Discovering Mt. Adams

We stumbled upon the Mt. Adams wilderness almost by accident. Our first camping trip this year we hoped to stay at Smith Rock, but it was packed. We kept heading east and ended up in Ochoco National Forest, which was lovely but kind of far for a weekend trip. It also skewed more toward off-roading than hiking trails, making it hard to explore on foot. Next we celebrated Memorial day by embedding the Yaris in a snow drift on the south side of Mt. Hood. That was also good fun but still too crowded. We didn't pass a single campground with sites available. Mt. Hood National Forest has abundant opportunities for dispersed camping but I consider fire to be half the point of camping and building my own firepit every time doesn't feel super low-impact.

In a bid to get out of the Portland crowd radius, I started looking across the Columbia into Washington. The Twin Falls campground in Gifford Pinchot National Forest sounded pretty great so one Saturday Nick and I drove up to check it out. The campground is nicely situated on a small river near some waterfalls. Sadly all the sites were full by the time we got there. Judging from the number of empty beer cans on the picnic tables it wasn't going to be our scene anyhow. Undaunted, we continued on to Olallie Lake. Only one other site was taken and the view of Mt. Adams across the lake was worth several waterfalls at least.

Sunday we hiked up the road from Tahklahk Lake to a nice big lava pile and a boggy meadow. The road was 70% covered in snow, too deep for a Yaris (I know these things) but passable for a big truck. On the way back we helped a couple dig their car out, which was good because we owed the universe a favor for the very nice fellow who helped us dig our car out over Memorial day. There are several trails, including the PCT, in the Mt. Adams wilderness and the mountain makes a very inspiring adversary. We've been back two more times already and I have more hikes I want to do in the future.

Mt. St. Helens overlook from Highway 30.

Mt. Adams across Olallie Lake.