Ponderosa pine parklands on Tygh Ridge (bobcat)

View to Ball Point, School Canyon Trail (bobcat)

Black morel (Morchella elata) on the School Canyon Trail (bobcat)

The "Gnomes' Gallery" near the helispot (bobcat)

Elkhorns clarkia (Clarkia pulchella) on Tygh Ridge (bobcat)

Sketch of loop (not a GPS track!) (bobcat) Courtesy: National Geographic Topo

• Start point: School Canyon Trailhead
• End Point: Tygh Creek Crossing
• Hike Type: Loop
• Distance: 13.7 miles
• Elevation gain: 3,240 feet
• High Point: 4,900 feet
• Difficulty: Difficult
• Seasons: Late spring through fall
• Family Friendly: No
• Backpackable: Yes
• Crowded: No

Description

While the School Canyon Trail attracts some traffic, the Tygh Creek Trail attracts far less. This is a wonderful ridge loop on the far eastern edge of the Mt. Hood National Forest through ponderosa pine and Oregon white oak parklands. The wildflowers are at their prime in late May through June, when the weather on this side of the divide is usually sunny and warm. One should note, however, that this loop is for experienced hikers only. While the trails have been logged out on a fairly regular basis, crews may not have gotten to all of them early in the season.

WARNING: Because much of the forest here has been attacked by bark beetles, there is blowdown every year. Recent maintenance has ameliorated the situation, however. The Tygh Creek Trail #460 can be lost in a couple of the meadows en route before the descent from Pen Point. Bear in mind that the true location of some sections of these trails have a variance of 50 to 100 yards between the topographical map and a GPS track, with a couple of trail junctions even farther off the true track.

From the School Canyon Trailhead, it’s a stroll through oak and ponderosa woodland, sometimes across open slopes blooming with balsamroot and bitter brush. The trail rises into the Ball Point Burn of 2007. Red miner’s lettuce carpets the forest floor. You may disturb a few cattle that graze in these parts. Keep up to an open ridge crest and saddle. A spur right leads to views of the surrounding country, including the Rock Creek and Pine Hollow Reservoirs. Hike west along the crest and then begin the traverse below Ball Point along a flower-strewn slope: death-camas, balsamroot, prairie smoke, woolly sunflower, yarrow, paintbrush are all here. Enter open ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir woods in an ascending traverse. Blooming arnica carpets the floor in the burn. The trail drops to the ridge crest where bracken forms the carpet. After you traverse the south side of the ridge, you'll leave the fiercest part of the fire zone. The trail drops in Douglas-fir/ponderosa woods and rounds a little boulder outcrop to enter a manzanita ponderosa parkland and reach the School Canyon-Little Badger Creek Trail junction.

Stay right here, and after a couple hundred yards come to an unsigned junction. If you go left here, you'll descend to an open viewpoint above Little Badger Creek at Helispot 122. (The sign for the helispot is disintegrating under a bush.) A trail leads down to the left from the helispot to the rock formations over Little Badger Creek. There is a small maze of interesting crannies and perches to explore. Back at the main trail, head left and take the next spur leading left down to a campsite and Junction Spring, which will often run throughout the summer. Then the Little Badger Creek Trail leads gradually upward in Douglas-fir/grand fir/ponderosa woodland. Reach a dry ridge forest with lots of blowdown. Hike in and out of a shallow gully with snowberry thickets and then back up to the ridge crest. The trail levels in deeper woods and heads more steeply up to a crest, then levels again on a ponderosa ridge. Luina and paintbrush bloom here. Traverse the south side of the ridge, drop into a gully, and wend up again, sometimes steeply. The trail here is more indistinct with lots of blowdown. Jacob’s ladder, sticky currant and rock cress are in flower in late spring. Eventually, reach the Little Badger Creek Trail-Tygh Creek Way Junction on an old road bed. You would keep left for Flag Point (see the Flag Point Add-on Hike), but to complete the loop, head right on Trail #460A: Tygh Creek Way.

Go right down this obvious road track. You will be walking in a scattered, disease-ridden forest with mountain hemlock, larch, Engelmann spruce, Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine, grand fir, western white pine and some ponderosas. The trail drops further out of the mountain hemlock zone. Cross a creek in Engelmann spruce woods, head up to a low ridge, and then hike down to Tygh Creek, another bridgeless crossing. The route traverses up with the creek to the left in swampy woods. Enter an open, vole-tunneled meadow, the location of a late-melting snowbank. Trillium, stream violet, and Oregon anemone bloom here late in the springtime. There’s no definite path across the small meadow. Just keep straight and pass a spring that pours out on to the trail. Then hike up through more blowdown. Come to the Tygh Creek Way-Tygh Creek Trail Junction and go right.

The trail gradually drops, and there could be some blowdown to negotiate. Note a large, old-growth larch in the forest off to the right. A spur leads left to an area of springs for watering horses. Tygh Creek runs to the right. The trail heads over a rocky hump and then rises to a partially wooded crest. Lupine, white western groundsel, slender luina and larkspur decorate the slope. Pass through glade after forest glade. In the snow melt patches, dwarf hesperochiron and three-leaf lewisia bloom. Pass the unsigned, but recently blazed, junction with Trail #462, the Jordan Cutoff Trail, which leads down to Jordan Creek. (There are two older blazes on the same ponderosa pine.) The Tygh Creek Trail now leads along the northern boundary of the wilderness.

Head gradually up into a large area of parkland. The trail is hard to follow here. Pay attention as it heads right through a stand of young ponderosas and reaches a rocky, manzanita-cloaked slope. A rock outcrop to the right is a viewpoint down the valley. Hike over an open manzanita/balsamroot shoulder down into grand fir/Douglas-fir ponderosa pine woods. The trail continues in shady woods on the south side of the ridge. The path rises again gently in ponderosa parkland. On a grassy saddle, pass to the obscure junction with the Jordan Butte Trail #461.

Bear right across an expansive ponderosa parkland. The tread gets lost in the grass here: just keep straight. Pass a cairn and reach the top of Pen Point, from where there are views to the eastern expanses. The trail drops off Pen Point and heads steeply down towards a saddle. Bitter brush, frasera, balsamroot, lupine, woolly sunflower and swaths of elkhorns clarkia are blooming among the western junipers. The trail continues to drop steeply below Hootnanny Point in lovely ponderosa pine woodland, which turns to oak and juniper. The steepness lets up briefly and then resumes in a rather precipitous drop. Now the trail is shaded by Douglas-firs and ponderosas. Drop steeply down into a lush gully with big-leaf maples. The trail reaches the level of Tygh Creek and then begins to undulate up and down above its banks through brush. Washington lilies bloom in openings.

Arrive at paved Road 27 and the Tygh Creek Trailhead. Go right, crossing Tygh Creek. This road section is about 1 1/2 miles but it's pretty nice, with some views to the east. The road winds up, with burned forest to the right. There are small rocks from slides and lots of cow patties. Traverse into oak woods and then make a winding descent down and then up past more burned conifers. Drop once more and then head up to the parking area at the School Canyon Trailhead.

Note:

To emphasize, the area is remote and the trails are not frequently maintained. You may have blowdown to contend with. Turkey hunters frequent these ridges in late spring.

Fees, Regulations, etc.

• none

Maps

• Maps: Hike Finder
• Green Trails Maps: Flag Point, OR #463
• Discover Your Northwest: Mt. Hood National Forest North: Trail Map & Hiking Guide
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Hood National Forest
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Barlow Ranger District
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Columbia Wilderness and Badger Creek Wilderness
• National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map: Mount Hood
• Adventure Maps: Mt. Hood Area
• Adventure Maps: Hood River, Oregon, Trail Map
• Adventure Maps: 44 Trails Area plus the best of the G.P.N.F.

Trip Reports

• Search Trip Reports for School Canyon-Tygh Creek Loop

• School Canyon Trail/Lookout Mt/Tygh Creek backpack 7/1-7/3/2
• Tygh Creek Trail
• Little Badger Ck / Tygh Ck Loop 21-Oct-2014
• Tygh Creek/Flag Point/School Canyon Loop May 21
• School Canyon - Tygh Creek loop DON'T DO IT
• Tygh Creek Trail #460

Related Discussions / Q&A

• Search Trail Q&A for School Canyon-Tygh Creek Loop

Guidebooks that cover this destination

• Hiking Oregon's Mount Hood & Badger Creek Wilderness by Fred Barstad
• Off the Beaten Trail by Matt Reeder (describes east section of Tygh Creek Trail)
• PDX Hiking 365 by Matt Reeder

More Links

• School Canyon Trail #468 (USFS)
• School Canyon Trail #468 (Mt. Hood National Forest)
• Little Badger Trail #469 (USFS)
• Little Badger Trail #469 (Mt. Hood National Forest)
• Tygh Creek Trail #460 (USFS)
• Tygh Creek Trail #460 (Mt. Hood National Forest)
• Tygh Creek Trail (Northwest Wildflowers)

Page Contributors

• bobcat (creator)