Horsethief Butte and the Columbia Hills Petroglyphs
Columbia Hills State Park is one of the incredible places in the Columbia Gorge that flies relatively under the radar. Being slightly farther from Portland than most parks helps limit the crowds. Along the 90-minute drive, conifer forests transition to rolling grassy hills and exposed basalt cliffs. Wildflowers abound in spring and summer. The park has, I’d say, more than you could realistically do in a day. Here I’ll talk about the area south of Highway 14, including the Horsethief Butte hike, the Temani Pesh-Wa Trail, and guided tours of the petroglyphs. These are places of stunning natural beauty as well as profound cultural significance, making it more important than ever to visit respectfully. Here is an introduction to Columbia Hills State Park.
Horsethief Butte Trail
Know before you go
The Horsethief Butte Trail is open all year. Horsethief Lake, including public access to the petroglyphs, closes from November through March.
To park at Columbia Hills State Park, you need the Washington Discover Pass, $10/day or $30/year. You can buy a day pass with a credit card at the Horsethief Lake Day Use Area and the Horsethief Butte Trailhead. The pass covers all areas of the park.
Restrooms are at the Horsethief Lake Day Use Area and the Horsethief Butte Trailhead. The day-use area has many shaded picnic tables. There’s a picnic table by the petroglyphs, but no restrooms.
Leashed dogs are welcome in most areas of Columbia Hills State Park. You can’t bring dogs on a guided tour of the petroglyphs.
The petroglyphs are federally protected as a historic site. They’re on tribal land and have cultural and spiritual significance for multiple Native American tribes, including the Yakama, Warm Springs, Umatilla, and Nez Perce tribes. Stay on the trails and visit as you would a place of worship. Do not touch petroglyphs (rock etchings) or pictographs (rock paintings). Finger oil can damage them. Leave no trace and do not remove anything from the park.
Climbing is allowed at Horsethief Butte. Avoid the restricted areas behind the fences and limit the use of chalk.
Watch for rattlesnakes. Sightings are rare but do happen in Columbia Hills State Park.
Horsethief Butte Hike
Distance: Up to 1.4 miles
Elevation gain: Up to 250 feet
Difficulty: Mostly easy with some difficult sections if you hike up the butte (optional)
Dog friendly: Yes, leashed dogs are welcome on the trail.
Pass required: Washington Discover Pass
ADA access: No
Amenities: Vault toilet at the trailhead.
The details
The two trails at Horsethief Butte add a choose-your-own-adventure element to the hike. One is a flat and gentle trail that explores the base of the butte. The other is a more challenging route up and over it. If you do both trails, it’s about a mile and a half. Start at the trailhead by the vault toilet.
Start here
The Horsethief Butte Trail begins through a field where wildflowers bloom in spring. In about 0.1 miles, you’ll reach a fork with a sign. Besides the trails, the map on the sign shows the historic shoreline of the Columbia River before dam construction. This area was the Long Narrows, a natural pinch point in the river. It was a great fishing spot that drew people from far and wide, making it an important meeting and trading place for the local Native American tribes.
Trail sign at the first junction
From the fork, the trail to the left runs beneath the north face of Horsethief Butte. The one to the right wraps around the south face, ending at a viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River. We’ll go right for now. Looking west, you’ll see Mount Hood. It stays in sight for most of the hike on clear days. In front of the mountain is Horsethief Lake and its picnic area, which stays green in the driest months thanks to a sprinkler system.
Horsethief Lake and Mount Hood
In about a quarter mile, you’ll reach a fork in the trail at the base of Horsethief Butte. The trail to the left climbs steeply up the butte. We’ll keep right for now and take the easier path toward the river.
Keep right at the sign
The trail continues flat and easy for another quarter mile out to a viewpoint overlooking the Columbia River. You’ll be walking along the south face of the Horsethief Butte.
Horsethief Butte Trail
When you reach a sign for the end of the trail, take a minute to admire the views, then turn around and head back to the fork.
Turn around here
To stay on the easier trail, keep left at the fork. If you’re up for a scramble, head right and start climbing up Horsethief Butte. Mock orange bushes bloom along the climb in summer, filling the air with a delicate smell similar to jasmine. This trail isn’t technical, but it’s notably harder than the one at the base of the butte. Parts are more like bouldering than hiking. I’d skip it with small children.
Mock orange blooms on Horsethief Butte
The rocky scramble levels off soon. Look for views of Horsethief Lake and Mount Hood behind you. In spring, you’ll see wildflowers blooming in rocky crevices, like desert parsley, penstemon, yarrow, and balsamroot. April and May are the best times for wildflowers in Columbia Hills State Park.
Mount Hood from Horsethief Butte
The trail continues, somewhat indistinctly, across the top of Horsethief Butte. This rock formation is the legacy of ancient lava flows. Around 15-16 million years ago, far-traveled basaltic lava from northeast Oregon and southwest Washington covered this area. Then, around 15,000 years ago, massive glacial floods tore through the Columbia River, scouring the landscape and ripping away rocks and soil. The power of these floods shaped Horsethief Butte and the cliffs on either side of the Columbia River, making them more distinct than if they had eroded gradually with time.
Trail on Horsethief Butte
On top of Horsethief Butte, you’ll notice a couple of blocked-off places indicating culturally sensitive areas. If you look carefully, you can see faint pictographs on the rocks behind the signs. Weathered and, sadly, partially defaced, they’re fainter than most of the images and etchings you’ll see in the petroglyph area across the lake. Avoid touching or climbing on the rocks in the fenced areas to prevent further damage. Outside of these areas, it’s okay to climb on the rocks at Horsethief Butte. Once you’ve taken in the vistas, look for the rocky scramble trail on the north side of the butte to get back down.
Horsethief Butte
Once you’re back down Horsethief Butte, follow the dirt trail until you reach a fork. The branch to the right runs alongside the north face of the butte and ends at a sign marking an area closure. You’ll have another opportunity to scramble up the butte just before the sign. When you’re ready to head back, return to the fork and keep right toward the parking lot.
End of the trail
Petroglyph Trails
Columbia Hills State Park has two trails for viewing petroglyphs and pictographs.
The short and paved Temani Pesh-Wa Interpretive Trail is open from April through October, 6:30 AM to dusk. You can visit without a reservation.
The She Who Watches Tour is a guided tour of the park’s most culturally significant petroglyphs and pictographs.
Unlike my usual stuff, I’m not including pictures. The petroglyphs and pictographs in Columbia Hills State Park are sacred images, and the land where they were created is part of their spiritual importance. My blog is not the right place to share these images. Based on the information I learned on the guided tour, it’s fine if you take pictures or videos for personal use, like to remember your trip and to share with your friends and family. Do not touch any of the images or take rubbings. The advice my tour guide gave our group was to experience them by looking and noticing what feelings they provoke within you.
Temani Pesh-Wa Trail
Distance: 0.1 miles
Elevation gain: None
Difficulty: Easy
Dog friendly: Yes, leashed dogs are welcome on the trail.
Pass required: Washington Discover Pass
ADA access: Yes, the trail is flat, even, and paved without barriers like steps. The parking area is gravel. Look for accessible restrooms at the Horsethief Lake Day Use Area.
The details
You can drop in and visit the Temani Pesh-Wa Interpretive Trail during daylight hours from April through October. You don’t need a reservation or a tour. The short paved trail brings you past a collection of stone slabs with rock etchings. These petroglyphs were once on the cliffs of the Columbia Gorge alongside many others. Of the thousands of petroglyphs and pictographs along the Columbia River, most were lost due to dam construction. Those on the Temani Pesh-Wa Trail are a small subset that were chiseled out and moved to protect them from flooding.
Signs along the trail provide information about the history and efforts to preserve the petroglyphs. You’ll have unanswered questions after reading them. Age, for instance. Most of the images haven’t been dated, and any age estimates are rough, somewhere on a scale of hundreds to thousands of years old. You’ll recognize some of the subjects, like animals and human figures. Others are less obvious, these stylized and evocative images of wavy lines and concentric circles. Seeing them reminds me of looking at the night sky, except that they emphasize how small I am in time rather than in space. Transcending the unknowns of who, why, and when, they provide a profound sense of scale. We are blips on the timeline of the land, yet still part of its story.
She Who Watches Tours
Distance: 1.5 miles out-and-back
Elevation gain: Minimal
Difficulty: Easy
Dog friendly: No, dogs are not allowed on the tour.
Pass required: Washington Discover Pass and a tour reservation, confirmed by email. Tour reservations are free.
ADA access: No. The terrain is unpaved, uneven, and rocky.
The details
Washington State Parks offers guided tours of the petroglyphs on Fridays and Saturdays from April through October. These tours allow the public to view the most culturally significant images in the park, including Tsagaglalal, both a petroglyph and a pictograph. The name means, roughly, She Who Watches in the Wishram language. Unlike the Temani Pesh-Wa Trail, the images you’ll see on the tour are in their original locations. My tour guide helped our group appreciate how closely the land and the petroglyphs are connected. Some images incorporate shadows and the contours of the rock into their design.
To take a tour, you can make a reservation online. They fill up quickly and do not accept walk-ins. I’d plan on scheduling at least three weeks out. Tours start at 9 AM. Arrive a little early to have time to stop at the bathroom, which is at the day-use area and not very close to the petroglyphs. Tours last about 2 hours. Bring layers. The wind off the Columbia River can be strong.
More in Columbia Hills State Park
Horsethief Lake Day Use Area
Columbia Hills State Park has more to do than would fit in a single day. Here are some more activities to check out while you’re there:
Take a boat or paddleboard onto Horsethief Lake.
The picnic area near Horsethief Lake has a grove of trees that provides good shade and protection from the wind.
Hike the Dalles Mountain Ranch Trail. This trail has great views year-round but is most spectacular during spring when lupine and balsamroot bloom.
Enjoy your day at Columbia Hills State Park!
With love,
Emma
Getting there
Columbia Hills Petroglyphs:
Be wary of Google Maps when you visit the petroglyphs. It tends to send you to another part of Columbia Hills State Park.
To reach the petroglyph site from Portland, take I-84 East until The Dalles, then take US-197 to cross the bridge into Washington. There’s no toll for this bridge. Continue on US-197 for about 6 miles, then turn right onto Highway 14 East. Follow the signs for Columbia Hills State Park, which will be on your right.
Once you turn into the park, continue about a mile down the road to reach the petroglyphs. You’ll pass a left turn along the way, which leads down to the picnic area and Horsethief Lake. Take this road to reach the restrooms or to buy a day pass. Otherwise, continue straight past it to reach the petroglyphs.
Horsethief Butte:
From the petroglyphs, return to Highway 14, turn right, and head another mile east to reach Horsethief Butte. The parking lot will be on your right and is marked with a sign.
Explore nearby
Cross the bridge and check out the best things to do in The Dalles, Oregon.
Spend the day in Maryhill, Washington.
