trails

Top 5 Must-See Oregon Hiking Trails

The picturesque Pacific Northwestern state of Oregon offers hikers plenty of lush forests and dramatic gorges and waterfalls to explore.

This state’s beauty offers a wide variety of landscapes to enjoy: the rugged Columbia Gorge and High Cascades regions, majestic Mount Hood, beautiful Crater Lake or the high desert areas around Smith Rock and Bend.

Beginners can start their hiking with one of the many nature trails in parks while experienced hikers can enjoy one of the longer excursions, like the 12-mile journey to South Sister’s peak.

Oregon Hiking

Ten Falls Canyon

Hikers looking for a beautiful day in nature and more hard-core trekkers that want to take it easy for the day will love hiking the Ten Falls Canyon Trail in the largest state park in Oregon.

The trail is maintained regularly, easy to follow and studded with benches to rest on. The entire thing is 10.2 miles long and takes you past a total of 10 magnificent waterfalls. The smallest is 27 feet high and the largest is a staggering 178 feet.

Have even more of an adventure as you walk behind four of the falls – a great way to stay cool on your hike.

South Sister Summit

The third tallest mountain in Oregon is known as the South Sister or Charity Mountain. Although less experienced hikers will find the climb quite difficult, those with mountaineering experience may find it easy.

No expensive mountain climbing gear is necessary to follow the trail all the way to the summit, but hikers should be prepared for the rigorous exercise. This trail is 12 miles long.

>>  7 Must-Do Washington Hiking Trails

Mount Hood

One of the most famous natural Oregon hiking trails is the tallest mountain around: Mount Hood. High altitude trekkers may want to climb the entire 11,239 feet, but there are many other options for less diehard hikers.

Just 50 miles to the east of Portland, Mount Hood offers the South Side Timberline Approach, which is an 8.2 mile trail up the mountain.

This hike is rated as difficult, so make sure you are up to it before beginning.

McKenzie River

Most hikers do not follow the entire 26 miles of the McKenzie River trail from its start by Clear Lake to the McKenzie Bridge.

Mountain bikers frequently handle the whole way and hikers should realize they will share the path with people on bikes as they go. There is a 4-mile route sketched out on the trail that would take the average hiker anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to finish.

The start is in the pines of an old-growth forest full of Douglas fir trees. It ends at the unique, turquoise waters of the Tamolitch or Blue Pool.

Kentucky Falls

While many hikes in the mountains and near waterfalls start at a low elevation and go up, Kentucky Falls starts at the top and goes to the bottom instead.

The trail goes by the Upper Kentucky Falls and then drops down past the North Fork Falls and the Lower Kentucky Falls. Make sure you have enough energy for the climb back up to the head of the trail where you begin.

>>  Guide to Yosemite Hiking Trails

This Oregon hiking trail is approx 6.2 miles in length, which will take the intermediate hiking 1 to 3 hours to finish.

Contents

  • 1 Ten Falls Canyon
  • 2 South Sister Summit
  • 3 Mount Hood
  • 4 McKenzie River
  • 5 Kentucky Falls

April 15, 2020

Primary Sidebar

The Best Yellowstone Hiking Trails

The Best Yellowstone Hiking Trails

Washington Hiking Trails

7 Must-Do Washington Hiking Trails

Guide to Hiking In Yosemite

Guide to Yosemite Hiking Trails

Top 5 Must-See Oregon Hiking Trails

Best Hiking in Southern California for beginners

5 Best Hiking Trips for Beginners in Southern California

Hiking Around San Diego

6 Great San Diego Hiking Destinations

More West Coast Hikes >>

Footer

  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • About Total Hiker
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy & Cookie Policy
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2021 Total Hiker

Affiliate Disclosure

We believe in being as transparent as possible when it comes to this site. With this in mind, please be aware that we may receive remuneration for some of the products we review on this site.

Total Hiker is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com (and other Amazon programs).

We will also list Google Adsense ads from time to time. You should be able to see these as text links or blocks of ads which have a small notation indicating “Ads by Google” or “AdChoices”.

There are millions of products available, but we include only those that we research and believe could benefit you.

We provide links on the site to information such as information resources for which we receive no compensation. Our mission is to help our visitors, but this is also very clearly a for-profit site and you should realize as much. If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact us using the “contact” option on the site menu and we will be happy to answer any questions.

Trademark Dislosure

Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.

In addition, any other trademarks and logos we mention on this site are also the property of their respective owners.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. In addition, some links on this site may take you to sites where we get an affiliate commission if you subsequently buy something on the site. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with these terms. You can read more in our Privacy Policy & Affiliate DisclosureOK