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Trip Report    

Day Hike Catherine Creek Natural Rock Arch Loop

Day hike up the Catherine Creek Loop trail and down the Tracy Hill trail to check out the Natural Arch. This area burned in 2025 but the trail is open.

Jim Griffing Jim Griffing
January 16, 2026
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • This area burned in the 2025 Burdoin fire. The grasses are greening up again, but there is plenty of evidence of the fire.  The tread is on rock and old roadbeds, so it was not affected by the fire.

    The plank across Catherine Creek on the Tracy Hill trail is warped and submerged in places.  I crossed on a log jam below the plank.

A short day-hike on a nice January day in the Columbia River Gorge.  I was curious about both the natural arch and the results of last year's Burdoin fire so I drove over to Catherine Creek to see if the trail was open.   It was and it was in better shape than I expected.

I hiked up the Catherine Creek Loop trail. I stayed to the left at the junction to keep the edge of the cliff on my left.  I could not see much of the arch from the top so I continued to the top of the loop and took a left on the trail that heads down to meet the Tracy Hill Trail.  I followed Tracy Hill trail to the left and down into the Catherine Creek drainage.  This is an old roadbed that passes below the natural rock arch.

After re-crossing the creek it was a short walk back to the trailhead.

Total hike was about 2 miles and 600' of gain.  There are options to go further and do longer loops, but I had a long drive ahead so those will wait for another day.