Tag: Little Crater Lake

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Mt. Hood Tour

I went out with some friends and did one variation of my Mt. Hood tour. The weather forecast was for some and some snow. So that was a good reason for not going on a long hike and being wet all day. This tour allows for seeing some great places, in the fall, with wet weather and not get soaked and have fun. Our route was to see Little ZigZag Falls, then drive up into the snow to Timberline Lodge, see Little Crater Lake and finish at the historic Clackamas Ranger Station. So a couple of short walks to see a couple of the best nature spots around Hood, get a little history in and some good drinks and food at Timberline Lodge.

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Mt. Hood Tour Development

Lori and I head up to Mt. Hood to explore a tour route for my visit Portland site. I need to go back and check to see what was still there and what would still work for a self guide tour. We also came across some new places and Lori pointed out some details that I need to add. We had great weather and still some good fall color.

Our first stop was at Skibowl. This was not planned but we saw they were almost done with at new trailhead parking lot and wanted to see if we could take a look. They had it fence off so we check out Skibowl instead.
It is between season so everything was close.
We found they had add a lot to their summer adventure park. It was spendy but they had over 20 activities to do.
After a long dry summer only a few small glaciers still hanging on with snow.
They had the tunnel up on the entry and are ready for the snow.
As you enter a large sign board directs where to go.
The entry level has a small museum including an example of how the original room would have looked.
The build has many large forged pieces.
At tile mosaic around the drinking fountain.
Not time yet for fires but the pumpkins were in place.
Looking down from the Rams Head bar to the main lodge.
We decide to try the brunch at the Cascade Dinning Room.
It was busy but we got in with just a 15 min. wait.
This contraption is a good symbol of the brunch. Look like it had great possibilities but turned out disappointing. With this contraption you turned that handle but nothing happened no help to make it work.
There was a limited selection and was even more limited with several items being out.
There was still enough to get filled up but not very good quality. Don’t plan on eating brunch here for the food but for being in a historic building. Our server was not not very good either.
We came to check out the Museum.
Lori enters and is greeted with a loud high beep.
There are small displays about all aspects of the area and Government Camp.
They tried to give the feel of being in a fire watch lookout but half of the panoramic photo is missing now.
The fire watchers would use this device to give a bearing to a fire.
The collection shows how skis have changed since skiing began on Mt. Hood.
During WW2 the army trained a mountain division on Mt. Hood.
Little Crater Lake is just a short walk from the parking lot.
Little Crater Lake is surround by meadows that we found in their Fall color.
Unique geology created it deep blue pool.
We had over the PCT to do a little hike down to Timothy Lake.
Bridge over Crater Creek that feeds into Timothy Lake.
Trail through the woods.
The wonderful board walk that lead to Clackamas lake is gone. This is a real a loss.
Most of the fall color was gone there were some exceptions.
This is one of a number of cabins, bunch houses and shop that make up this historic WPA work camp.