Hiking the Great Northwest: Eastern Oregon {Hat Rock}

I tell you, finding a hike in Eastern Oregon near Pendleton was quite difficult! I am sure there are plenty of places to hike, but none of them are really published! However, I did find Hat Rock State Park and headed out there on Saturday morning since we didn't have rodeo tickets that day. From what I read it seemed that it was going to be a little walk along the river, but I was pleasantly surprised to see some other trails that were not shown on the map! I included a map of a rough estimation of where I hiked.

I began my hike at Warehouse Beach. Walking down about a mile, along a very sandy path, one of the rock formations comes into clearer view. At the time I thought this rock formation was Hat Rock, hence Hat Rock State Park. However, looking at the map now, I see that it was actually Boat Rock! I noticed a few less traveled trails veering off to the right and decided to venture that way. I climbed up to a great view of Boat Rock and the other way down the Columbia River coastline. Continuing along I came to the edges before they dropped down to the river and just kept walking along. The sun was beating down on me, but because of the wind gusts from the river, I was perfectly content temperature-wise. (But glad I wore sunscreen!) While walking along, I noticed a rough path that climbed up to the top of what I thought was Hat Rock, aka. Boat Rock, and decided that I could climb to the top! I journeyed back that way and, after a little trailblazing, climbed up and had a great view of the Columbia river, Hat Rock (the real one!) and pretty much miles and miles of farmland and fields.

It was a relatively short and easy hike, but enjoyable! I would love to find some other hikes in the area, maybe up near Cabbage hill pass and in the Blue Mountains!

Date of hike: September 13th, 2014
Distance: 3ish Miles

Elevation gain: no idea

Difficulty: Easy
Miles thus far: 175/200 miles this year

A rough outline of where I went once I hiked into the park area (off the map a little on the right, the trail goes to Warehouse Beach, which is where I started)