USA – Road Trip – Mt Hood – 19th September

We left rainy Cascade Locks as the weather was clearing and made tracks for Mount Hood, not too much distance to cover today but we wanted to take advantage of the sunshine. The only stop we made was at the Mount Hood Ranger station on highway 35 we picked up maps and information on campsites having read a little into where we were wanting to camp.

It was a further hour to get to the campsite at Trillium Lake, one of the only campsites in the area with a view of the Mountain, although when we arrived it was a little cloudy, this soon cleared up and after setting up our tent and drying out our gear the mountain was showing again. We did a 2 mile walk around the like to stretch our legs and when we got back to camp we paid the camp host the $19 fee along with $6 for wood. She was a little old lady whose RV is at the front of the campsite as we pulled in. No showers at this campground only pit toilets and very good views and we camped close to the Amphitheatre.

At around the golden hour we drove up to Timberline Lodge, a beautiful hotel located at around the 7000ft point on Mount Hood, it’s a popular ski resort and has lifts going up from there. This place is famous for featuring in Kubrick’s The Shining, although it played a minimal part! The lodge doesn’t cash in on this too much though and has a lot of history in its own right. We had a good nose around and found out that the rooms start at $165 we would like to come back here sometime to stay! We sat in the Rams Head bar and enjoyed a hot chocolate next to a large window looking straight up at Mt Hood, on the other side diners were enjoying the views of Mt Jefferson in the distance. When we left the cosiness of Timberline we asked about popular trails in the area that would take us onto the mountain and with the famous Pacific Crest Trail going straight across the mountain we decided to take a hike in that area the next day.

On our way back to the campsite we stopped off for views of the sun setting on the horizon, really stunning cloud seeping through the valleys below. Back at camp we had a fire, and dried out our boots! It was a really cold night.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

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