3.3 hr
Overview
This route is a very steep assault of a small peak with a very nice fire lookout on top. For 3.5 miles, you will walk straight up Trail 794 through a lush, green forest with an occasional break for views of Mount Hood on a clear day. At the junction with #793, take a right for a short while until you reach the spur path to Devils Peak. Almost immediately, you will notice the fire tower up ahead. Go up and take a look! This tower is well maintained by volunteers and there is a log book inside where many overnight visitors have signed in. If the weather permits, you will enjoy views of Mount Hood and the surrounding forest. Head back the way you came for an unrelentingly steep path down to the trailhead. Bring trekking poles to give your knees a break. Depending on your season of travel, you may encounter vibrant wildflowers, delicious huckleberries or a nice snowpack. The Cool Creek Trail #794 begins in the lush Still Creek valley but immediately heads steeply up. Pass below a large cedar and then the sign for the entrance to the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. (This hike is in the 2009 Hunchback Mountain extension to the wilderness.) There are a few big stumps under the Douglas-firs, western hemlocks, yews, and western red-cedars. The forest floor nurses deer fern, huckleberry, salal, rhododendron, sword fern, Oregon grape, and oxalis. The trail winds steeply up. Noble firs become part of the woodland. There are small rhododendron clearings created by fallen trees. Traverse up and make two short switchbacks; then switchback two more times. Pass a whole hillside of rhododendrons which bloom spectacularly in June. The trail reaches a ridge spur above this hillside and you make a traverse. From here, there is a view of Flag Mountain, Zigzag Mountain, and Mount Hood. The trail keeps rising with a couple short drops. Enter the silver fir zone, and then pass by a hillside dominated by western hemlock. There’s a view down to the Zigzag River valley and another switchback. You will see a steep gully below to the right
Trail Stats
0.0 km
975 m
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Photos
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250px-DevilsPeak
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