9.1 hr
Overview
The Biuegrass Ridge Trail, on the very eastern border of the Mount Hood Wilderness, offers a rarely used alternative to accessing Elk Mountain and Elk Meadows . The trail should be an easy, gradual uphill lope, but it fell into considerable disrepair and only recently have crews begun to tackle the considerable deadfall along the route. The area of the 2006 Bluegrass Ridge Fire is more challenging, with overgrowth obscuring the trail in many spots and more tangles of blowdown. (Sections of the trail have been brushed back since 2021.) Here you will be in elk territory and visiting a ridge seen by only a handful each year. The return via the Elk Meadows Trail down the Cold Spring Creek valley also may have trees down but is mostly downhill. Note that by adding a little over a mile to the hike, you can do a little loop from the Polallie Trailhead that takes in Tamanawas Falls using the East Fork Trail.
Trail Stats
24.9 km
1091 m
1708 m
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Photos
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