We spend a lot of time at our cabin in Mt. Hood Village, enough that we've stopped thinking of it as having a season. Mt Hood in winter, spring, summer and fall is four different places, each with its own reasons to go and its own small set of things to know before you drive up. Here's how the year goes, and what we'd point you toward in each part of it.
Winter: the ski months
December through March is what most people picture. Timberline is the classic, with the lodge and the long groomed runs above the trees; Mt. Hood Meadows has the most terrain and the best skiing on a good day; Skibowl is the closest to the cabin, and night skiing under the lights there is one of our favorite things to do on a Friday. Two practical notes. Buy a sno-park permit before you drive up; you need one to park at any of the trailheads and lots from November through April, and you can get them at the grocery in Welches. And carry chains or have real traction tires. Highway 26 above Rhododendron gets chain requirements regularly, and it's enforced. For a non-skiing day, snowshoe the road into Trillium Lake from the sno-park; it's closed to cars in winter and turns into a quiet, flat walk to a frozen lake with the mountain over it. Then home to Wildwood Basecamp, wood stove loaded, hot tub steaming in the snow.
Spring: waterfalls and mud
April and May are underrated. The skiing runs late at Timberline, often into summer, but lower down the snow is gone and the rivers are loud. This is when we walk the Salmon River Trail, which starts a few minutes from the cabin and follows the water through old growth for as far as you want to go. It's flat, green and dripping. Ramona Falls is the bigger spring hike, about seven miles round trip; the Sandy River crossing near the start has no bridge, so go early in the day when the water is lowest and be willing to turn around. Bring boots you don't mind ruining. Expect the screened porch to be where you end the day, since spring evenings on the mountain are cool enough for the fire table and not cold enough to hide inside.
Summer: lakes, bikes and long evenings
Late June through August is when the whole mountain opens up. Trillium Lake is the easy one, a flat two-mile loop with the postcard view of Hood reflected in the water; go on a weekday or before nine on a weekend, because the lot is small. Mirror Lake is a short climb to a swimming lake with the same view. Sandy Ridge, down the hill toward the town of Sandy, is one of the best purpose-built mountain bike trail systems in the state, and the reason a lot of our summer guests are here. Welches has a golf course if that's your thing. Timberline still has lift-served summer skiing on the Palmer snowfield through July or so, which is a strange and wonderful thing to do in a t-shirt. Evenings are long and mild, and the Bunkhouse Lounge tends to fill up with a ping pong tournament while dinner happens on the porch. Our Mt. Hood notes have more trailheads if you're here for a week.
Fall: huckleberries and quiet
Late August into October is our favorite stretch. The huckleberries come in on the high slopes in late summer, and there are patches along the roads near Government Camp and up toward Timberline that we pick from every year. Bring a container and expect purple hands. The crowds thin after Labor Day, the light goes gold in the afternoons, the vine maples turn red in the canyons, and mornings often start in fog that burns off by ten. Hikes that were busy in July are empty. The first snow usually shows up on the summit in October and works its way down through November, and there's a week or two in there when you can walk the trails in the morning and sit by the wood stove by four.
What's true in every season
The mountain makes its own weather, and it's usually different from Portland's. Check the forecast for Government Camp, not the city. Cell service is spotty once you're past Welches, so download maps before you leave. The Salmon River is cold enough to take your breath in August, which is why people love it. And the cabin itself is meant to be lived in rather than looked at: a fenced, forested acre with little trails and a hidden hammock, a screened porch with a big table, and enough room for a group to spread out and still find each other at dinner.
Whatever month you land on, we'll send a few notes before you arrive with what's open, what's closed and what's good right then. The mountain homes are on our Mt. Hood rentals page.