The illusive hood

Since coming to Oregon we have been teased by the peak of Mount Hood which is the tallest mountain in Oregon. The first time we saw its peak we were bewildered as we have never seen the cascades before. We were driving down a not so flat but no so hilly highway when in the distance we saw triangle white peaks in the distance. It took us a minute to figure out what they were. First I thought they were clouds but very odd shaped. You can see Mt Hood almost from anywhere in Oregon we saw it in Portland sneaking up from behind some bridges.

 











 And we have even seen it from Corvallis when you hit the right viewpoint. So memorial weekend we decided to go to the Mt hood Wilderness to try to get a closer look. We met our co-traveler friends for the weekend in a cabin. The original plan was to camp but the weather was not so camper friendly as it was in the low 40s at night and rainy. This weather also did not play in well to our plans of seeing the mountain. We were going to hike around part of the base of the mountain at timberline lodge.

Also the site for filming in the movie the Shinning.

It is a big ski area as we found out and Memorial weekend is a big ski weekend there. We showed up ready to hike and stuck out like a sore thumb when we arrived and everyone else was in their ski gear.
So we decided to do a hike to one of the many lakes that surround Mt Hood. All of them claim to reflect the mountain on their crystal clear lake. Mirror lake is one of those.

But with the rain and fog we sadly only saw the lake.

The hike was fun though, we ran into some snow. When we got to the top the clouds shifted slightly and again we got a peak of that illusive mountain.

On the way back home we stopped at another natural hot springs. This one is a 1.5 mile hike from a campground through a green forest. The tubs are craved out of logs and have plugs to fill with natural hot water.

In comes the hot water! 102 degrees!

View looking up from the tub.

The ride home proved to be just as interesting as GPS choose to take us literally over the mountains and through the woods on gravel forest roads. We we not deterred by the downed tree in the path but when the roads became snow packed we decided that it was time to turn around! Luckily we made it down the mountain and back to paved road and after an hour of driving managed to make it back into the land where cell phones have signals!