I Heart Pacific Northwest

November 23, 2019

hike: Angels Rest at sunset

Angels Rest is a classic location for a sunset hike. It’s one of the most popular hikes in the Gorge due to the short distance, closeness to Portland and the views from the top.

Due to how many people are typically on this trail, I prefer to do this hike later in the day, perfect for catching sunset at the top. The hike out in the dark can be a bit tricky on the rocky sections so make sure to take a headlamp with backup batteries.

distance: 4.8 miles (out and back)
elevation gain: 1,475 ft.
difficulty: moderate
best season: spring, fall
drive time from Portland: 35 minutes
parking pass: none
hike description: OregonHikers.org

Trail Map

The Hike

Note: the description below is a longer variation on this hike – 9 miles with 2,700 ft gain

For this sunset hike, we started at 10 am so we would have time to do a longer hike before getting back to Angels Rest at sunset. The hike up to Angels Rest is 2.4 miles with about 1,500 ft gain. We had first lunch at Angels Rest, then continued on to Devils Rest via the Foxglove Trail for another 1.5 miles with another 1,000 ft gain. After second lunch at Devils Rest (I took a new backpacking recipe to cook and test), we were cold and we had time for a bit more hiking before heading back, so we continued downhill past Devils Rest for another mile, then turned around and hiked back up the steep trail to warm up. As we got closer to Angels Rest, we could see that the color in the sky was changing so we started running to make it in time for photos. We lucked out with a colorful sunset! Totally worth the hike out in the dark.