Weldon Wagon Trail - Hiking Near White Salmon, Washington

The Weldon Wagon trail is part of the 551 acre White Salmon Oak Natural Resources Conservation Area. This conservation area was established to protect strands of Oregon White Oak. In Washington, the White Oaks are habitat for 156 speciies of wildlife. Did you know that the Western Gray Squirrel is on the state list of threatened species? The oak’s acorns are a good source of protein for these squirrels along with Black-tailed Deer. The oak’s also provide shelter for the squirrels and nesting birds such as Lewis and Pileated woodpeckers.

Completed in 1911, the Weldon Wagon Trail was built to connect Husum with the upper Snowden Road during the White Salmon Valley apple boom. The boom busted in the extremely sever winter of 1919-20 and many of the orchards were destroyed and never replanted. One orchard did survive however – the Mt. Adams Orchards. They alternated apple and D’aaAnjou pear trees and the hardier d’Anjous survived that winter. It is one of the world’s largest planting of D’Anjous pears and currently has 750 acres of pears, Honeycrisp apples, and cherries.