1.1 hr
Overview
An alternate to the Cloud Cap Trailhead is the Tilly Jane Trailhead, which can be used to hike up Cooper Spur. You can also park here if you're going around Mount Hood on the Timberline Trail. In addition, there's a short loop hike in the area which allows you to visit three historic structures - the Tilly Jane Guard Station, the Cooper Spur Shelter, and the Cloud Cap Inn. On this loop, you will also experience some of the high alpine wilderness on this east slope of Mount Hood and enjoy views up the Eliot Glacier. There's also a campground at the Tilly Jane Trailhead. Tilly Jane was the nickname of Caroline Ames Elliott, the wife of William S. Ladd, an early Portland businessman and politician who twice served as Portland's mayor. In 1889, Ladd and C.E.S. Wood purchased the Mt. Hood Trail & Wagon Company, which improved the wagon road up to Cloud Cap, where they constructed the Cloud Cap Inn. The Ladd family spent many summers at Cloud Cap Inn, whose name was suggested by C.E.S. Wood's wife, Nan. From the trailhead, follow the Tilly Jane Trail #600A through the campground and past the 1934 guard station, constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The trail crosses the mossy gully of Tilly Jane Creek, passes an amphitheater, and reaches the Tilly Jane-Tilly Jane Ski-Polallie Ridge Trail Junction, where you'll keep right (the Tilly Jane Ski Trail #643 and Polallie Ridge Trail #643A are about 100 feet apart; a historic cooking shed and A-frame (ski warming hut) are just down the ski trail). Begin hiking uphill past a wilderness permit box into mountain hemlock/silver fir woods. The trail reaches the edge of Polallie Canyon and continues upward. There are two openings at the trail’s edge that give great views of the steep slopes at the head of the canyon where narrow waterfalls pour down. After this, you'll enter an alpine parkland and get full-on views of Mount Hood and the Eliot Glacier high above. The smaller trees here are mountain hemlock, white bark pine, and subalpine fir. There are great views back
Trail Stats
0.0 km
335 m
0 m
0 m
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Photos
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400px-TillyJaneLoopMap
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250px-TillyGuard
400px-Cooper_Spur_Shelter
400px-Cooper_Spur_Shelter