Tag: Mt. Hood Wilderness

Elk Cove – 07/25/2026

Heather was able to join me for the final hike of my vacation which we’d decided would be the Elk Cove Trail on Mt. Hood. Located on the north side of the mountain the Elk Cove Trailhead was the only trailhead providing access to Mt. Hood’s Timberline Trail that we had not yet been to. Most of the others we’d used as trailheads while a couple we’d hiked through as part of a loop.

Be aware that high clearance vehicles are currently recommended to access this trailhead and Laurence Lake due to the access road having been washed out by the Eliot Branch. Our Outback had no issues. We made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Salem arriving shortly after 7am and set off on the trail.

The trail begins by crossing Pinnacle Creek.

Pinnacle Creek

For the first 1.25-miles the trail follows an old roadbed to the former trailhead. The trail also passes through the 2011 Dollar Lake Fire scar for its entire length.

Black cap raspberries

Signs of the 2011 fire.

Scouler’s bluebells

First view of Mt. Hood. One result of losing nearly all the trees in the fire is the trail now offers numerous excellent views of the mountain.

Woodland beardtongue

The location of the former trailhead. Here the trail leaves the old roadbed a switchbacks up to gain the ridge.

Trail sign announcing Elk Cove is just 3.9-miles away.

On the lower portion of the ridge some of the trees avoided crowning and survived the fire.

Mt. Adams was also visible to the north.

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood from the ridge.

The trail followed the ridge which provides no cover from the sun, but the views are spectacular.

Fireweed

Mt. Adams again.

Probably Cascade aster.

Lupine along the trail.

To the right is the namesake pinnacle of Pinnacle Ridge. We hiked that ridge to Elk Cove in 2014 (post), but recent reports indicate that it is in rough shape and in need of maintenance.

Owl Point (post) to the NW.

There are two saddles along the ridge which provide some downhill on the way up to Elk Cove which also means uphill on the way back down to the trailhead.

Yarrow

Bird on a snag with the Coe Glacier behind.

The ridge to the right across the Hood River Valley is Surveyors Ridge (post) with Bald Butte (post) the hump toward the left end.

Both Compass Creek and the Coe Branch flow down the valley to the left (east) of the ridge. Straight ahead about 3/4 up this photo is Cannon Ball Falls, a.k.a. Lower Compass Creek Falls.

Blurry attempt at zooming in on the falls in the afternoon.

Starting down the second saddle.

Mountain bluebird

The Coe Glacier on Mt. Hood.

Once we had successfully climbed out of the second saddle we stopped for a short break where we were visited by an inquisitive hummingbird.

Beyond the second saddle the ridge widened and flattened considerably, and the number of blooming wildflowers also increased considerably.

Barrett Spur (post)

There was also more blowdown on the upper portion of the trail but nothing that was too difficult to navigate.

The fireweed was in full bloom higher up.

More aster

False hellebore

Pearly everlasting and fireweed

Goldenrod

Just over 4-miles from the trailhead the trail crosses Cove Creek, the first water source along the trail since the Pinnacle Creek crossing at the trailhead.

These logs provided a dry crossing.

Lewis’ monkeyflower. We stopped here on the way down and Heather topped off her water.

Monkeyflower

Paintbrush

After a short break at the creek we continued on.

The trail up from the creek.

Orange agoseris

Dark-eyed junco

One-sided wintergreen with a dwarf bramble blossom behind.

Robin

Valerian

The trail soon entered a dry gully that was at one time a creek bed and followed it for a bit before climbing out and entering meadows shortly before arriving at the Timberline Trail.

Purple sanicle

Campsites at the edge of the meadow.

Sub-alpine fleabane

Sign ahead at the junction of the Timberline and Elk Cove trails.

We headed right on the Timberline Trail to Cove Creek where Heather was going to take a break. I decided to continue up the Timberline Trail from Elk Cove to visit a talus field where I hoped to spot a pika (or two). Even if I didn’t see a pika I knew from previous trips that there was yet another good view of the mountain from the trail as it descended into Elk Cove.

The Timberline Trail crossing at Cove Creek.

Monkeyflower and a couple of lupine

Mt. Hood from the crossing.

There was a lot of aster blooming in Elk Cove.

Western pasque flower seedhead.

Bistort

Monkeyflower lining Cove Creek.

As I approached the talus slope I could hear multiple pikas.

I was able to spot one of the little guys.

Surveyors Ridge from the talus slope.

Waterfalls on the mountain.

Barrett Spur in front of Mt. Hood.

I continued a little further up the Timberline Trail to visit a wildflower filled hillside before returning to Elk Cove.

After meeting back up with Heather and showing her to the monkeyflower lined section of Cove Creek we returned to the Elk Cove Trail junction, but continued a little further on the Timberline Trail for another view of the mountain.

A spur trail next to a no camping sign leads to this view from Elk Cove.

Flowers along the spur trail.

We finally decided it was time to head back so we returned to the Elk Cove Trail and started down.

It was a fairly uneventful but pleasant descent. We had passed by backpacker on her way out during our climb up to Elk Cove and passed 9 or 10 hikers on their way up the trail on our way back. Those are pretty small numbers for a weekend. We did see a number of people while at Elk Cove, but the north side of the mountain is much less crowded than other areas around the mountain.

Sickletop lousewort

Checkerspot on pearly everlasting

Felt-leaved pearly everlasting

A cinquefoil

Penstemon

Golden chinquapin

A duskywing

A sulphur

Laurence Lake from the trail before descending to the old trailhead.

Laurence Lake

Back on the old roadbed.

Ripe thimbleberries!

Back at the trailhead.

My exploring brought this hike for me to 11.1-miles with approximately 2500′ of elevation gain making it the most milage I’d done since January and the most elevation gained since December 2025. While I’m not back to 100% it seems, I’m heading the right direction.

This was one of our favorite approaches to the Timberline Trail. The combination of big views and fewer people was a big plus. The lack of shade on the ridge would make it less appealing on a hot day though. Whatever route you take Elk Cove is a worthwhile goal. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Elk Cove

Tags Barrett Spur, Cove Creek, Elk Cove, Elk Cove Trail, Elk Cove Trailhead, hiking, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, timberline trail, wildflowers

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

Ramona Falls – 07/09/2026

It’s been a busy week here. Monday, we took my brother and his family on a hike to Marion Lake (post), Tuesday I drove our son home to Eugene where we stopped at Meadowlark Prairie for a short outing (post). Wednesday, I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor who referred me back to physical therapy, this time for my back, as well as massage therapy to hopefully address the remaining issues I’m having.

While my back and hips are still bothering me, I’m not under any activity restrictions so Thursday I headed back to the trails. My brother and his family had gone down to Northern California for a couple of days to see the redwoods and Heather had to work leaving me on my own. After considering a couple of options I landed on Ramona Falls which Heather had visited back on May 30th. I was also hoping to visit the remains of the Upper Sandy River Guard Station.

I got an extra early start to my day and arrived at the Ramona Falls Trailhead shortly before 6am.

The trail almost immediately enters the Mt. Hood Wilderness making a very gradual climb along the Sandy River for 1.3-miles before dropping to a crossing of the river.

The wilderness sign to the right behind the trail sign at the trailhead.

White spiraea

A faded wilderness map stands near a junction where the Sandy River Trail joins from left.

Fireweed

Beardtongue

Pearly everlasting and penstemon

Mt. Hood from the trail just before dropping down to the river for the crossing.

Monkeyflower

It had been almost thirteen years since I’d been on this trail, having last visited when we hiked up Yocum Ridge (post). That was the year before a hiker was tragically swept away attempting to cross the seasonal bridge the Forest Service used to install for the Sandy River Crossing following a sudden storm. That was the last time a seasonal bridge would be installed. The crossing now changes from year to year depending on where the best option can be found. This year the crossing consisted of three logs, two small logs tied together and a larger log sitting around waist high to hold onto.

Easy peasy crossing this year.

On the other side of the river I spotted a raspberry bush with a single ripe berry and more to come.

I continued another third of a mile to a junction with the Pacific Crest Trail.

Last Chance Mountain

The PCT to the left (northbound) and to the right (southbound). Ramona Falls can be reached in either direction on a loop, but I prefer clockwise so I stayed left.

After half a mile I left the PCT at another junction by turning right on the Ramona Falls Trail.

Next was a 1.8-mile stretch on the Ramona Falls trail to a junction with the Timberline Trail near Ramona Falls.

Salal

Twinflower

Most of the rhododendron blossoms were done but there were a few remaining in the cool forest here.

The Timberline Trail junction and the first glimpse of Ramona Falls.

I had passed a couple of tents a little before reaching the junction but I was the only one at the waterfall at 7:23am. I took a short break and had a snack before continuing on my hike.

The view from my break spot.

After my snack I continued on the Timberline Trail toward the PCT.

Looking back at the falls.

Squirrel

I had dropped the location of the Upper Sandy Guard Station, which sits on a bench below the Timberline Trail and above the PCT, on my map. As I neared the pin I began looking for a faint trail to the left. My first attempt was too early and the short path led to a secluded camp site but my second attempt led me to a rough trail the led down to the crumbling guard station.

The remains of the guard station.

The Sandy River Canyon.

For the fascinating history of the station please read this post by WyEast Blog.

From the guard station I followed a steep path downhill past another pair of tents to the Pacific Crest Trail (also the Timberline Trail here). To get back to the trailhead I needed to turn right and head northbound however I was in an exploring mood and had not ever been to the Sandy River Crossing which was only 0.3-miles away, so I turned left.

Red elderberry

Paintbrush

The Sandy River crossing. The river is pretty braided here and crossing wouldn’t have been too difficult, but it would have required fording at least one of the braids and I didn’t have my water shoes with me and didn’t want wet shoes so exploring further up the trail toward Paradise Park (post) was not an option.

Instead I decided to head upstream along the river and see what the area between Yocum Ridge and Slide Mountain was like.

No official trails head up the canyon but there were some footprints and several camp sites closer to the crossing.

This area was also popular with pikas. Several seemed to be having a conversation in “meeps” about my presence. It took a while but I finally spotted one of them.

I rambled a little of half a mile beyond the crossing before deciding that I’d had enough scrambling over rocks and turned around.

Buckwheat

The view from my turnaround spot. Not only was it rocky but it was getting increasingly brushy.

With no actual trails my route back was quite a bit different in spots, and I spotted some flowers I’d missed on my first pass.

Starting back.

Beardtongue

Paintbrush

Buckwheat patch.

Monkeyflower and algea

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

As I neared the Timberline Trail/PCT crossing I spotted pink flagging on the far side that marked the continuation of the trail.

California tortoiseshell

I found a spot where I could cross the first braided channel of the river but from the little island I was on I couldn’t see a way to cross the next one without getting wet.

I returned to the riverbank and picked up the trail then headed back.

Sugar sticks

The PCT/Timberline Trail climbed to a junction on a ridge where the Timberline Trail split off to the right toward Ramona Falls and the PCT went left. I went left and descended to the junction with the Ramona Falls Trail and then left the PCT to return to the trailhead.

Woodpecker

Back at the crossing.

Last look at Mt. Hood with the Sun kind of in the way.

Back at the trailhead.

Ramona Falls was as beautiful as I’d remembered and getting to see the old guard station was neat. Doing the hike on a weekday morning provided a lot of solitude. I only passed 13 people on the trails and ten of those were from the crossing to the trailhead. I’d seen about the same number of people at the various camp sites that were occupied. The hike itself came to 9.5-miles with approximately 1400′ of elevation gain.

This was the longest hike I’d done since my January 31st 14.8-mile hike along the Lower Deschutes River (post). I’m a little tight/sore as I write this trip report, but the hike itself felt really good. Hopefully this next round of therapy will help get me the rest of the way back. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Ramona Falls

Tags hiking, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, Ramona Falls, Ramona Falls Trail, Sandy River Trail, Sandy River. Timberline Trail, Upper Sandy River Guard Station

Hiking Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2025 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date January 1, 2026
2 Comments on The Hikes of 2025 – A Look Back

2025 was the first time in several years where we weren’t focused on achieving a specific hiking goal. It also marked the first year in which I had significantly more vacation time than Heather. We also adjusted our off-season modus operandi from “one hike a month” to “at least one hike a month and more if the weather cooperates”. These factors along with some medical restrictions resulted in a very different set of hikes in 2025 than previous years. For the first time since 2014 we didn’t spend any time backpacking, spent minimal time hiking in either Eastern or Southern Oregon, and for only the second time since 2012 failed to hike at an elevation above 8000′. In fact, it was the first year in which the average highest elevation of our outings came in under 3000′ at 2947′.

One thing that did not change was our focus on visiting new trails or, in the case of areas we’d visited before, new sections of trail. Together, Heather and I spent 46 days exploring trails, and I headed out on an additional 20 days. The 66 days for me marked the most days hiking in a calendar year topping the previous high of 64 in 2017. With multiple stops on several of the days the number of trailheads I started off from was 98 (75 for Heather). Fifty-eight of those ninety-eight stops, and twenty-eight of the days were entirely new. The only hike that was 100% on trails previously hiked was to celebrate our friend’s birthday with a hike to Dimple Hill in the McDonald-Dunn Forest. The hikes on our 46 days together came to 402.8 miles with another 245 miles on my 20 solo hikes resulting 647.8 miles for me in 2025. Of those miles 440.6 were new. Our shortest hike was just 0.9-miles when we stopped to check out McCredie Hot Springs on the way home from Bend in October, and my longest was the 17.8-mile Obsidian Loop in the Three Sisters Wilderness in July.

As far as where we spent our time the Central Cascades were at the top followed by the Oregon Coast & Coast Range, NW Oregon, and Washington. The hikes in Washington were one of the reasons for the low number of hikes in Eastern and Southern Oregon. Our two vacations were spent at National Parks in that state, Olympic and Mt. Rainier.

Locations of the trailheads we started from in 2025. (There are 96 THs since we hiked multiple trails on a number of days.)

Our northernmost hike this year, Ozette Triangle in Olympic National Park, was also the furthest north we’d ever hiked. This was also the furthest west we would be all year.

Looking north from the most northerly location we’ve been.

Our southernmost hike was on the Cow Creek Trail SE of Roseburg, OR in the Umpqua National Forest.

Downed trees that marked my turn around point, and southernmost point, on the Cow Creek Trail.

Not surprisingly our easternmost hike was our sole hike in Eastern Oregon in the BLM’s Criterion Tract.

Roughly the furthest point east we reached this year.

The 2025 wildfire season was comparatively tame to the last few years however there were still more than 1,100 fires from early June to mid-October. According to the Office of the State Fire Marshal over 700 of those fires were human caused which is disappointing as these are by and large avoidable.
While none of the fires directly impacted our plans this year, sadly 200 homes and structures were lost this past year and several trails we’d previously hiked were burned.

On a more positive note, we once again were blessed to be able to see and experience so many beautiful places. So many in fact that in addition to our usual wildlife and wildflower galleries we’re adding one for the waterfalls we saw in 2025.

January – Driftwood Beach, OR

February – Clackamas River from Milo McIver State Park, OR

March – Catherine Creek/Coyote Wall, WA (This area burned in July 2025 in the Burdoin Fire.)

April – Devil’s Lake Fork, Tillamook State Forest, OR

April – Basket Slough Wildlife Refuge, OR

May – Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, OR

May – Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Park, WA

May – Devil’s Punchbowl, Olympic National Park, WA

May – Rialto Beach, Olympic National Park, WA

May – Little Badger Trail, Mt. Hood National Forest, OR

May – Deschutes River, BLM Criterion Tract, OR

June – Blue Lake, Hampton Family Forests (Private Timberland), OR

June – Fivemile Butte Lookout, Mt. Hood National Forest, OR

June – Champoeg State Park, OR

June – Clearwater River, Umpqua National Forest, OR

Elk Camp Shelter, Willamette National Forest, OR

July – Mt. Hood, OR

July – Bays Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

July – Three Sisters Wilderness, OR

July – Craig Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

July – Big Lake, Willamette National Forest, OR

August – Walupt Lake, Goat Rocks Wilderness, OR

August – Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

August – Mt. Freemont Trail, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

August – Snow Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

August – Naches Peak Loop, Mt. Rainier National Park, WA

August – Lava Canyon Trail, Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, WA

September – Zigzag Canyon, Mt. Hood Wilderness, OR

September – Twin Rocks, Rockaway Beach, OR

September – Three Sisters Wilderness, OR

September – Duffy Lake, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

September – Fuji Mountain, Willamette National Forest, OR

September – Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, WA

September – Charlton Lake, Deschutes National Forest, OR

October – Head of Jack Creek, Deschutes National Forest, OR

October – Nehalem River, Nehalem, OR

October – Silver Falls State Park, OR

October – Maxwell Butte, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, OR

October – Willamette Mission State Park, OR

November – Silver Falls State Park, OR

November – Clear Lake, Willamette National Forest, OR

December – Little Rock Creek, Santiam State Forest, OR

Looking ahead to 2026 there are still trails we’ve yet to explore and many that we’d be more than happy to revisit. We’re looking forward to continuing the journey for as long as we are able. Happy Trails and have a wonderful New Year!

Tags adventure, champoeg state park, Goat Rocks Wilderness, hiking, Milo McIver State Park, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, mt. rainier national park, nature, Olympic National Park, Oregon, Silver Falls State Park, Three Sisters Wilderness, travel, Washington, Willamette mission State Park

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

Boy Scout Ridge – 10/06/2024

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 7, 2024
No Comments on Boy Scout Ridge – 10/06/2024

We try and get to the Mt. Hood Wilderness at least once a year and this year’s visit kicked off our October hikes. The one area where we hadn’t really been on the mountain was the SE side along the White River. The Pacific Crest Trail climbs on the mountain on that side crossing Highway 35 near Barlow Pass and following Boy Scout Ridge joining the Timberline Trail in approximately 3.75 miles and continuing on to Timberline Lodge. We weren’t planning on going quite as far as Timberline Lodge this time, but we were planning on a loop in the middle of the hike utilizing the Yellowjacket Ski Trail and Upper White River Trail.

It was a little wet, and 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 Celsius) when arrived at the nearly empty Barlow Pass Trailhead.
We had also parked here in 2021 for our Barlow Butte hike (post).

The PCT passes just east of the parking area and can be accessed behind the signboard near a picnic table or as it crosses the Barlow Wagon Road which is where we hopped on this time.

We followed the trail for a quarter mile through forest before joining an old roadbed where we turned right to reach the Highway 35 crossing.

On the far side of the highway the trail climbed gradually through a nice forest arriving at the Yellowjacket Trail junction in just under 2-miles.
The colors of Fall.

Tom, Dick, and Harry Mountain (post) catching the morning Sun.

Mt. Hood teased an appearance a couple of times along the lower portion of the PCT. It was enough to see that there was a dusting of fresh snow on the mountain.

The signed junction with the Yellowjacket Trail.

We turned right onto the Yellowjacket Trail and followed the faint tread nearly a mile down to the White River.

The wet brush had me whishing I’d worn boots.

The Yellowjacket Trail passing a small meadow.

Makeshift footbridge along the trail.

The trail came to a muddy track used to access a set of powerlines where we turned right. We followed the muddy track downhill and crossed the South Fork Mineral Creek on a metal bridge.

We stayed on this roadbed until we reached a road junction at the river where we turned left. Here we had a pretty good view of the mountain.

New snow on Mt. Hood.

The roadbed followed a levee along the river’s debris plain providing spectacular views.

The valley is the result of an eruption around 250 years ago.

Pacific lupine

At the end of the levee the route climbed a moraine then continued its gradual ascent to the Timberline Trail.

Dark-eyed junco. There was a good variety of birds along the moraine, but this was the only one that sat still long enough to have its picture taken.

Frost on a log. It was really nice to be hiking in the crisp cool air.

Boy Scout Ridge from the moraine.

The unsigned junction with the Timberline Trail.

We turned left on the Timberline Trail and made a fairly steep 0.4-mile climb to Pacific Crest Trail at a junction in a meadow.
Mt. Hood from the junction.

Sign for the PCT nearly absorbed by the tree.

Lupine (broadleaf?)

A few remaining blooms on the goldenrod.

Signpost at the PCT junction ahead.

We turned right on the PCT heading for a viewpoint described on Oregonhikers.org. It was a scenic three quarters of a mile to the viewpoint. Along the way we spotted a coyote hunting in the meadows below the trail.

The coyote with Mt. Hood looming behind.

Mt. Jefferson to the south with the Three Sisters behind to the left.

The Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson

The round peak along the far ridge is Gunsight Butte (post) and Bonney Butte (post) is along the broad rise to its right.

We’d lost sight of the coyote until it ran across the trail not too far in front of us.

More lupine

A few remaining aster blossoms in the foreground.

Timberline Lodge across the Salmon River Canyon.

Looking back down the White River Valley. Barlow Ridge is the near hump on the right.

Another look at Timberline Lodge.

Despite all the cars at the lodge we would only encounter a half dozen other trail users until we were back at the Barlow Pass Trailhead.

Small waterfall below the ridge.

Heather stopped at the viewpoint, which was at a high point above the waterfall. I continued on a short distance just to make sure that was indeed the viewpoint described in the Oregonhikers Field Guide.
I turned around here where the Timberline Trail headed across the Salmon River drainage. The Silcox Hut is straight ahead on the side of the mountain.

Looking back at the high point where Heather had stopped.

I headed back to Heather and after a short break we started back down the PCT.
Mt. Hood’s summit.

The waterfall looking pretty small far below the mountain.

It took us a moment to decide what the dark rounded peak straight ahead in the distance was. We eventually correctly identified it as Black Butte (post).

Olallie Butte (post) in front of Mt. Jefferson.

Birds on mountain ash.

The Timberline Trail junction.

We stayed straight on the PCT leaving the Timberline Trail and descending through the mountain forest past the Yellowjacket Ski Trail and back to Highway 35.
Beargrass meadow, there hadn’t been any blooms this year.

Lousewort

It was nearly 2-miles between the Timberline and Yellowjacket trail junctions.

We were shocked to see a bunchberry that still had some petals, even if they were in sad shape.

Mushrooms and fungi are not surprising this time of year.

Highway 35

We had no problem dashing across the highway and then made our way back to the now nearly full Barlow Pass Trailhead.
Arriving at the Barlow Road.

The hike came in just over 11-miles for me with close to 2000′ of elevation gain. Stopping at the viewpoint would have put the hike around 10.7-miles.

This was a great Fall hike. The views were amazing, and the cool temperatures helped it from getting too hot during the exposed climb. It was also really nice to get a track on the map to fill in the blank area around Mt. Hood.
Our various hikes around the mountain. There are still a few areas where we could add a track or two. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Boy Scout Ridge

Tags Barlow Road, coyote, hiking, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood National Forest, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail. Barlow Pass Trailhead, PCT, Timberline Lodge, timberline trail, Upper White River Trail, White River

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point – 08/05/2023

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 7, 2023
1 Comment on McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point – 08/05/2023

It had been a couple of years since we’d hiked in the Mt. Hood Wilderness so we were due for another visit. There were a few trails that lead to the Timber Line Trail that we hadn’t checked out yet so we chose the McGee Creek Trail and planned on visiting McNeil Point for the third time. The first two visits had been via the Top Spur Trailhead (Post.

We were the second car at the McGee Creek Trailhead

The McGee Creek Trail is a fairly straight trail that climbs gradually a little more than a mile and a half to the Timberline Trail. The trail is completely forested and a bit brushy in places, but it was quiet, we only saw two other hikers on the trail and that was when we were on our way back down.

Registration box and signboard at the Mt. Hood Wilderness boundary.

There were a few downed trees but nothing too difficult to navigate.

The brush was mostly huckleberry bushes.

Trail side snacks.

McGee Creek Trail junction with the Timberline Trail.

We turned left onto the Timberline Trail and followed it for approximately 2.5-miles to the McNeil Point Trail. While the McGee Creek Trail had been quiet the Timberline Trail was an expressway, even early in the morning. There were a lot of wildflowers blooming but the number of people was honestly a bit of a distraction. Add in a lot of garbage (mostly unburied TP) and at least one pair of backpackers camped on a meadow that was clearly marked no camping and it wasn’t the best experience we’ve had on a trail.

Blowdown from the September 2020 storms that also flamed the destructive wildfires across the state. For more information on the storms impact on Mt. Hood check out this Wy’East Blog post.

Looking through the trees at one of the areas that suffered severe blowdown.

It was a cloudy day. We got sprinkled on briefly a couple of times.

Fireweed

Pinedrop

Avalanche lilies

Paintbrush

Valerian, spirea, and paintbrush

Gentians

Yellow monkeyflower

A tributary of McGee Creek.

Spirea along the Timberline Trail.

Shooting star

Pink monkeyflower

Fleabane

Beargrass

False hellebore

Partridge foot

Lupine

Lewis monkeyflower along a tributary of McGee Creek.

Beardstongue

Lousewort

Dry pond surrounded by beargrass.

The idiots camped in the meadow. There is even an arrow on the “Do not camp in meadow” sign pointing at the meadow. Please DON’T be these people.

The second pond still had some water in it.

Junction with the Mazama Trail (post).

The butterflies weren’t out today but the bees were.

The clouds just wouldn’t quite raise enough.

Mountain heather

Lupine and paintbrush

Beargrass along the Timberline Trail.

Paintbrush, partridge foot and lupine

Signpost for the McNeil Point Trail.

We followed the McNeil Point Trail uphill gaining a ridge above a branch of Ladd Creek.

We’d never seen a paint colored like this before.

Western pasque flower

Lupine and two types of monkeyflower

The trail eventually curved away from the ridge traversing a hillside above the headwaters of McGee Creek.

As the trail passed through a talus slope we heard several pikas and it didn’t take long to spot one dashing across the rocks with some greens in its mouth.

Pikas spend the Summer gathering greens for the rest of the year when they remain in their homes under the snows.

We wound up seeing at least three, one of which emerged to say “hi” to Heather.

Mountain heather and paintbrush.

Saxifrage

A variety of flowers.

Avalanche lilies

Sub-alpine fleabane

Western pasque flowers

Doe that was as surprised as we were when we spotted each other.

Lewis monkeyflower

The trail forks at a small plateau out of sight of the McNeil Point Shelter. The right fork is the most direct route to the shelter but we forked left thinking we might head further up the ridge toward the Glisan Glacier like we had done in 2015.
The righthand fork.

View from the plateau.

Some low clouds to the East.

Dwarf lupine

A hiker on the righthand fork headed for the McNeil Point Shelter.

As we approached the ridge a large group of hikers headed up the ridge from the shelter. When we reached the ridge we decided not to follow them up and instead turned downhill to the shelter.

Caves below the Sandy Glacier.

Bluebells of Scotland

The shelter below to the right.

Muddy Fork

Goldenrod

With the clouds the view wouldn’t have been great from the ridge on this day.

It had been approximately 1.5 miles from the Timberline Trail to the shelter. After taking a short break at the shelter we had a choice to make. Retrace our steps or take a steep scramble trail directly below the shelter. On our previous visits we had returned the way we’d come but today we decided to try the scramble route.

It was less than half a mile and approximately 700′ down to the Timberline Trail. The views were good and despite the steepness and a couple of long step downs it wasn’t as bad as we’d pictured.

Patches of blowdown along Bald Mountain Ridge.

Columbine

Valerian

Paintbrush and bistort

Aster

Chipmunk snacking on huckleberries.

Meadow near the Timberline Trail.

Arriving back at the Timberline Trail.

By descending via the scramble route we cut approximately 1.7-miles from the hike and got to see some new scenery. We were a bit surprised by the number of hikers climbing up this way but it probably shouldn’t have been surprising given how busy the mountain was. We turned left on the Timberline Trail and followed it downhill 1.8 busy miles to the McGee Creek.
Every once in awhile the trail was clear of other users.

We’re always drawn to this rock fin above the Muddy Fork.

Canada jay

McGee Creek Trail junction.

We turned right onto the McGee Creek Trail leaving the crowds behind and descended the 1.7-miles to our car.

Bunchberry

Is that sunlight?

While the clouds never lifted from Mt. Hood we did experience a window of blue sky near the end of our hike.

Our hike came in at 9.7 miles with approximately 2700′ feet of elevation gain.

It was a bit of a mixed hike for us. The wildflowers and wildlife were great but the number of other trail users, and some of the resulting trash and lack of etiquette prevented us from fully enjoying the experience. It has been quite a while since we’d been on such a consistently busy hike. That being said the McGee Creek Trail was a nice break from the crowds providing the type of solitude (and lots of berries) that we really enjoy. Happy Trails!

Flickr: McGee Creek Trail to McNeil Point

Tags hiking, McGee Creek, McGee Creek Trailhead, McNeil Point, Mt. Hood National Forest. McGee Creek Trial, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Muddy Fork, Oregon, Pika, scramble route, timberline trail, wildflowers

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

Laurel Hill Wagon Chute and Barlow Ridge Loop – 10/30/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date November 4, 2021
2 Comments on Laurel Hill Wagon Chute and Barlow Ridge Loop – 10/30/2021

We ended our hiking season with a bang, a pair of stops along the Barlow Wagon Road with an off-trail adventure, great views and beautiful weather. Created in 1846 the “Barlow Road” provided an alternate route along the Oregon Trail which previously ended at The Dalles where emigrates were forced to find passage down the Columbia River. The 80 mile road led from The Dalles to Oregon City crossing several rivers and the Cascade crest along the way. The wagons also had to navigate Laurel Hill’s steep descent and our first stop of the day was to visit the Laurel Hill Wagon Chute, the steepest drop along the road.

We parked at the small pullout along Highway 26 that serves as the Laurel Hill Trailhead.
Mt. Hood from the trailhead.

We followed the trail uphill on stairs to an abandoned section of the Mt. Hood Highway then turned right to find the bottom of the rocky chute.

The wagon chute.

A trail to the right of the chute led uphill to a 4-way junction where we turned left and followed this path a short distance to the top of the chute.

The left at the 4-way junction.

Looking down the chute.

After reading the sign near the chute and trying to picture actually lowering a wagon down the chute we returned to the old highway walking a short distance past the chute to a viewpoint above Highway 26.

Sunlight starting to hit the SE side of Mt. Hood.

Ravens photo bombing a close up of the mountain.

We backtracked from the viewpoint and descended down the stairs to our car.

We then drove east through Government Camp to Highway 35 before turning right onto FR 3531 at a pointer for Barlow Road and the Pacific Crest Trail. After 0.2 miles we parked at the Barlow Pass Trailhead/Sno-Park. Both the Barlow Wagon Road and the Pacific Crest Trail pass through the trailhead. After parking we headed to a picnic table and sign boards on the south side of the parking area.

The PCT was on our right heading south toward Twin Lakes (post) while the Barlow Wagon Road lay straight ahead.

We followed the wagon road for approximately a tenth of a mile before it joined FR 3530 (Barlow Road).
A portion of the original Barlow Wagon Road.

Barlow Road (FR 3530)

Just 40 yards after joining FR 3530 the Barlow Butte Trail veered downhill at a signpost.

The trail was still following the route of the wagon road as it passed through a forest that was hit hard by last Winter’s storms.

At the half mile mark we came to a junction with the Barlow Creek/Devil’s Half Acre Trail in a small meadow.

Following pointers for the Barlow Butte Trail and Mineral Springs Ski Trail we turned left here.

The trail began a gradual 0.4 mile climb to another junction where the Barlow Butte and Mineral Springs Ski Trail parted ways.

We made a hard right here sticking to the Barlow Butte Trail which quickly entered the Mt. Hood Wilderness.
Wilderness sign along the Barlow Butte Trail.

It was a mile from the junction where the Mineral Springs Ski Trail parted ways to the next junction. The trail climbed gradually at first but soon steepened as it began a series of switchbacks.

Getting steeper.

This was the worst of the blow down we had to navigate on this section.

Nearing the junction.

A small rock cairn marked the junction where a spur trail led left up to the old lookout site on Barlow Butte.

We turned left on the spur trail which began with a great view to the NE of the Badger Creek Wilderness including Lookout Mountain and Gunsight Butte (post)

It was a little chilly with temps in the mid 30’s combined with a stiff breeze adding to the wind chill.

On the right of the far ridge is Bonney Butte (post).

The summit of Barlow Butte is overgrown now with trees but just downhill from the former lookout site was a small rock outcrop with a view of Mt. Hood.

Remains from the lookout.

The Oregon Hikers Field Guide mentions a better viewpoint on yet another rock outcrop below this one but we didn’t scramble down to it. Instead we planned on visiting a couple of other viewpoints on the Barlow Butte Trail further along Barlow Ridge. So after a short break trying to use the trees to block the wind we headed back down to the Barlow Butte Trail and turned left (downhill) at the small rock cairn. The trail passed through a stand of trees before popping out on a rocky spine.
Barlow Butte and the top of Mt. Hood.

Frog Lake Buttes (post) is the hump in the center.

Western larches

Mt. Jefferson behind some clouds.

Sisi Butte (double humps) and Bachelor Mountain (post).

The rocks were a little frosty in spots so we had to watch our footing, especially dropping off the rocks back into the forest.

This is a good point to mention that the Oregon Hikers Field Guide has you turn back here for their Barlow Butte Hike but there is a second hike in the guide, the Barlow Ridge Loop which describes a possible 10.5 mile loop. This hike is listed as a “lost” hike due to the Forest Service having abandoned the trail along the remainder of Barlow Ridge. The Barlow Butte Trail at one time followed the ridge to its end and descended to Klingers Camp. We were keeping the loop option open but were planning on turning back possibly at the high point of the trail.

The next marker along Barlow Ridge was Lambert Rock which we reached a half mile from the small rock cairn on Barlow Butte.

It’s possible to carefully scramble up this rock past a memorial plaque for Dr. Richard Carlyle Lambert who perished while hiking in Utah.

The view of Mt. Hood was spectacular from the rock but the stiff breeze and cold air made for a short stay.
Barlow Butte to the left of Mt. Hood.

If not for the clouds to the south the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson would have also been visible from the rock.
Mt. Jefferson still behind some clouds.

Beyond Lambert Rock the trail dropped a bit into a saddle where another small rock cairn marked an unofficial cutoff trail to the left that leads downhill to FR 3560.

We continued to the right on the Barlow Butte Trail and 0.4 miles from Lambert Rock detoured to the right to what we hoped might be another viewpoint. Trees blocked the view north to Mt. Hood and east to Lookout Mountain. Again there would have been a decent view of Mt. Jefferson from this spot but we did have a good view west to Tom Dick and Harry Mountain above Mirror Lake (post)

Parts of Mt. Jefferson peaking through the clouds.

Tom Dick and Harry Mountain (with the rock fields near the top).

We continued on following the increasingly faint trail another third of a mile to it’s high point and another great view of Mt. Hood. While the trail was faint there were often cairns, blazes or diamonds marking the correct path.
Small cairns in a meadow.

One of the aforementioned diamonds.

Approaching the high point.

Clouds were starting to pass over Lookout Mountain at this point.

Mt. Hood from the high point of Barlow Ridge.

Up to this point the trail had been fairly easy to follow and there hadn’t been much blow down over it so we decided to continue along the ridge at least to the point where it started to steepen on it’s way down to Klingers Camp. For the next three quarters of a mile the trail was still visible at times and the occasional marker let us know we were still on the right course.
Carin in the trees ahead.

Elk or deer tracks leading the way.

Another section of frost.

We took this as a blaze.

That blaze led to this large cairn.

Things were starting to get interesting here.

Stopped here to listen for pikas, no luck though.

This could be trail.

Still on the right track, note the folded trail sign on the tree at center.

We lost the trail for good in a small beargrass meadow which was my fault. While I had brought a topographic map that showed where the trail was supposed to be I was navigating primarily based off of what I remembered reading from the Oregon Hikers field guide. I had remembered most of it well but had forgotten the part where “the trail swings off the ridge to the right….”. All I remembered was that the route eventually dropped steeply down the nose of a ridge. Not realizing it was the nose of a different ridge I kept us following Barlow Ridge for another 0.2 miles.
The small meadow.

Officially off-trail now.

This looked like a place the trail would go.

A final look at Mt. Hood from Barlow Ridge.

Not realizing that we were off the trail alignment we decided that the hiking had been easy enough up until now that we would go ahead and try for the loop. Down we headed looking in vain for any sign of trail. Several times we convinced ourselves that we’d found it, but it turns out if it was anything it was game trails.
This doesn’t look so bad.

One of several big trees we encountered.

Little orange mushrooms, how appropriate for Halloween.

Starting to encounter more debris.

If there had been a trail good luck finding it.

Heather coming down behind me.

We lost over 600′ of elevation in three quarters of a mile and things were only getting steeper. It was at this point that I turned my brain on and pulled the map out of Heather’s pack. I quickly saw what I’d done wrong, we were following the wrong ridge line down and should have been one ridge to the SW. The problem now was there was a stream bed between us. We backtracked up hill a bit and followed a game trail across the trickling stream and attempted to traverse over to the correct ridge.
Pretty decent game trail here.

This section was fun.

A bigger orange mushroom.

We struggled down and across, occasionally having to backtrack or veer uphill to find safer passage.
Uphill on this game trail.

Thickets of brush kept us from getting all the way over to the ridge we needed so we just kept going downhill knowing that we would eventually run into one of the forest roads at the bottom.

More steep fun.

We eventually made it to flat ground in a forest of young trees and ferns.

We could tell using our GPS that despite all of that we were only about two tenths of a mile from Klingers Camp. We were even closer to FR 240 and being tired of off-trail travel we headed straight for the road.
Look Ma a road!

We turned right on this road and followed it to a junction with Barlow Road.
It doesn’t look that steep from down here.

Barlow Road.

We turned right onto Barlow Road and followed it 150 yards to Klingers Camp.

After visiting the camp we continued on Barlow Road for five miles back to the Barlow Pass Trailhead. Along the way two pickups drove past us in the other direction. At the 1.6 mile mark we passed the Grindstone Campground and near the 4 mile mark the entrance to the Devil’s Half Acre Campground.

Western larches above Barlow Road.

Grindstone Campground

Barlow Creek

Crossing Barlow Creek near Devil’s Half Acre Meadow.

Clouds on top of Mt. Hood towering over the trees.

Barlow Road at the campground.

Devil’s Half Acre Meadow.

We could have taken the Devil’s Half Acre Trail from the campground to the Barlow Butte Trail but we weren’t sure what the condition was and the Field Guide didn’t mention taking it so we played it safe and trudged up the road.
Finally back to where we’d left the road in the morning.

Arriving back at the Barlow Pass Trailhead

Before we attempted the crazy loop we had planned on also making the 2.2 mile round trip hike to the Pioneer Woman’s Grave on the other side of Barlow Pass and then stopping at the Castle Canyon Trail for a final short hike. Neither of us had any interest in making another stop at this point but we were interested in the grave site. Unfortunately Heather’s plantar was acting up. Surprisingly, given the lack of good ideas we’d displayed so far, we came up with a alternate plan. Heather would drive to the Pioneer Woman’s Grave Trailhead while I hiked the Barlow Wagon Road to it. The trailhead is located right next to the grave site so Heather didn’t have to worry about her plantar and now I only needed to hike a little over a mile downhill.
The first other people (not counting the two drivers in the pickups) that we’d seen all day.

I hustled down the wagon road stopping along the way at another nice Mt. Hood viewpoint.

I did take the time to walk down the road 60 yards to the East Fork Salmon River to check out some stonework and wagon ruts left by the emigrants.
East Fork Salmon River

The 10.5 mile loop hike turned into 12 miles due to our being off course and wandering around trying to figure out where we were going so my day wound up being just under 14 miles total with approximately 3100′ of elevation gain. Heather got all the elevation gain with 1.2 miles less traveled. I probably wouldn’t try that loop again but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t kind of curious what it would be like to actually follow the field guide correctly. Happy Trails!

Loop is in blue with the Pioneer Woman’s Grave in orange.

For reference here is where the trail is shown on the map we were carrying and here is a link to the map in the field guide.

Flickr: Laurel Hill Wagon Chute and Barlow Ridge Loop

Badger Creek Area Hiking Oregon Trip report

Fret Creek to Flag Point and Lookout Mountain – 10/16/2021

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date October 21, 2021
5 Comments on Fret Creek to Flag Point and Lookout Mountain – 10/16/2021

**Unfortunately the Flag Point Lookout burned in the 2026 Grasshopper Fire**

For the second weekend in a row we abandoned plans for a night in the tent in favor of day hike. Similar to the weekend before the forecast for was for a mostly sunny and warm Saturday followed by rain and/or snow moving in Saturday night through the end of the weekend. We decided on the Fret Creek Trail in the Badger Creek Wilderness. Our plan was to take that trail to the Divide Trail and visit the Flag Point Lookout to the east followed by Lookout Mountain to the west. While we had been to Lookout Mountain twice before (2014, 2019) we had not visited the Flag Point Lookout nor had we hiked the lower portion of the Fret Creek Trail. We were hoping to get some good views and see some of the areas Western Larch trees as they began to turn color.

The Fret Creek Trail starts between Fifteen Mile Campground (post) and Fret Creek along Forest Road 2730 across from a trailhead sign at a pullout on the left.

A few larches along Road 2730

Fret Creek Trail across from the pullout.

For the first third of a mile the trail climbed fairly steeply above Fret Creek.
Entering the Badger Creek Wilderness.

The trail eventually leveled off crossing Fret Creek several times before once again launching steeply uphill before arriving at Oval Lake just under 2 miles from the trailhead.

Starting to climb again.

Sign for Oval Lake.

The small lake is just off the trail but has several campsites in the surrounding forest.

We’d visited the lake briefly in 2014 during our first ever backpacking trip and it looked quite a bit like we’d remember but with less water given the time of year.
June 28, 2014

After checking out the lake we continued climbing on the Fret Creek Trail for 0.2 more miles to its end at the Divide Trail.
A bit of snow left from the recent snowfall.

The Divide Trail.

We turned left on the Divide Trail and climbed for 0.3 miles to a ridge crest where we took a side trail out to Palisade Point. This rock outcrop has a nice view south across the Badger Creek Wilderness to Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters.

Some snow near a switchback along the trail.

Mt. Adams starting to peak over a ridge to the north.

Mt. Adams with some larch trees in the foreground.

Lookout Mountain from the Divide Trail (The bare peak in between the two bare snags. Just to the right of the left snag.)

Side trail to Palisade Point.

Broken Top, The Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack (just the very top), Mt. Jefferson, and Olallie Butte (post) were visible in the distance.

Mt. Jefferson with the tip of Three Fingered Jack to the left and Olallie Butte to the right.

Mt. Hood peaking up over the rocks.

Panoramic view with Badger Creeks valley below.

Rocks below Palisade Point.

After the stop at Palisade Point we continued east along the ridge for 1.2 miles losing a little over 300′ to Flag Point Lookout Road (NF 200). Occasional views opened up along the way.
We ran into this jumble of downed trees shortly after leaving Palisade Point but fortunately it was the worst of the obstacles.

Flag Point Lookout from the trail.

A small meadow that was full of flowers a couple of months ago.

A stand of larches.

A better view of Mt. Hood.

Zoomed in.

Looking back through larches at a Badger Creek Wilderness sign near Road 200.

Looking back at the Divide Trail.

We had been to this junction on our 2014 backpacking trip where we turned off the Divide Trail here onto the Badger Creek Cutoff Trail to hike down to Badger Creek. This time we took Road 200 which led to the Flag Point Lookout in 0.8 miles.
Road 200

Chipmunk

Nearing the lookout.

The lookout is staffed in the Summer and used to be available as a rental during the Winter but the Forest Service discontinued that a few years ago.

A gate blocks access to the platform and tower but climbing the stairs below the gate provided for some more excellent views.
Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams to the north.

Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams

Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Jefferson, and Olallie Butte

View east to the hills above the Columbia River.

We spent quite a while admiring the views and then more time attempting to spot one of the pikas that we could hear in the rock field below the lookout. Alas none of the little rock rabbits wanted to make an appearance but several robins did.

We headed back to the Divide Trail and stayed straight at the junction with the Fret Creek Trail. It was just 1.6 miles to Lookout Mountain and on such a beautiful day we couldn’t pass up the chance of another spectacular view.
Passing the Fret Creek Trail.

We did need to gain almost 800′ of elevation to reach Lookout Mountain which at times was a fairly steep climb.

Another viewpoint along the way where Badger Lake was visible.

Badger Lake

We had seen our first fellow hikers on our return from Flag Point and now we were seeing more of them as well as a little more snow.

The final pitch to the summit, there is at least one hiker visible up top.

Looking back to Flag Point.

Looking NE toward The Dalles and the Columbia River.

Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams

View south past Badger Lake to Mt. Jefferson.

After another nice break we headed back, but just under half a mile from the summit we turned right on a side path to what Sullivan labels the Helispot. Several campsites were located here and yet another amazing view.
Flag Point from the Helispot.

And of course Mt. Hood again.

After exploring the Helispot area we hopped back onto the Divide Trail and returned to the Fret Creek Trail. We made a final quick stop at Oval Lake before returning to our car and heading home.

Fret Creek from the road near the trailhead.

The hike was just over 13 miles with approximately 2800′ of elevation gain. A number of shorter options could be done and longer trips are also possible with the numerous trails in the Badger Creek Wilderness.

It was great to see the mountains with fresh snow and nice to have some snow on the ground after the dry Spring and Summer. They are calling for a La Nina Winter which could mean plenty of precipitation. After this year we would welcome it. Hopefully it will be in the form of snow for the mountains and not rain though. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Fret Creek to Flag Point

Tags Badger Creek Wilderness, Divide Trail, Fifteen Mile Campground, Flag Point, Flag Point Lookout, Fret Creek, Fret Creek Trail, Helispot, hiking, Larch, lookout mountain, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, Oval Lake, Palisade Point

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

West Zigzag Mountain – 7/04/2020

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date July 6, 2020
3 Comments on West Zigzag Mountain – 7/04/2020

We continued our 4th of July tradition of hiking by checking off another of William L. Sullivan’s featured hikes, West Zigzag Mountain (Hike #68 “100 Hikes/Travel Guide Northwest Oregon & Southwest Washington” 4th edition). He actually describes two hikes, a 1.8 mile round trip to Castle Canyon and an 11+ mile round trip to the former West Zigzag lookout site. We chose the longer hike for this visit which starts from Zigzag Mountain Trailhead.
Parking area is just a wide spot in the road.

Two trails start at the trailhead, the Zigzag Mountain Trail heads uphill to the left while the Road 19 Trail follows the closed road to the right. The Road 19 trail connects with the Castle Canyon Trail in 1.1 miles.

After a short steep climb the Zigzag Mountain Trail arrived at a wilderness permit box and Mt. Hood Wilderness map.

After filling out one of the self-issue permits we began to climb. Our last two hikes had cumulative elevation gains right around 4000′ so today’s 3100′ was a little better. It also helped that unlike the trails on our previous two climbs the Zigzag Mountain trail utilized a number of switchbacks to keep the grade much more manageable.
Zigzag Mountain Trail entering the Mt. Hood Wilderness.

The climb was forested with a few flowers present at the lower elevations.
Washington lilies

Tiger lilies

Self-heal

Salal

Candy sticks

Queen’s cup and bunchberry

Anemone

As we climbed we began to see a fair amount of rhododendron in bloom.

The trail made 15 switchbacks over the first two miles before straightening out for a bit along a ridge.

We passed a small rock garden with some penstemon along the ridge.

The ridge was a bit more open and here we found some beargrass and lupine blooming. There were also opportunities for views but it had clouded up overnight and those clouds weren’t burning off very quickly.
Beargrass

Lupine

The trail spent little time on the ridge top and instead rose up and down switching sides of the ridge as it passed under rock outcrops.
Trillium along the north facing side of the ridge.

Mushroom

Pinesap

Passing a rock outcrop.

West Zigzag Mountain from the trail.

Back to the north facing side.

Now on the south facing side.

Near the 2.5 mile mark we came to a rocky viewpoint where we had a nice view of West Zigzag Mountain ahead but not of much else due to the clouds.

Sub-alpine mariposa lily at the viewpoint.

Another series of switchbacks followed before the trail straightened out following the ridge of Zigzag Mountain near the 3 mile mark. After another three quarters of a mile of climbing the trail began a series of ups and downs along the ridge. This lasted for the final 2.5 miles to the former lookout site although none of them were very long or too steep. While there weren’t any wildflowers meadows on this hike there were quite a few flowers to be seen along the way.
Lupine and paintbrush

Beargrass and rhododendron

Huckleberry

Cliff beardtongue

Larkspur

Phlox

More cliff beardtongue

Penstemon

20200704_095101 Larkspur

On the ridge just before reaching the lookout site.

Around the 5.25 mile mark we came to what would have been a great view of Mt. Hood if not for the clouds.

After crossing the ridge the trail emerged from the forest near some rock outcrops that framed the forest below.

We followed a short path led to the top of the southern outcrop where we had a view over to the former lookout site.

Former lookout site in the tress to the left.

We sat on the outcrop and watched the clouds pass by.

With the limited views outward we focused our attention down picking out a few flowers that we hadn’t seen on other parts of the hike.

Tufted saxifrage

Arnica

Lousewort

Some of the rocks in Castle Canyon

When we started to get a little chilly we decided to head back, but first we had to visit the former lookout site to ensure that we connected this hike with our 2012 hike.

View of the outcrop from the lookout site.

Raceme pussytoes

We returned the way we’d come spotting a few flowers that we’d missed going the other direction.
Valerian

Salmonberry

Bleeding heart

Violet

Monotropa uniflora aka ghost plant

Despite the clouds never burning off (we did eventually see a couple of slivers of blue sky) it was a good day for the hike. The flowers were good and the clouds kept the temperature down and the gradual grade of the trail kept the 11.4 miles from feeling difficult. We wound up passing 8 other hikers on our return trip which is a pretty low number for a Saturday hike on a trail as close to Portland as this one is so that was also a plus as we are still doing our best to practice proper social distancing. We capped off our 4th by watching the fireworks in our neighborhood with our son and my parents. Happy Trails!

Flickr: West Zigzag Mountain

Tags hiking, Mt. Hood National Forest, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, West Zigzag Mountain, wildflowers, zigzag mountain trail

Hiking Year-end wrap up

The Hikes of 2019 – A Look Back

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date December 30, 2019
3 Comments on The Hikes of 2019 – A Look Back

2019 turned out very differently than we’d originally planned. Not long after our first planned long trip to Joseph, OR one our cats, Buddy, had some health issues. After some time at the veterinarians he was doing better but he needed to be prescribed 3 daily medications (two twice a day). We decided that being there for our friend of 17 years was more important than our remaining plans so we cancelled nearly all of our overnight trips and spent the rest of the year doing day hikes from Salem. Buddy is still with us and seems to be doing well although he sleeps more than ever and has taken to wearing sweaters for warmth.
20191102_134933

With us only doing the one long distance trip we didn’t make it to as many new areas as we have been in recent years. On that trip we stopped at the Umatilla Wildlife Refuge near Hermiston (post), OR and hiked in the Hells Canyon (post) and Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness areas (post).
McCormack Slough MCormack Slough in the Umatilla Wildlife Refuge.

Looking into Hells Canyon from the Summit Ridge Trail Looking towards Hells Canyon from Freezout Saddle.

Wenaha River Canyon

Thanks to my parents willingness to take care of the cats we also managed to take an overnight trip up to Seattle in September to watch a Seattle Seahawks game stopping on the way up at Mt. Rainier National Park (post).

Cancelling the majority of our overnight trips had a couple of effects. First it reduced the number of days of hiking from an original 60 to 54. These would have been shorter hikes back to the car after backpacking or on the drive home from wherever we’d been. It also compressed the area in which we were able to hike keeping it under a 3 hour drive from Salem.
2019 HIkes

One thing that wasn’t affected was our tendency not to repeat hikes. Of our 54 days hiking only two days were repeats. For the first time we were able to hike with my brother and his family from Missouri taking them to Jawbone Flats and the Little North Fork Santiam River (post).
Little North Santiam River

The second repeat was to the old lookout site atop Maxwell Butte (post) to get the view that eluded us on our first hike there (post).
Mt. Jefferson, Santiam Lake, and Three Fingered Jack from Maxwell Butte

A visit to Four-In-One Cone, also to get a view that had previously eluded us, (post) was nearly a repeat but we started from a different trailhead making the first (and final) .4 miles new to us.
View from Four-in-one Cone

Thirteen other days did include some trail that we’d previously hiked and three more outings had turn around points that we’d previously been to but from an entirely different route. That left 35 days with entirely new trails to us. To put those figures in miles we hiked a total of 627.7 miles (according to my GPS). Only 70.6 of those miles, or just over 11%, were on portions of trails that we had hiked on in previous years.

I say “trails” but in reality not all the miles we hiked were on actual trails. Some of it was spent on paved roads, decommissioned roads, and some was entirely off trail/road.
Scoggins Creek Recreation Area Road walk at Henry Haag Lake

Decommissioned road to Baty Butte.

North Sister and the headwaters of Soap Creek Cross country to Thayer Glacial Lake.

2019 was a really good year weather wise. Aside from some rain/snow showers on our Freezout Saddle hike in June and a brief stint of rain at Cascade Head and in the Mollala River Recreation Area precipitation was almost non-existent during our outings.
Marks Cabin Trail a bit below us Snow falling on our Freezout Saddle hike.

Salmon River through the fog Rain shower approaching at Cascade Head.

Huckleberry Trail Taking cover under a tree in the Mollala River Recreation Area as a rain shower passes overhead.

Even on those three hikes with measurable precipitation there were breaks allowing for some sort of views.
Rainbow framing the Wallowa Mountains from the Feezout Saddle Trail.

View from the Cascade Head Trail View from Cascade Head after the shower.

Veiw from Amanda's Trail View from the morning across the Mollala River Canyon.

Between the cooperative weather and a lack of significant wildfires in the area made 2019 a great year for viewpoints. In fact there was only one hike, our second to the summit of Huckleberry Mountain (post) where we felt skunked on views. That hike began in the Wildwood Recreation area and the interpretive trails along the Salmon River made up for the lack of views up top.
3d Model of Mt. Hood along the Cascade Streamwatch Trail Neat 3D display at Wildwood Recreation Area.

Viewpoint on Huckleberry Mountain View atop Huckleberry Mountain.

Even on that day blue sky made an appearance before the end of our hike.
Mt. Hood behind some clouds

We also never got much of a view (but we did see blue sky) on our visit to Silver Star Mountain (post) but the point of that hike was to see the flower display.
Wildflowers along the Silver Star Trail

As always our hikes included a variety of landscapes, natural features, and some man-made ones. A sample of which follows. (We will cover wildflowers and wildlife in separate posts later.)
Gales Creek – Coast Range

Dry Creek Falls – Columbia River Gorge, OR

Camassia Natural Area – West Linn

The Two Chiefs and Table Mountain Two Chiefs and Table Mountain – Columbia River Gorge, WA

Nature Trial at Oak Island Oak Island – Columbia River

B.C. Creek Falls – Wallowa Mountains

Wallowa Mountains including Hurricaine Point and Ruby Peak Wallowa Mountains

Harins Butte Harsin Butte – Zumwalt Prairie

Sardine Mountain – Willamette National Forest

Gorton Falls Gorton Creek Falls – Columbia River Gorge, OR

Mt. Hood from Lost Lake

Mt. Hood from the Vista Ridge Trail Mt. Hood from Vista Ridge

Sand Mountain Lookout – Willamette National Forest

Cape Kiwanda and Haystack Rock from Sitka Sedge Beach

High Lake – Mt. Hood National Forest

Tidbits Mountain – Willamette National Forest

Bunchgrass Meadow – Willamette National Forest

Top tier of the Breitenbush Cascades Breitenbush Cascades – Willamette National Forest

Mt. St. Helens from Cinnamon Ridge – Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument

View from Bear Point Mt. Jefferson from Bear Point – Mt. Jefferson Wilderness

Sawmill Falls – Little North Fork Santiam River

Three Fingered Jack with Three Sisters and Mt. Washington beyond Red Butte Three Fingered Jack, The Three Sisters, and Mt. Washington

Scramble route up Baty Butte Scramble route to Baty Butte – Mt. Hood National Forest

Boulder Lake – Mt. Hood National Forest

Drift Creek – Drift Creek Wilderness

North Sister and Thayer Glacial Lake – Three Sisters Wilderness

View from Four-in-one Cone North Sister, Middle Sister, and The Husband from Four-In-One Cone – Three Sisters Wilderness

Mt. Hood from Tumala Mountain – Mt. Hood National Forest

Bull of the Woods Lookout – Bull of the Woods Wilderness

Mt. Hood and Barret Spur from Elk Cove Mt. Hood from Elk Cove – Mt. Hood Wilderness

Mt. Jefferson and Hunts Cove – Mt. Jefferson Wilderness

Mt. Jefferson with Monon, Olallie and Timber Lakes View from Olallie Butte – Warm Springs Indian Reservation

Lillian Falls – Waldo Lake Wilderness

Olallie Mountain Lookout – Three Sisters Wilderness

King Tut – Crabtree Valley

View from Ruddy Hill Mt. Jefferson from Ruddy Hill – Mt. Hood National Forest

Henry Haag Lake – Scoggins Valley

View from the north summit of The Twins Waldo Lake and the Cascade Mountains from The Twins – Deschutes National Forest

Bobby Lake – Deschutes National Forest

Patrol Cabin at Indian Henry's Hunting Ground Indian Henry’s Hunting Ground – Mt. Rainier National Park

Fog over the valley from Trail 17 (Theodore Trail) Fog over the valley from Mt. Pisgah – Eugene, OR

Twin Peaks and Gifford Lake – Olallie Lake Scenic Area

Mt. Adams from Lookout Mountain – Badger Creek Wilderness Area

Huckleberry Trail Mollala River Recreation Area

View from the PCT and Indian Mountain Trail junction View toward Washington from the Pacific Crest Trail near Indian Mountain – Mt. Hood National Forest

Clackamas River at Alder Flat Clackamas River – Mt. Hood National Forest

Maple Trail Forest Park – Portland, OR

Tilikum Crossing – Portland, OR

There were many more great places and sights that we visited but they can’t all be included here. It was another amazing year of discovering God’s creation and we are looking forward to seeing what next year brings. For the first time I have two sets of planned hikes going into next year, one is in the hopes that Buddy continues to do well on his medications leading us to stick to day hikes through the year and the other includes long distance trips in the unfortunate event that we have to say goodbye to our furry friend.

Either way we know that we will be blown away yet again by whatever we see on those hikes. Happy Trails and Happy New Year to all!

Flickr: Album List

Tags Freezout Saddle, Hells Canyon, hiking, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood National Forest, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Jefferson Wilderness, Oregon, Pacific Crest Trail, Portland, Wenaha River, Zumwalt Prairie

High Cascades Hiking Mt. Hood Area Oregon Trip report

Cloud Cap to Elk Cove – 8/17/2019

Post author By derwoodynck
Post date August 22, 2019
1 Comment on Cloud Cap to Elk Cove – 8/17/2019

For the grand finale hike of our August vacation we headed for Mt. Hood to do the section of the Timberline Trail from Cloud Cap to Elk Cove. We had been to Cloud Cap in 2016 during our hike up Cooper Spur (post) and we’ve visited Elk Cove a couple of times (most recently in 2017 post) via a western approach on the Timberline Trail. We had not however been on the 5 mile section of the Timberline Trail between the Coe Branch (we turned back at the crossing in 2014 post) and the Cloud Cap Saddle Campground.

We had a bit of a scare on the way to the trailhead as most of the drive was spent in a light drizzle which became heavier at Government Camp. At the White River sno-park Mt. Hood was hidden behind a layer of gray clouds but as we continued north on Highway 35 we emerged from the grey. By the time we were winding our way up Cloud Cap Road the sky was blue and there were no signs of the clouds hiding on the other side of the mountain. We parked at the Cloud Cap Trailhead and hiked through the campground to a pair of signboards marking the Timberline Trail.

We turned right onto that trail and followed it through a short stretch of green trees before emerging into a recovering fire scar.

The trail turns north toward Mt. Adams and away from Mt. Hood as it prepares to drop steeply into the gorge carved by the glacial Eliot Branch which could be heard roaring in the chasm below.
Mt. Adams ahead above the clouds.

We descended a series of switchbacks which provided ample views of Mt. Hood without having to strain our necks looking behind us.
Mt. Hood

The Eliot Branch has a reputation as being one of the trickier crossing on the mountain ever since a bridge was swept away over a decade ago. In fact the Timberline Trail had “officially” been closed for years (there were still unofficial crossings) until the Forest Service completed a reroute of the trail in 2016. As we neared the stream the first looks were impressive.

The combination of the cloudy water, thundering noise, and swift current make glacial streams seem particularly daunting. Crossing earlier in the day minimizes the amount flow making morning crossings easier than those later in the afternoon or evening. We arrived at the crossing shortly before 8am so that was in our favor. There was also a promising looking log a bit downstream but it looked like it might be a tricky descent to reach it from this direction and we were (or at least I was) hoping to get a little fording practice in so we picked a reasonable looking spot and made our way through the water which was only just reaching our calves at its deepest.

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It was a fairly uneventful crossing except for having forgotten just how cold a glacial stream is. Brrrr!!

We had lost over 350′ of elevation getting down to the Eliot that needed to be made up now that we were across. The Timberline Trail gained over 500′ in the next three quarters of a mile as it climbed out of the canyon.

We entered the Mt. Hood Wilderness on the way up.

The burned trees allowed for fairly consistent views of both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams.
Mt. Adams

Mt. Rainier peaking over the clouds to the left of Mt. Adams.

Mt. Hood

The trail leveled out near the 6000′ elevation and passed through a stand of green trees before arriving at a small wildflower lined stream. A pair of marmots ran into the rocks as we approached.

Penstemon

Monkeyflower

Jacob’s ladder

Western Pasque flower

A second stream followed shortly after.

20190817_082231 Paintbrush

20190817_082250 Lupine with a beetle.

Continuing on we passed a hillside covered with western pasque flower seed heads, often referred to as hippies on a stick.

As we rounded a ridge end we stopped to talk to a backpacker going in the other direction. He asked if we were from the area and wanted to know which mountains he had been seeing to the north. In addition to Adams and Rainier, Mt. St. Helens was just barely visible from that spot which we were able to point out to him.

We rounded the forested ridge and came to a large rock field below the Langille Crags.

Just over a mile from the Eliot crossing we arrived at the first of Compass Creeks three branches.
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Compass Creek is fed by the Langille Glacier and each branch sports a waterfall above the Timberline Trail.

A short scramble up the rocks along the creek brought us to the base of the falls.

Mt. Adams from Compass Creek.

Wildflowers along Compass Creek.

Monkeyflower and paintbrush

Hummingbird near Compass Creek.

After admiring the falls we continued on rounding two small ridges before arriving at the middle branch of Compass Creek .3 miles from the first.

This branch didn’t have nearly the amount of water as the first leaving the waterfall a little wispy.

There was yet another stream a short distance away which was putting on a wonderful wildflower display including a nice combination of pink and yellow monkeyflowers.

Lupine, paintbrush and monkeyflower.

This alpine stream was sublime and a reminder of why Mt. Hood is such a wonderful place. We kept going passing an aster covered hillside and then another meadow full of other types of flowers.

It was another .3 miles between the middle and final branches of Compass Creek where another waterfall crashed down behind a snow bridge.

After crossing the final branch of Compass Creek the trail headed down a ridge along the creek passing views of a lower waterfall.
Mt. Adams (again) from Compass Creek.

Waterfall on Compass Creek below the Timberline Trail.

In the next mile we passed through a wildflower meadow, green trees, a fire scar, and lost 350′ of elevation before arriving at yet another little stream.

The trail then headed downhill more quickly as we approached the Coe Branch.

A little over a mile and a half from Compass Creek we arrived at the Coe Branch and were pleased to find a pair of nice makeshift log bridges spanning the stream.

The crossing was no issue at all and we soon found ourselves climbing away from the Coe.

The climb away from the Coe Branch wasn’t nearly as steep as the descent had been and after three quarters of a mile we arrived at a sign for Elk Cove.

We followed the trail into the meadow where the view of Mt. Hood and Barrett Spur (post) was as impressive as always.

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We explored a bit and then rested at a familiar spot along the stream that flows through Elk Cove.

Coe Glacier

After resting and soaking in the scenery we headed back. We stopped again below Compass Creek Falls where we watched a hummingbird moth visiting the monkeyflowers.

When we had finally made it back to the Eliot crossing we used the log we’d seen that morning as suggested by some hikers who we passed shortly before reaching the stream.

We actually wouldn’t have minded the ice cold water at that point, but the flow had increased now that it was after 1pm so the log was the safest option. We made the final climb back up to Cloud Cap taking our final look at Mt. Hood and the Eliot Glacier.

The hike was 12.3 miles round trip with approximately 2700′ of cumulative elevation gain, most of which came from dropping down to and climbing up from the Eliot and Coe Branches. It was a perfect day, blue skies and cool temperatures, and there couldn’t have been a better way to end our 6 days of hiking. Happy Trails!

Flickr: Cloud Cap to Elk Cove

Tags Cloud Cap, Cloud Cap Saddle Campground, Coe Branch, Coe Glacier, Compass Creek, Compass Creek Falls, Eliot Branch, Eliot Glacier, Elk Cove, hiking, Hummingbird moth, Langille Crags, Langille Glacier, marmot, Mt. Hood, Mt. Hood Wilderness, Oregon, timberline trail