The mountain, the way we do it

Start with the easy trails

Mirror Lake is the one everyone does, and for good reason — a couple of easy miles to a lake with the mountain sitting in it. Go early on a summer weekend or you'll share the reflection with a hundred people. Trillium Lake is flatter still, a two-mile loop with the postcard view and a good place to float on a warm afternoon.

Our favorite when we just want to walk out the door is the Old Salmon River Trail: flat, quiet, old growth the whole way, the river always within earshot. It's the one our dog knows by heart. Ramona Falls is the bigger day, around seven miles, and the falls at the end are the kind of thing you stand in front of longer than you meant to. Check the trail reports first; the crossing on that one changes from year to year.

Snow season

Timberline is the classic. The lodge alone is worth the drive up, and the skiing runs later into the year than almost anywhere. Skibowl is closer to the cabin and does night skiing, which is a completely different feeling — cold air, lights on the runs, and back in the hot tub by nine. Mt. Hood Meadows is the big full-day mountain: more terrain, more of everything.

If you're not skiing, the sledding hills around Government Camp keep kids busy for an afternoon, and snowshoeing around Trillium Lake is quiet in a way the ski areas never are.

Two practical things. Most trailheads and lots need a sno-park permit from November through April, and you should carry chains. Winter here is real; give the road more time than the map says.

Summer and fall

Sandy Ridge is the mountain-bike spot — a purpose-built trail system down the hill toward Sandy that people drive out from Portland for. The golf course in Welches is easygoing and sits under the mountain in a way that makes it hard to keep your eye on the ball.

Late summer is huckleberry season. On the higher trails you'll pass people with buckets, and you're welcome to join them, purple fingers and all. Bagby Hot Springs is a longer drive south on forest roads, then a short walk to cedar tubs in the woods; a weekday morning is the way to do it.

And Trillium Lake in August, with a paddleboard and the mountain right there, is the version of this place we think about in February.

Where we eat

We keep it simple. Coffee gets made at the cabin and carried out to the porch, which beats most cafés anyway. For a slow breakfast, drive up to Timberline Lodge and sit in the Cascade Dining Room — the building is a national landmark and the fireplace is enormous.

Mt. Hood Brewing in Government Camp is our après stop. Skyway Bar & Grill in Zigzag does smoked meats and sometimes live music, a few minutes from the cabin. Wraptitude in Welches is the quick-lunch answer.

For groceries, stop in Sandy on the way up. The village has enough for forgotten things, but you'll want the main haul from town. Then cook. The kitchen and the long porch table are where most of our evenings end up.

When it pours

It will rain. Plan on it and it stops being a problem. The screened porch at the cabin has a fire table and hammock chairs, and it's honestly where we'd rather be in weather — dry, outside, listening to it come down through the trees. The Bunkhouse has ping pong, shuffleboard and darts, which handles a group for an entire afternoon.

A walk through old growth in the rain is better than it sounds; the Salmon River trail is mostly under canopy. Timberline Lodge in a storm, with a book and something warm, is its own kind of good. Bagby is arguably better in the rain than in the sun.

If you want longer lists by season, they're in our guides.

Where we stay

Our cabin here is Wildwood Basecamp — a vintage Mt. Hood cabin on a fenced, forested acre in Mt. Hood Village, with a wood stove inside, a hot tub and screened porch outside, and a separate Bunkhouse Lounge so a group has two places to be. It sleeps eight across four bedrooms and a bunk.

It's cozy and a little nostalgic on purpose. We wanted a cabin that felt like the ones we grew up visiting, just better put together — good beds, a real kitchen, records to put on. Everything on this page is within about half an hour of the front door.

See everything we have near Mt. Hood, or the whole collection.