Drastic change of scenery at Coyote Wall

Recreation area in Columbia River Gorge was transformed by Burdoin Fire, which started July 18

By Scott Hewitt, Staff writer

October 9, 2025 7:55 am

Environment, Life, Outdoors

Singed trees remain standing in the Columbia River Gorge’s Coyote Wall Recreation Area in mid-September, about six weeks after the Burdoin Fire. (Photos by Scott Hewitt/The Columbian)

Torched trees stand in the Columbia River Gorge’s Coyote Wall Recreation Area in mid-September, about six weeks after the Burdoin Fire burned there. The U.S. Forest Service expects robust regrowth this coming winter and spring — and will help that along with some native replantings too. Scott Hewitt/The Columbian

This is a view over the edge of Coyote Wall into the valley to the west. (Scott Hewitt/The Columbian)

A mid-September visit to the Coyote Wall Recreation Area in the Columbia River Gorge, about six weeks after the Burdoin Fire, reveals burned landscape. The U.S. Forest Service expects robust regrowth this coming winter and spring — and will help that along with some native replantings too. (Scott Hewitt/The Columbian)

A mid-September visit to the Coyote Wall Recreation Area in the Columbia River Gorge, about six weeks after the Burdoin Fire, reveals a burned landscape. The U.S. Forest Service expects robust regrowth this coming winter and spring — and will help that along with some native replantings. (Photos by Scott Hewitt/The Columbian)

The Coyote Wall trailhead marker survived this summer’s Burdoin Fire.

Here’s what the Coyote Wall hiking area looked like in spring 2025. (Scott Hewitt/The Columbian)

BINGEN — In spring, you can count on the Columbia River Gorge’s Coyote Wall trail network to dazzle the eyes with crowded carpets of yellow and purple wildflowers. In the heat of summer, Coyote Wall’s jagged, tilting grassland dries out into a furrowed plateau of glowing gold.

But when I went back in mid-September, what I found was a darkened, denuded landscape of exposed rock and mud. I caught faint whiffs of smoke. I’ve been here dozens of times over the past few years, but I barely recognized the place.

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