Dago Gulch Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Dago Gulch Trailhead
- Ending point: Dago Gulch Gate
- Hike type: In and out
- Distance: 2.3 miles
- Elevation gain: 330 feet
- High point: 3,915 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year, weather and road conditions permitting
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
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Hike Description
Leslie Gulch is part of the collapsed Mahogany Mountain caldera, formed about 15.5 million years ago. Hiking up Dago Gulch you can also look up to see a clear overlay of lighter material from the Three Fingers caldera, laid down about 100,000 years later. The main route here follows a gated road to another gate at private land. A bonus, however, is a short side trip up a very narrow slot canyon, where you can squeeze and scramble to get as far as you can!
Hike around the green gate. You may hear loud clucking as you walk up the road. Those are the chukars, an introduced game bird originally from the Middle East, but thriving in the Owyhee steppelands. The vegetation here is mostly juniper, sagebrush, bitterbrush, and rabbitbrush. You’ll pass a trail leading off to the left: this is the small slot canyon you can visit on the return. Honeycomb formations rise to the right, and balsamroot blooms on the sagebrush slope in the spring. Soft greenish rhyolite layers from the Three Fingers caldera (see the Three Fingers Rock Hike) cap the ridge above. When you get to a gate marked for private property, turn around. Your best views of the formations in Dago Gulch will come as you hike back down.
At the junction with the slot canyon trail, bear right. You’ll head up a draw under orange-colored walls of rhyolite. Some mature junipers and choke cherry bushes find refuge here. The route passes into a honeycombed amphitheater, and then you’ll need to head up past a mountain mahogany and through a narrow passage between slabs of rock. This will drop you down to the bottom of the slot canyon, where a straggly bitter cherry has found purchase. Next, scramble up the bare rock face of a dry waterfall, From here, if you’re game, you can squeeze under a boulder to get even higher into the slot!
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Information kiosk at trailhead
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Malheur River Country
- Pacific Northwest Recreation Map Series: Owyhee Canyon Country
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Dago Gulch Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Dago Gulch Hike
Guidebooks that cover this destination
- 100 Hikes: Eastern Oregon by William L. Sullivan
- Extraordinary Oregon! by Matt Reeder
- The Hiker’s Guide: Best Easy Day Hikes Greater Boise by Scott Marchant
- Oregon Hiking by Sean Patrick Hill
More Links
- Jordan Craters and Leslie Gulch-SE Oregon Vacation Day 3 (wanderingyuncks)
- Dago Gulch (All Trails)
- Leslie Gulch (Oregon Natural Desert Association)
- Leslie Gulch (Bureau of Land Management)
- Leslie Gulch (Northwest Wildflowers)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)