Elk Mountain (near Mount Hood)
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
- Hikes to this location:
- Weather forecast: NWS/NOAA
- Maps: Oregon Hikers Maps Google Maps
- Latitude, Longitude: 45.33468, -121.60756
- Elevation: 5560 feet
Description
If you're doing the Elk Meadows Hike and want to add a side-trip to your trek, consider heading up to Elk Mountain. From the trail junction, the Bluegrass Ridge Trail climbs up through the forest. This trail doesn't see much maintenance and is getting crowded by huckleberries, but it is still easy to follow. The trail levels out and turns left (north) while a short spur heads straight out across the broad flat summit of Elk Mountain. The trees on the left side are burned from a 2006 wildfire. In early July in a good year, the beargrass bloom all along here. Follow the trail out to the end at a viewpoint where a fire lookout once stood in the 1920s. You can see Lookout Mountain to the east, and to the south you can see Mount Jefferson and, on a clear day, the Three Sisters.
There are some remnants of the lookout, including a couple of guy piers with cable pins and part of a guy cable. Below the lookout site, the lookout's single bed frame is becoming part of the shrubbery. Elk Mountain's northeast ridge stretches down to the Robinhood Creek.
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- justpeachy (Cheryl Hill) (creator)
- bobcat