Red Hill Add-on Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
| This page is marked as Off trail. The route or sections of the route may be dangerous and hard to follow and is not recommended for beginning hikers without an experienced leader. Beginning hikers should check out our Basic Hiking Information page. |
- Connecting hikes: Perry Lake from Vista Ridge Hike, Owl Point from Vista Ridge Hike
- End point: Red Hill
- Trail Log: Trail Log
- Distance: 0.6 miles
- Elevation gain: 100 feet
- High point: 4,930 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Summer and early Fall
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
Red Hill is a cinder cone at the very south end of Blue Ridge north of Mount Hood. It gets its name from the red volcanic cinders that blanket the top.
There's currently no trail to the top of Red Hill, but it's a fairly easy bushwack. This add-on hike starts from the restored Old Vista Ridge Trail #646A. After you've hiked about 1.3 miles from the Vista Ridge-Old Vista Ridge Trail Junction, you pass across a small meadow which can have standing water when wet. (This is about 0.2 miles west of the the Rockpile Junction.) Follow the meadow as it narrows and then makes a dogleg to the left. From the dogleg, head into the woods on your right and soon see the slopes of Red Hill ahead through the trees. In this area, you might stumble upon a length of #9 wire which once linked the Red Hill Guard Station near Perry Lake with other monitoring sites on the northwest slopes of Mount Hood.
The cinder surface on Red Hill is easily marred and takes a while to heal. Occasionally, off road vehicles (ORVs) might blast up from FR 1631-620, which ends at a clearcut just to the north, and rip around on the summit.
Red Hill, and indeed all of Blue Ridge, was not included in the 2009 extension to the Mount Hood Wilderness.
Maps
(Maps do not show the cross-country jaunt to Red Hill.)
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Green Trails Maps: Mt Hood, OR #462
- Geo-Graphics: Mount Hood Wilderness Map
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Hood National Forest
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Hood River Ranger District
- National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount Hood Wilderness
- National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount Hood
Regulations or restrictions, etc
- Fragile area: tread carefully
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Red Hill
- Vista Bagging Mt. Hood from Owl Point, Alki Point, Red Hill, and The Rockpile
- Laurance Lake-Owl Point-Clear Branch Road Loop 8-19-17
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Red Hill
Guidebooks
- 50 Hiking Trails: Portland & Northwest Oregon by Don & Roberta Lowe
More Links
Page Contributors
- stevefromdodge (creator)