Continue up under alders and maples to cross Coopey Creek on a footbridge. The trail leads up through a hazel thicket, and another spur takes you to the base of the upper tier of Upper Coopey Falls. Hiking up, you'll see a short spur leading left to get a view up the creek of Upper Coopey Falls. A clifftop viewpoint gives you a look down to 150-foot Coopey Falls, which spills down to property owned by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist.
Cross an open talus slope to get views to down to sheep paddocks below, the Columbia River, Phoca Rock, Cape Horn, the Prindle Cliffs, and Silver Star Mountain. Vine maple, thimbleberry, and sword fern form the understory, and occasionally there are patches of poison oak. Hike up a forested slope where the bases of large Douglas-firs bear scorch marks from the 2017 fire. The trails from each converge just above the lower parking area. There are two parking areas, one above the other at the Bridal Veil intersection on the Historic Columbia River Highway. For a longer loop that gives you more elevation, see the Angels Rest-Devils Rest Loop Hike. It is a unique landscape - one quite varied from other locales in the Gorge. However, during the wet season, parts of the trail can get muddy and slick. Where the two fires overlapped, vistas have opened up and blackened snags sprout from the steep slopes. Much of the latter was a ground fire that cleared out the understory, which is fast regenerating. The forest expanses surrounding the summit burned in the Multnomah Falls Fire back in 1991, while the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire burned over most of the trail's route. The trail passes two waterfalls along the way, an overhead view of Coopey Falls and a quick detour to smaller Upper Coopey Falls.
When you consider that the drive time from downtown Portland to the trailhead is under 45 minutes, it is understandable how popular this destination can be on weekends throughout the year. Its bang-for-the-buck makes this a long-time favorite of families and hiking clubs. Getting to this precipice takes a relatively short hike (2.4 miles one-way) with an easy to moderately-steep ascent. Its 1500 foot prominence and its proximity to the Columbia River give you the false sensation that you could dive from Angels Rest to the water below! The real draw, however, is the perspective of the Columbia River below - like you're on a balcony over a great auditorium. The summit is characterized by a long, rocky spine surrounded on three sides by cliffs, boasting a striking 270 degree view! While you can't see any of the Cascade volcanoes from the top, you do get great vantages of Beacon Rock, Silver Star Mountain and many other landmarks. The platy andesite that composes this promontory is part of a million-year-old lava flow from Larch Mountain, a member of the Boring Lava Field. Angels Rest is an exposed bluff on the western end of the Columbia River Gorge.
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