Bikepacking Overnight: Klickatat Maryhill Loops (Not Recommended)

While I have gotten pretty good at route planning, sometimes, I get the intel wrong for all my best intentions and research. I am posting this SOLELY because I did not find much on the private property closure on the top of Maryhill Loops and I had seen other trip reports where people minimized the risks of trespassing.

Ani and I were craving Spring Columbia River Gorge wildflowers and the Klickitat trail was also on our bucket list. So off we went. We braved 25+ mph headwinds, 14% grades, and navigated some challenging conditions.

This is a route that I would NOT recommend as designed for several reasons. Trespassing at the top of Maryhill loops have clearly become an issue. The residents have put up a lot of signage and we did not feel comfortable with others who decided to just jump the gate. 

If I had to do this again, I would camp at the Maryhill State Park and do the Maryhill loops as a day ride and not incorporate it into a bikepacking trip. I'd also be curious to re-route this counter-clockwise and find a different way to do the loop!

Some gnarly doubletrack straight up a hill.

Gorgeous views!

Peak flower season on the Gorge!

We got to push this button on the road to go through the tunnel... its a take the lane situation sharing with cars.

Klickitat trail joy!

Our sweet dispersed campsite right on the water. Our neighbor? A goat. Like the guy brought his goat out camping.

Maryhill loops!

A few tips for cycle tourists:

• The Canyon Market in Klickitat is a gem and the staff were super nice!
• From what we could tell by other cyclists we saw, people tended to ride the Klickitat trail the opposite way we did.
• While the wildflowers in the Gorge in April are magical, holy crap the wind is not to be f*cked with!
  
• We camped out Friday night at the Deschutes Recreation Site (one of our favorites), and then did the mad dash on the highway over the river. It also has free parking vs paid parking at Maryhill State Park.
• If you do want to bike Maryhill loops, check out their website to make sure it isn't closed for a special event (e.g. they do a longboarding event there!) - https://www.maryhillmuseum.org/outside/historic-maryhill-loops-road.