Erratic Rock Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Start point: Erratic Rock Trailhead
- End point: Erratic Rock
- Hike type: In and out
- Distance: 0.5 miles
- Elevation gain: 110 feet
- High point: 295 feet
- Difficulty: Easy
- Seasons: All year
- Family Friendly: Yes
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
At various times towards the end of the last Ice Age, a cycle of massive floods, known as the Missoula or Bretz Floods (named after the geologist J. Harlen Bretz) hurtled at 60 mph down the course of the Columbia River all the way to the Pacific Ocean. These floods, perhaps up to 100 of them between 15,000 - 18,000 years ago, came as huge ice dams gave way at the end of the Ice Age and massive amounts of meltwater from the continental ice sheet were released. The floods scoured away topsoil, carved valleys, and deposited sediments all along their course, but also transported large icebergs, some of them rafting massive boulders. One such raft, perhaps one of the largest, came to rest on a small prominence in what is now Yamhill County as the floods filled the Willamette Valley. This iceberg had a passenger, the so-called Bellevue Erratic, a massive boulder transported from the Canadian Rockies which presides over expansive views of Oregon's wine country from the Erratic Rock State Natural Site. (For another walk that includes Ice Age erratics, see the Fields Bridge Hike.)
A sign at the trailhead gives the history of the 90-ton argillite metamorphic rock. After being picked at by generations of decidedly un-classy visitors eager for a souvenir, it is a mere remnant of the 160 tons that settlers discovered. The paved trail leads a quarter mile uphill between fences. It is a bucolic scene: blackberries and fields are on the right, a vineyard on the left. The trail turns uphill to the left under an old, sapsucker-riddled apple tree. In the fall and winter, robins and other hungry passerines flock to gorge on the rotting fruit. Now pass a Christmas tree farm on the right. At the top of this low hillock, there’s a picnic table, the remains of the rock, and views across Yamhill County farmlands all the way to Mount Hood in the east. Muddy Hill and its toupée of oaks rises behind.
For a downloadable map of the flood depths and glacial erratic locations throughout the Willamette Valley, see this site:
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- No fee
- Dogs on leash
- Interpretive sign
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Erratic Rock Hike
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Erratic Rock Hike
Guidebooks that cover this hike
- Hiking Oregon's Geology by Ellen Morris Bishop
- Wild in the Willamette edited by Lorraine Anderson with Abby Phillips Metzger
- Oregon State Parks: A Complete Recreation Guide by Jan Bannan
More Links
- Erratic Rock State Natural Site (Oregon State Parks)
- Erratic Rock State Natural Site (Wikipedia)
- Erratic Rock State Natural Site – Sheridan, Oregon (From Santiam To Coast blog)
- Glacial Erratics: Rafted Rocks of the Ice Ages (Volcanolands)
- On the Trail of Erratic Rocks (Travel Oregon)
- Going to see a rock (Archy)
- Tour Stop J - The Bellevue Erratic (Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)