You Can Find Fall Colors from More Than Just the Trees

Don’t take your hiking boots off yet or you might miss some of the best and most colorful mountain trail exploring of the year.  The fall season is filled with color and contrast as Mother Nature prepares for the colder months.  And the color doesn’t only come from the changing leaves.

After enduring record snow levels up to our ears, and digging out, and chaining up, and more snowflakes, and more digging out, the wait for hiking season to finally come this summer was well worth it. The extra moisture germinated wild flower seeds creating a wild bouquet on many trails, which you can still find in many locations. On the north side of the mountain from 6000 feet up, you can enjoy sub-alpine and alpine flowers like the fluffy plumes of bear grass or the globe of shiny button heads distinctive to the pearly everlasting. The white flowers stand out against the lava rock of Mt. Hood’s terrain and offer you breathtaking views and fantastic photo opportunities.  You will also find the lavender, purple shades of lupine, mountain aster and heather.

There are many trails into Mt. Hood’s northwest side, but my favorite route is from Top Spur trailhead #785 to Timberline Trail #600.  The trail begins in a beautiful Douglas fir forest with wildflower beauties such as Pacific trillium, Pacific bleeding heart, kneeling angelica and wild ginger. The Top Spur trail gradually climbs to an open meadow with magnificent views of Mt. Hood. Here, you will find an array of alpine meadow wildflowers that grow on a south-facing slope. Including spreading phlox, orange agoseris, broadleaf arnica, Henry Indian paintbrush and broadleaf lupine

Living in a conifer forest such as is found in the Villages of Mt Hood, deciduous leaves that turn color for the fall provide an awesome sight in contrast to the forest’s dark green.  On the west side of Mt Hood, the greatest array of colors are offered up from the vine maple trees which turn all of the classic fall colors and the black huckleberry shrubs which change to a dark red and rusty orange color.  I also enjoy Oregon grape’s crimson red which you can stumble across at any time of the year.

The vine maple is the most noticeable tree with changing color in her leaves.  In the spring it turns the suns rays into a glowing green on the forest floor and in the fall it offers the most spectacular colors ranging from yellow to orange to dark red and even amber brown.  A good trail for viewing the vine maples from above is the Hunchback Trail #793 , which you access from the Zigzag Ranger Station parking lot.  Hunchback Trail is strenuous, so if you would like a more casual hike, I recommend the Old Salmon River trail #742, Sandy River trail #770 and Wildwood Park (Cascade Streamwatch).  Besides watching vine maple leaves floating to the ground, the Fall Chinook salmon are running up the river to spawn.  I cannot think of a better way to spend the day then carrying a picnic basket to a colorful spot on the river and observing Mother Nature in all of her autumn splendor!

Not only is the black huckleberry beautiful to look at as it changes color, you can still find it’s tasty berries into October this year because of the late start of summer.  Black huckleberry grows at a little higher elevation, so your best bet is to find a hike at over 3500 feet.  One of the best places to find black huckleberry is along Mt. Hood’s ski runs which can be a fun place to visit in the off season with the runs cut through conifer and the low shrubbery of now turned red leaves of black huckleberry.

Cross-town trail #755 is an easy walk that will get you to some black huckleberry, and then up the Glade trail #661 for a little tougher hike but fantastic views.  Paradise Park loop from Timberline Lodge on the Timberline Trail #600/Pacific Crest Trail #2000 is one of the most scenic trails on the mountain and gives you the colors of black huckleberry and many alpine flowers as well as Mt Hood views.  At 12 moderate to difficult miles, this will be well worth huffing and puffing a little, and will make you want to come back every year.

Be safe and enjoy. As always, hike with someone, let loved ones know where you are going and when you are expected back, carry your ten essentials, leave no trace, and smile!

By Greg Moreno