Eightmile Point Loop Hike
From Oregon Hikers Field Guide
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- Start point: Lookout Mountain North Trailhead
- End Point: FR 4420-FR 2730-230 Junction
- Hike Type: Lollipop loop
- Distance: 10.9 miles
- Elevation gain: 1675 feet
- High Point: 5,710 feet
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Seasons: Late spring into fall
- Family Friendly: No
- Backpackable: No
- Crowded: No
Contents |
Description
A system of trails, now mainly used by mountain bikers, extends along Surveyors Ridge past Lookout Mountain. Much of the forest here has suffered from disease, and the trails require annual logging out, much of it done by the very active 44 Trails group. The north section of the Lookout Mountain Trail takes you along Eightmile Creek to the lush expanse of Eightmile Meadow. You can make a loop by taking the northern part of the Fifteenmile Trail past Eightmile Point and then descending to hike a little-traveled section of the Bennett Pass Road to rejoin the Lookout Mountain Trail. You’ll be skirting the Badger Creek Wilderness and are only likely to encounter a few mountain bikers. Late spring and early summer are fine times to visit as a display of wildflowers brightens up the trail verge in those months.
Hike up into a disease-ravaged forest with a few scraggly looking conifers left standing. The understory is littered with fallen snags. Young larches and lodgepole pines have colonized the devastation, and along the trail verges, you’ll see wild strawberry, horkelia, yarrow, lupine, and Jacob’s ladder. Soon, however, you’re into a woodland dominated by Englemann spruce, and the trail reaches Eightmile Creek. The lush growth on the banks of the creek includes lupine, heliotrope, Solomon-plume, groundsel, bead lily, and vanilla leaf. Douglas-fir, mountain hemlock, and silver fir form part of the forest mix. A couple of big log sections serve as stools next to the clear running creek.
From the stools, the trail winds up in a healthy silver fir/mountain hemlock forest before entering a zone of diseased woodland once more. The gradient levels in a stand of Engelmann spruce, and the trail veers right to pass below Eightmile Meadow. You can bushwhack a few yards to this lush boggy expanse which displays a variety of blooms in early summer, including bog orchids, lupine, arnica, mountain knotweed, and swamp onion. Earlier, marsh-marigolds will dominate the expanse. Drop to cross a small creek on a footbridge, and then rise through a dense spruce forest to a sedge meadow and the Lookout Mountain-Fifteenmile Trail Junction.
Make a left here to cross two footbridges below two springs. The trail descends to cross two gravel roads (The second one is FR 4420). Head up a lupine-verged path in open woods, and ascend the flank of Eightmile Point’s weathered rockpile. You’ll soon reach a rimrock viewpoint at Eightmile Point’s high point near a lone ponderosa pine. Views extend across the Eightmile Creek drainage to Perry Point and Fivemile Butte. Mount Hood looms behind. Continue near the rim through dry meadows of penstemon, yarrow, lupine, and pinemat manzanita. Drop below an exposed rock outcropping and enter a dry forest. Cross trickling Marion Creek on a log bridge; then cross a shallow gully to enter a dense wood of lodgepole pine. Reach the junction with Cold Springs Road (FR 2730).
The Fifteenmile Trail continues across the road and reaches the Fifteenmile Creek Forest Camp in 0.4 miles. However, you should go right on the paved road and walk 25 yards to the 230 spur road, actually the eastern end of the Bennett Pass Road. Hike up this narrow rough track, which forms the northern boundary of the Badger Creek Wilderness. The road is used more by cyclists than vehicles and requires high clearance. Small meadows are interspersed with stands of Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and silver fir. Keep rising, and begin to get views across the Fifteenmile Creek drainage. You’ll pass a small dark pond on the right. Come to the junction with FR 4420, and stay left.
For the moment, this is a good gravel road. You’ll pass a campsite on the right, but soon come to the end of the maintained section of road and enter dark woods. Views of Lookout Mountain, the second highest peak in the Mt. Hood National Forest, appear across the wilderness to your left. A sign tells you that you are leaving the Dufur City Watershed. The road levels as you pass parking pullouts on the left and right. When you reach the junction with the Lookout Mountain Trail, turn right.
The trail descends gradually at first in a mixed forest of spruce, mountain hemlock, and silver fir. Then there are some steep looping drops before you pass a lush spring. Cross a creek, and then cross FR 4420-161. Keep dropping to recross the same road. Subalpine daisy, heliotrope, Jacob’s ladder, and lupine bloom in the grassy trail verge. Enter a meadow which puts on a display of larkspur, white groundsel, and sedge, and reach the Lookout Mountain-Fifteenmile Trail Junction. Here, turn left to return to the Lookout Mountain North Trailhead.
Fees, Regulations, etc.
- Share trail with horses and mountain bikes
Maps
- Maps: Hike Finder
- Lookout Mountain Trail #450 (USFS)
- Green Trails: Flag Point, OR #463 and Mt Hood, OR #462
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Barlow Ranger District (partial)
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service: Mt. Hood National Forest (partial)
- Adventure Maps: Mt. Hood Area
- Adventure Maps: 44 Trails Area plus the best of the G.P.N.F.
- Discover Your Northwest: Mt. Hood National Forest North
- National Geographic: Mount Hood (partial)
Trip Reports
- Search Trip Reports for Eightmile Point Loop Hike
- Eightmile/Lookout mtn/Fret creek/Fifteenmile 6/19-20/2021
- Eightmile Point via Lookout Mountain Trail 7-10-19
Related Discussions / Q&A
- Search Trail Q&A for Eightmile Point Loop Hike
Guidebooks
- Kissing the Trail by John Zilly
More Links
- Lookout Mountain Trail #450 (USFS)
- Fifteenmile Trail #456 (USFS)
- Lookout Mountain Trail #450 (Hiking Project)
- Lookout Mountain and Eightmile Point Loop (AllTrails)
Page Contributors
- bobcat (creator)