Moon Point is a ride you won't forget in a hurry. This underappreciated Oakridge area classic combines a long gravel road climb with stunning clifftop views and steep technical downhills to provide a worthy alternative to the more popular (and crowded) Alpine Trail. If you are not up for the 9-mile, 3,200-foot climb, this trail can easily be done as a shuttled ride.
Look for glimpses of Young's Rock and Moon Point on the climb up, as they are visible for a short time at about the halfway point. Be sure to take the short spur trail to Moon Point itself. The approach road is visible far below. The view is primarily to the west, so you won't see any snowy peaks, but the sense of being on the top of the world is striking.
Once you crest the final ridge and turn downhill, the bottom drops out on this trail. A series of steep switchbacks through old-growth fir gives way to rocky sections along cliffside meadows, thick pine needles through middle elevation forest, and finally, a fast trail through an area that was lightly burned over and subsequently thinned, leaving huge, blackened ponderosa pines spaced widely apart in an almost park-like setting.
The trail ends across the road from a small campground on the Middle Fork of the Willamette River that has a nice wading spot to cool off in after your epic ride on Moon Point.
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